Secularism versus religious liberty.

Madrid -- In an address to Spanish bishops on January 24, the Holy Father declared that secularist ideology is incompatible with religious liberty. He analyzed some of the challenges the Church faces in Spain, amid the differences that have arisen with the Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Spreading in the social realm, the Pope said, "is a mentality inspired by secularism, an ideology that leads gradually, in a more or less conscious way, to the restriction of religious liberty to the point of promoting contempt or ignorance of the religious, relegating faith to the private sphere and opposing its public expression."

Previously, in an address to the diplomatic corps assigned to the Vatican on January 12, 2004, Pope John Paul II had clarified the differences between "the principle of secularity" and secularism. The former is legitimate, if it is understood as the distinction between the political community and religions. The latter implies a system that deliberately excludes religious expression. He told the Spanish prelates that this does not form part of the 'noblest' Spanish tradition, since the mark that the Catholic faith has left on the life and culture of the Spanish people is too profound to yield to the temptation of silencing it, even though the secularist ideology at times presents itself as the only voice of rationality. "Religious liberty," the Holy Father said, "cannot be restricted without depriving man of something fundamental." Alas, the new generations of Spaniards are "influenced by religious indifferentism, and ignorant of the Christian tradition with its rich spiritual heritage."

Young people have the right from the beginning of their formative process, the Pope said, to be educated in the faith. One of the first measures of the Rodriguez Zapatero regime, elected in March 2004, was to freeze the plan for educational reform which was to give academic recognition to the subject of religion, as established by Church-state agreements. The Catholic Confederation of Parents' Associations has collected more than three million signatures in favour of the religion course. "For their part," the Pope said, "the public powers have the duty to guarantee this right of parents and to ensure the real conditions of its effective exercise, as included in the 1979 Partial Agreements between Spain and the Holy See, currently in force."