Theos-Talk Archives (March 2008 Message tt00144)

To all readers


My views are:

The Vatican and Opus Dei are directly involved in politics. 
The below article about Spain is an article , which I have cut various excerpts from.

Read the whole article here: 
Der Spiegel
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,540095-2,00.html



March 7, 2008

"The Battle of the 'Theocons'
By Helene Zuber

The Spanish go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new parliament -- and the country's Catholics are fighting to push the conservatives back into office. Zapatero's reforms have been a thorn in the Church's side. Madrid's archbishop is leading the fight against abortion, gay marriage and other policies.

A short man in a black habit and a little bright red cap is currently Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's most feared rival. He's the archbishop of Madrid, and he is laying claim to more than just his sway over the souls of the diminishing number of devout Catholics in the churches of the Spanish capital. He is Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, 71, and he is determined to force politics in Spain under the yoke of the church once again. 

When Rouco makes an appearance in Spain, it's an almost God-like spectacle -- he performed the crown prince's marriage ceremony with a generous helping of churchly pomp and circumstance, and he routinely baptizes the children of the royal family. He sparkled when he played host to former Pope John Paul II, who had earlier admitted him into the College of Cardinals. And he recently received a show of support, in the form of a live broadcast beamed from the Vatican directly to Spanish voters, from his friend Pope Benedict XVI -- payback for his leadership in the church's opposition to the socialist government. "

"The Catholics' Claim to Absolute Power 

Another Catholic counterreformation began in Spain half a millennium ago, when Ignacio de Loyola founded the Jesuit order and led it in a campaign to oppose the increasingly powerful Lutherans in northern Europe. Spain's history is filled with examples of the Catholics' claim to absolute power. Not too long ago, General Francisco Franco conducted a civil war as a crusade against his leftist opponents. For four decades, until his death in 1975, the dictator foisted a Catholic nationalist ideology on his country and gave the clergy a monopoly on education in schools.

The Popular Party (PP), the successor to the Alianza Popular headed by Franco's Minister of Information Fraga Iribarne, plans to benefit from what it hopes will be a return to Spain's darker traditions. The "theocons," a term the progressive daily newspaper El País coined -- in reference to the American neocons -- to describe the alliance between the neoconservative right and tradition-minded theologians, are seeking to regain control of the government."



"The Battle of the 'Theocons'
By Helene Zuber

Part 2: 'An Ideological Hatred of those Seeking to Protect Life' 


In the governments he led between 1996 and 2004, former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar supported members of ultraconservative Catholic movements like Opus Dei and the Legion of Christ. Mariano Rajoy, Aznar's 52-year-old successor as president of the PP, who is now running against Zapatero for a second time as his party's leading candidate, has placed arch-Catholic warhorses at the top of his election list, while reducing the influence of liberals within the PP. Former Prime Minister Aznar directs the conservative Foundation for Social Analysis and Study (FAES), which defines his party's platform and develops its campaign strategies. Aznar's think tank combines traditional Catholic values with centralist Spanish nationalism, which is opposed to the autonomy movements among the Basques and Catalans."





M. Sufilight


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