While in the United States Catholics are scandalized by Cupich’s awards to a pro-abortion politician, in Spain the spectacle is even more serious and sustained: here, the gurus of the media owned by the Episcopal Conference—from Carlos Herrera to Ángel Expósito, passing through Jorge Bustos and the entire editorial line of COPE—live in a blushing state of submission to the Popular Party. While in the United States their Episcopal Conference stops the scandal of an award to an abortionist, in Spain abortionism is elevated to the official editorial line of the media of the Episcopal Conference.
Yesterday, Alberto Núñez Feijóo reminded us again that his commitment to abortion is not a slip-up, but a conviction: he publicly guaranteed the “right” to kill children in the mother’s womb. It’s not new, but it is a new confirmation that incoherence is already official doctrine in the media of the bishops managed by Restán and Barriocanal.
Just a few days ago, much of the Catholic world was up in arms over the new episode of “Cupich Catholicism”: the cardinal of Chicago awarding Dick Durbin, a Democratic senator and champion of abortion. A gesture so incoherent that it managed to mobilize the U.S. bishops and stop the scandal.
But if Cupich confused, our bishops directly scandalize. Because theirs is not a theological slip or a poor pastoral discernment, but a sustained and planned communications policy.
In Spain, the entire Spanish Episcopal Conference—progressives and conservatives included—has turned its media into an instrument of partisan propaganda. Not in service of the Gospel, but of the Popular Party. And not in a subtle or disguised way, but with an obedience that provokes blushing: Carlos Herrera setting the line from dawn, Jorge Bustos distributing editorial absolutions, and Ángel Expósito closing the day with party sermons.
Just listen to an hour of COPE to confirm it: the defense of abortion or the moral lukewarmness of the PP is never questioned; it is applauded, justified, or ignored. Meanwhile, any pro-life voice that doesn’t pass through Génova 13 is made invisible or ridiculed.
And yesterday, in case anyone still had doubts, Feijóo cleared up any ambiguity: in an official statement, he explicitly guaranteed the right to abortion. The leader of the party protected by the bishops’ media declares himself the guarantor of the gravest crime of our time, and from the Episcopal Conference… absolute silence that contrasts with recent haughty verbose reactions. It must be more important to use a municipal sports center in a town in Murcia than the mass murder of unborn children.
Silence from the progressives, of course, but also from the conservatives. From those who pose every March at the March for Life, from those who tweet rosaries and talk about “cultural battles.”
So yes: Cupich can rest easy. In Spain we’ve already surpassed it. If in Chicago a cardinal awards an abortionist, here an entire Episcopal Conference sustains, finances, and promotes its own through the media. And it does so, moreover, with an institutional smile, a discourse of “unity,” and an advertising contract in between.
The seamless garment, Spanish version, comes with political sponsorship, advertising slots, and episcopal blessing