Thousands of Spanish citizens have signed a petition defending one of their country’s Catholic archbishops, after he was mocked and ridiculed for accusing the socialist-led government of providing “better protection for bulls” than unborn children and the terminally ill.
“These insults for criticising abortion and euthanasia in a homily have not been long in coming – the pro-abortion mob have placed him on their media target list,” said the petition on the civic Hazte-Oir platform. “The radical left does not allow anyone to dare touch the dogmas of abortion and euthanasia - whoever dares try gets torn apart, and whoever defends them gets dragged through the mud”.
The petition was circulated in support of Archbishop Jesus Sanz Montes of Oviedo, who was attacked by anti-clerical politicians for suggesting bulls now enjoyed greater humanitarian support than unwanted babies and the terminally ill, amid growing calls for the three centuries of Spanish tradition to be banned nationwide.
“I wish aborted children or the elderly and sick euthanised without palliative care enjoyed the protective legislation now provided to bulls,” Archbishop Sanz Montes said in an 8 September cathedral sermon. “Instead, some laws are now drawn up without social debate, helped by opportunistic government demagoguery which continues to sow tension by imposing social transformation at the mercy of various ideologies.”
The Catholic Church makes up 62 per cent of Spain’s 47 million inhabitants, according to 2020 data, and has criticised laws backed by the socialist-led government of premier Pedro Sanchez, in power since January 2020, facilitating same-sex marriage, secularised education, state-funded euthanasia and abortion.
A draft “Trans Law”, enabling over-16s to re-register their gender through a court declaration without medical or legal procedures, was also approved for enactment in June, while a “Statute of Secularism”, enforcing “strict separation between politics and religion, law and morality, crime and sin”, is to be adopted this October.
More than 20,000 Spaniards have also signed a Hazte-Oir petition to the Cortes parliament against socialist legislation imposing jail terms for pro-lifers who “harass or restrict the freedom of women” by staging protests or offering help outside abortion clinics. Both petitions coincided with new data showing Catholic affiliations at their lowest ever in Spain, with four out of ten citizens, and 60 per cent of 18-34s, describing themselves as atheists or non-believers.
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