http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4253937.stm
Vatican resists European secularism
A Spanish newspaper accused the Pope of stirring "absurd tensions"
The destiny of Europe is preoccupying the Vatican.
It has complained of a "militant secularism" which, it says, is driving the
Church out of public life in Europe.
Cardinals have even complained of an "anti-Catholic inquisition".
They have pointed to policies such as France's ban on conspicuous religious
symbols in schools, the EU's rejection of a reference to God in the proposed EU
constitution and Spain's proposals to legalise gay marriage.
"In 2,000 years of the Church's existence, those trends have come and gone,"
Cardinal Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, told
the BBC World Service's Assignment programme.
"There is a trend to exclude the Catholics, who are sent into a ghetto."
Buttiglione debacle
In England and Wales, the Catholic Church issued a pamphlet ahead of European
elections, saying that voters should draw on religious teaching when they come
to vote.
"There are matters that are common to both politicians and believers," Cardinal
Martino said. "The Church has to have its say."
It is the traditional liberal distinction between the public and private
sphere that has been violated
Rocco Buttiglione
Some in the Vatican saw the case Rocco Buttiglione - a close personal friend of
the Pope - as one of the most high-profile examples of secular views triumphing
over Christian concerns.
Italy nominated Mr Buttiglione as EU Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs,
but he was rejected by MEPs after describing homosexuality as a "sin".
He told Assignment he felt he had been excluded "because of [my] religious
beliefs."
"In a liberal state, you evaluate the political line and the political ideas of
a candidate, and you do not impose upon him an inquisition, or a conscience
police," he said.
"That is what has been done in the European Parliament against me."
Mr Buttiglione described the MEPs' stance as a "violation" of "the traditional
liberal distinction between the public and private sphere".
'Militant Christians'
This is not the first time the Vatican has complained about the impact of
secularism.
Some cardinals fear Catholics may be "ghettoised"
After it lost the Papal States in 1870, the city state developed a distrust of
secular rulers - with Pope Pius X complaining that "God has been driven out of
public life by the separation of Church and state".
But Franco Pavoncello, a political scientist at John Cabot University in Rome,
says he is "surprised" by Vatican fears that secular Europe and the Catholic
Church may be on a collision course.
"If there is one overwhelming aspect of Europe, it is the homogeneity of
religion," he said.
"This is a continent that has been characterised by its Christianity."
But Mr Pavoncello said it was possible there had been a "return to more
militant Christian values" amongst some Europeans because of the influence of
Islam.
The Pope has urged bishops in Spain to defend traditional values, in opposition
to the ruling Socialist Party's reforms.
These reforms include allowing gay marriages - supported, polls suggest, by the
majority of the population - and broad-based teaching of religion in schools,
not just focusing on Christianity.
'Adapt without disappearing'
The Vatican says the reform programme is "promoting contempt or ignorance of
religion".
But Spanish Justice Minister Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar insisted that "we are
just doing our job".
"We are accountable to the citizens, not to the Catholic Church.
"This is a secular society. We are ready to pay respect to every religious
freedom in Spain, but we're also ready to promote our legislative initiative,
and fulfil our duties."
Mr Aguilar stressed that the Catholic Church had "gone public, and very
strongly so," with remarks that it is a "sin" to wear a condom, or to have sex
before marriage.
"With considerations such as those... it is difficult to open room for
compromise," he argued.
Father Vivas Sotto, of Spain's Family Forum group, said the government's
proposals "don't just affect the Church - they affect all of society".
"When life's dignity is forgotten and abortion is promoted, when embryos are
not considered, when the richness of marriage is undervalued, that fundamental
part of society is being undermined," he added.
In the Spanish media, reaction to the Vatican's pronouncements has been mixed.
The daily El Pais accused the Pope of stoking "absurd tensions". But El Mundo
urged both sides to "cool it".
"The message [from the government] is the Catholic Church is old, it's
completely retrograde, it's associated with Franco and Francoism - that dark,
inquisitorial Spain," said Kayatana Elvorez Detoledo, El Mundo's leader writer.
"That's not strictly true, of course. The Vatican has a very difficult problem
to solve - how to modernise, but not to lose a fundamental moral principle. It
has to adapt without disappearing."
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"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock
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--Matthew 16:18
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