Spanish ministers demand apology for archbishop’s ‘ethics’ slight

Félix Bolaños, the minister representing the Spanish presidency, wrote to the archbishop expressing his ‘surprise’ over Archbishop Luis Argüello’s remarks in a speech on how to regenerate democracy.

The defence minister of Spain demanded an apology from the Church because of a remark on a state lacking ethics uttered by the president of the Spanish bishops’ conference.

“When the state forgets ethics, it turns into a pack of thieves,” said Archbishop Luis Argüello of Valladolid, during a speech on how to regenerate democracy at the Fundación Pablo VI, a university and cultural institute in Madrid on 9 July.

“I go back to the facts,” continued Argüello, who later explained he was paraphrasing the words of St Augustine of Hippo in The City of God.

Spain’s defence minister Margarita Robles was the second government minister to object to Argüello’s comments. Félix Bolaños, the minister representing the Spanish presidency, wrote to the archbishop expressing his “surprise” over the remarks.

“Allow me to ask a question: what would you think if a member of the government described the entire Church as a ‘band of sexual aggressors’, saying ‘I refer to the evidence?’” he wrote. “Evidently that would be untrue and profoundly unjust.”

Sr Lucia Caram OP rebuked the archbishop, calling his remarks “unfortunate” and saying: “The Church should be recognised for its ability to reconcile not to divide.”

Argüello told those attending his lecture that the good example of citizens had to be the starting point for demanding ethical behaviour from politicians.

“If we have cheated on our tax form because we’re thinking ‘this money is our children’s daily bread’, or if we ask for an illegal non-taxable payment for a contract or worse a bill, we need to watch ourselves because an ethical framework applies to everyone,” he said.

“If the people, the demos, lack an ethical framework, how can we demand such a framework of our political representatives?”

Argüello’s remarks follow a series of investigations into allegations of corruption in the ruling Socialist party. José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the former prime minister and an ally of the current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, has been named in an investigation into alleged money laundering.

Police raided the party headquarters in Madrid during a probe into a dirty tricks campaign nicknamed “the Socialists’ Watergate” by their right-wing opponents.

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