PORTUGAL Bishops ban votes for Left

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33817, 14 April 1975, Page 17

PORTUGAL Bishops ban votes for Left

(New Zealand Press Association —Copyright)

FATIMA, April 13.

Portugal’s Roman Catholic bishops have made a strong entry into the political arena by prohibiting members of the Church—about 90 per cent of the population—from voting for Left-wing parties in the elections on April 25, Agence France-Presse reports.

Meeting in the shrine city of Fatima, long a symbol of ideological conservatism, the bishops did not mention the Left-wing parties by name, (but their statement said that Roman Catholic were forbid!den to vote for parties [“whose ideological principles, (aims and methods appear inI compatible with the Christian (conception of man and his ■ life in society.”

It is clearly understood that this leaves only two parties for which Roman Catholics can vote with the] approval of their Church hierarchy: the People’s Democratic Party (P.P.D.), considered middle-of-the-road, and the Right-wing Democratic and Social Centre (C.D.S.). The bishops also stated flatly that no-one should cast a blank vote, pitting themselves squarely against ele ments in the ruling Armed Forces Movement, (M.F.A.), which has advised voters who feel they are still too ignorant to choose between the parties to cast blank votes, i In speaking tours around the country since the military overthrow of the Cae-

tano regime last year, many M.F.A. members have been shocked by what they consider the abysmal political naivete and ignorance of much of the population, especially in rural areas, because of stifled political discussion and promoted obscurantism. For much of this rural population, the Roman Catholic Church speaks with an authoritative voice, and it has now told them that, ignorant or not, they should vote for the Right-wing parties.