The words of the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), Mons. Luis Argüello, regarding the Government’s actions on issues such as the beginning and end of life, the definition of marriage and family, or the conception of human sexuality, provoked an immediate reaction in the political sphere. PSOE leaders responded with irony and reproaches to the speech delivered by the Archbishop of Valladolid at the opening of the Spring Plenary Assembly last Monday.
Argüello warned that, despite the non-confessional nature of the State, the Executive “tends to take confessional positions on anthropological matters, defining the beginning and end of life, the definition of marriage and family, and the meaning of human sexuality with criteria of ideological faith, apart from science and the most basic human experiences.” With these words, the president of the CEE placed the debate in its true scope: not in a political dispute, but in the truth about man.
Government’s Response: Irony and Assertion of Power
The reaction was not long in coming. The PSOE spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, responded in an ironic tone: “Accusing us of being confessional, a religious confession, has some nerve, doesn’t it?”, he stated to the media in the Senate.
López also rejected the criticism about an alleged institutional control and defended the Executive’s actions as part of the exercise of power: “It’s not that we control the institutions, it’s that we govern many of them. And when one governs, one adopts political decisions based on their project.”
In the same vein, the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, Félix Bolaños, responded by highlighting the agreements reached with the Church in recent years. “If all we do is reach agreements with the Catholic Church!”, he exclaimed, before listing issues such as inmatriculations, taxation, the «resignification» of the Valley of the Fallen, or measures related to abuses within the Church.
According to the minister, “never in history has a Government reached so many agreements with the Catholic Church,” an assertion he accompanied with a final comment: “All my affection and all my respect to Monsignor Argüello.”
A Debate That Confirms the Core of the Criticism
The exchange of statements lays bare the core of the issue raised by Argüello. When the Government itself states that decisions are adopted “based on a project,” it acknowledges that in matters such as life, family, or sexuality, actions are not taken from an anthropological vision grounded in science and the «most basic human experiences,» but from an ideological orientation that translates into political action.