Spanish Church to Keep Up Moral Battle with Left

The church´s role in politics has caused controversy and even bloodshed in Spain.

Spain's top Catholic cardinal has promised to keep fighting the re-elected Socialist government on social issues such as gay marriage and abortion and urged Roman Catholics of all political parties not to sit on the fence.

Cardinal Antonio Canizares, who is the primate of Spain and archbishop of Toledo, told Italian daily Corriere della Sera he "congratulated" Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for his election victory this weekend.

"We are not against democracy, but in favour. Whoever denies the right to life is against democracy and is leading society to disaster," he said, vowing to "fight against the extension of the abortion law and against euthanasia".

Canizares saw Spain at the vanguard of a "revolution" that is undermining Catholic morality, championing "gender laws that go way beyond traditional feminism to a sort of class struggle between men and women".

"The left talks of extending rights. But rights are not created in parliament. The Church wants to cooperate to build a society where we live together in peace. But what sort of living together can there be outside marriage between man and woman?"

The church's role in politics has caused controversy and even bloodshed in Spain. Thousands of priests and nuns were killed around the 1936-39 Civil War and the Church backed Gen. Francisco Franco's dictatorship at least until the 1960s.

In recent years church attendance has tumbled, divorce rates are among the highest in Europe and laws introduced by the Socialists to legalise gay marriage and facilitate divorce have outraged many Catholics.

In December the Church held a mass rally to slam such laws and in January it told Catholics not to vote for any party backing them, or talks with Basque separatist guerrillas -- a swipe at the Socialist government.

Days before the vote, it chose an arch-conservative as head of the Spanish Bishops' Conference -- Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, who had led the anti-government rally.

Even the traditionally Catholic Popular Party (PP) avoided allying itself too closely with the church during the campaign.

Canizares refrained from criticising the PP, saying he "would not dare to give directions to any party".

"What I would say is that the future of our society is at stake in a great cultural battle and no Catholic, whichever party they belong to, can desert us," said Canizares.

The cardinal said he had "nothing against (Zapatero) ... I pray for him to find the right path".

The Socialist prime minister himself appeared willing to heal the rift with the church in January when he met the Pope's envoy to Spain to discuss Church-government relations.