Quotes of the Day

In his inaugural homily, delivered five days after he was elected Pope, Benedict XVI declared: "The human race — every one of us — is the sheep lost in the desert that no longer knows the way." But for Benedict, some of the flock may have strayed further than others. In an early June speech on the family, the Pope decried "the erosion of marriage, such as free unions and trial marriage, and even pseudo marriages between people of the same sex." Though he never mentioned Spain by name, Benedict no doubt had in mind a bill then before the Spanish parliament that would permit gay couples to wed and adopt children. It gained final approval at the end of June.

That move — along with other changes, like making divorce easier, plans to expand embryonic-stem-cell research and to diminish the importance of religious instruction in schools — pits Spain's Catholic establishment against a government determined to widen the gap between church and state. Gays, lesbians and many other Spaniards see the new marriage legislation as nothing short of miraculous. "After all we suffered in our adolescence, our fears of being excluded, now the state recognizes that we are equal," enthuses Beatriz Gimeno, president of the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals. In a June 2004 survey by the Sociological Research Center (cis) in Madrid, more than 66% of those polled supported some form of gay marriage. "Spain is now a more decent country," Prime Minster José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero asserted, "because a decent society is one that doesn't humiliate its members."

But many of the country's faithful feel under attack. "We are facing a very grave conflict with the government," contends Father Pedro Rodríguez, a theologian of the conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei and a retired professor at the University of Navarre. "In no country in Europe is the church suffering the aggression it's suffering in Spain." And the church is fighting back. Breaking with its long tradition of not taking part in public demonstrations, the Bishops' Conference (the Spanish Church's governing council) urged Catholics to turn out for a June 18 street protest in Madrid, sponsored by the conservative Spanish Forum for the Family. Under banners reading family does matter, hundreds of thousands marched in protest against gay marriage and other reforms. Some conservative Catholic judges have refused to perform same-sex weddings, and one has even threatened to challenge the legislation before Spain's Constitutional Court.

The tensions have exposed two strands of opinion in the country. In some respects, Spain remains a socially conservative nation, shaped by more than three decades of General Francisco Franco's dictatorship. Under Franco, the clergy and the church enjoyed preferential tax treatment, enormous influence in educational matters and a political decision-making role. But with Franco's death in 1975, and approval of a new constitution in 1978, the church's official role began to decline and divorce and abortion — once taboo — became more commonplace. Today, a majority of Spaniards call themselves Catolico, pero no practicante (Catholic, but not practicing). According to a recent cis survey, 80% of Spaniards identify themselves as Catholics, but only 25% go to church weekly.

So far, much of the debate over Spain's new laws has been symbolic. Only a few dozen gay marriages have been processed by the Civil Registry offices in Madrid and Barcelona since the law took effect on July 1. The expansion of embryonic-stem-cell research is still only proposed. And even many of those who support the church's position are quick to point out that the social-change debate is hardly limited to Spain. "In a way, there is a fight for the soul," says Father José Ignacio Munilla, rector of the Church of San Salvador in the Basque town of Zumarraga. "But it goes beyond Spain. The secularization process is taking place at a global level."

Indeed, the vehemence of the church's response may reflect a wider frustration over its waning influence throughout Europe. "People are still Catholic by tradition and heritage," says sociologist José Antonio Santiago of Madrid's Complutense University. "But there is no question that in the last 30 years the country, like those elsewhere in Europe, has undergone a rapid secularization process." The Catholic establishment may also feel threatened on other grounds. Justice Minister Juan Fernando López Aguilar recently warned that the state could not finance the church indefinitely.

In fact, many regard the gay-marriage debate as a political fight waged by other means. The Popular Party (PP), which governed from 1996 until Zapatero's Socialists ousted them last year, have close ties to the church. Several prominent members of former Prime Minister José María Aznar's Cabinet were members of Catholic lay groups like Opus Dei. But voters seem keen on a more liberal social agenda; just 22% say religious instruction should be mandatory in schools, for example. Since Zapatero seems headed in a direction many Spaniards already want to go, some think the opposition PP is using issues like gay marriage to mobilize its base. The PP is "trying to make the country believe everything is bad and the Socialists are the enemy of the church," says Spanish theologian and writer Enrique Miret Magdalena.

The PP counters that the Socialists are chipping away at fundamental Spanish values. The gay marriage law is "an attack on Spain's customs ... an attack on the family as an institution," Ana Botella, a PP deputy mayor in Madrid who's married to Aznar, told Italian newspaper Il Giornale in April. Those arguments have not yet done much to boost the PP in the polls. In a July survey by cis, just 25% of respondents expressed confidence in party leader Mariano Rajoy, compared to 45% for Zapatero. Only 20% said they would vote for the PP if an election were held today, against 33% for the Socialists.

Still, things could heat up this fall, when conservative groups like Spain's National Catholic Confederation of Parents and the Spanish Forum for the Family take their opposition to the streets in demonstrations planned all across the country. The organizations claim to have some 1.5 million signatures on petitions demanding that the gay marriage law be reversed. The influential Christian group HazteOir.org say they'll launch an e-mail campaign to push the PP to appeal the legislation to the Constitutional Court. Barring a summer change of mind, the PP seems ready to join the fray.

There is already concern at the Vatican that Spaniards could stray too far from the fold, and given Benedict's own conservative bent, he may be inclined to take a stand on an issue that so clearly goes against church doctrine. "In the course of Spain's rapid development over the past 15 years, certain values were lost," says a Vatican official who worked with Benedict at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. "Zapatero is playing with values that truly are fundamental to our way of life. There will eventually be a re-evaluation of this change." Pope Benedict, no doubt, will be keeping a close eye on his recalcitrant Spanish flock.

• MARYANN BIRD
• Spain's divisions over gay marriage highlight challenges for the church in secular Europe