Spain is courageously seeking to follow a difficult path of modernization.
The Spanish government has announced plans to secularize the constitution and remove privileges that have been granted uniquely to the Roman Catholic Church.
When the Spanish government was sworn in last April, the Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero decided to take his oath before the King with his hand on the country’s constitution rather than the Bible. During the election campaign the daily El Pais reported that Prime Minister Zapatero had pledged to “put the bishops in their place”.
Deputy Prime Minister, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega has unveiled the government’s constitutional reform plans. These include:
- the declaration of Spain as officially a secular country
- revision of the abortion laws
- the creation of a new plan for human rights (removing Catholic church privileges and giving equality to all believers and non-believers)
- removal of the blasphemy law
- removal of monarchical primogeniture (the idea that the throne passes first to the sons in order of age, and only to daughters when there are no male heirs).
Federico Trillo of the conservative People’s Party, and member of Opus Dei, declared such reforms as ‘the Government acting against a faith, the Catholic one’. The government is, of course, acting, not against the church per se, but against the power that the church has held in Spain (and continues to hold in Italy) over a number of years. It is acting to restore equal human rights to non-Catholics and remove Catholic privilege. The freedom for Roman Catholics to practise their religion does not mean that those of other faiths or none should face constitutional inequality.
Bishop Demetrio Fernandez of Tarazona has written a pastoral letter against the reforms warning his flock against the tide of ‘fanatical secularism’. Sadly he seems unable to see the awful irony in his concerns about secularists. Why is it that any reasonable attempt to challenge the religious hegemony is seen as fanatical? I suppose it is because after hundreds of years of silence and acquiescence, any attempt to speak out must seem loud and threatening to those who have become comfortable in power.
I intend to watch the progress of these proposed reforms with interest. Britain may have finally abandoned the blasphemy laws. and may have better human rights than non-Catholics in Spain, but the Church of England still has limited constitutional privilege and monarchical primogeniture still prevails. It appears that the Spanish government has more courage than the British one. If the reforms go through, I do hope that the British government will take note and realize that the present anachronisms need to be removed.
(Source: National Secular Society Newsletter)
I must read again about the blasphemy laws as I can’t remember what they stand for. Can see why you are interested in these developments. My own thoughts are why now is Spain taking this particular path. I am surprised as it has always been seen as a very Catholic state. I don’t disagree with what is happening here though, providing religious toleration is accepted, people can choose to have what ever faith or believe system they prefer. I would like to see the end of monarchial primogeniture in this country;very out dated to me. But then perhaps there is resistance because when one constitutional tinkering is done, that pathes the way for more reforms which conservative thinkers may not like.
It is indeed interesting how the common reaction of religious leaders to reforms that remove their special privileges but give equality to all (including themselves) describe this as “fanatical”. I don’t know whether this is because they genuinely see it as fanatical (in the same way that someone coming into a pleasantly warm room from the biting cold might find it unbearably hot at first) or whether this is because they have no rational grounds for objecting and therefore seek to arouse the ire of their flock by crass emotional means.
It is a wonderful thing to see Spain, long regarded as the Catholic nation par excellence, determinedly treading the secularist road. If they can do it, there is hope for the rest of us, especially as the Pope has suffered a couple of setbacks in Italy recently.
As Corporal Jones in Dad’s Army was wont to say, “They don’t like it up ‘em!”
SilverTiger
“They don’t like it up ‘em!”
I couldn’t have put it better!
“after hundreds of years of silence and acquiescence, any attempt to speak out must seem loud and threatening to those who have become comfortable in power.”
Those who hold and exercise cultural privileges usually do not realize that they are operating from privileged positions; they see the structures within which they operate as normal.
Several years ago, an African American friend explained to a group of white people how he’d felt like he was on the outside looking in, always aware that he’s not supposed to hold power, etc. He asked us, “What does it feel like to be on the inside, to be at the center?” I tried to explain that it doesn’t “feel” like anything, that whiteness in the USA is a “privilege” that whites don’t feel. We grow up thinking we are the “norm” and that everyone else is just different; not inherently inferior (so we tell ourselves and them), just different. It’s very difficult for those who see themselves as the “norm” to understand that such a feeling is a privilege that many others never experience, it’s a feeling they never feel. Something similar may be true for those whose religious preferences have always been culturally dominant.
the chaplain
Interesting point about the cultural blindness that feels normal because we have grown up knowing no different. Thanks.