Spaniards forget visit in heat of elections

Press, 26 October 1982, Page 9

Spaniards forget visit in heat of elections

NZPA-Reuter Madrid In the heat of elections that are expected to return the socialists to power for the first time since before the 1936-39 civil war, Spaniards seem to have forgotten they will play host next Sunday to Pope John Paul 11. A few Vatican flags fluttering amid election posters and occasional reports in newspapers, radio and television are among the scant outward signs of the 10-day Papal visit that not long ago was the subject of big public controversy. The row broke over the timing of the trip when it became clear that it would clash with the campaign for Thursday's elections. The visit was politicised, with the Right arguing that it must go ahead and the Left denouncing it as another instance of church - interference, so Spanish bishops and the Vatican agreed jointly to a postponement. This now means that the Pope is almost certain to make the first Papal pilgrimage to one of the oldest and most traditional Catholic nations just three days after it has elected a Socialist Government Some Spaniards ask themselves if there is any connection and appear perplexed by a turn of events that led from a Right-wing Catholic

triumph over the Left in the Civil war to what looks certain to be a Socialist election victory this week. What has happened is that both Spain's Catholic church and the political Left have changed. The Left which condoned the burning of churches and shooting of nuns and priests during the Civil war, has lost its anti-clerical bite and the church has broken away from its close embrace with the Right-wing. “Spain today is neither that of the inquisition nor that of the anti-clerical Left. What we have now is indifference," a well-known sociologist, Salvador Giner, argued in a television debate on the Pope's visit. He was explaining that the

church had ceased to dominate Spaniards as it had in the past when its missionaries helped to Christianise much of the western world and its bishops and cardinals held great power at home. The decline of church influence in Spain accelerated after the death of General Franco in 1975 and today church and the State are formally separated. a divorce law is on the statute books, and a law on abortion is likely with a Socialist victory. The church forbids divorce and abortion and the Spanish bishops issued veiled advice to the faithful to vote for parties which opposed both. But a measure of the church’s waning power is that most Spaniards, although technically Catholic, will probably disregard the bishops’ advice. Statistics on church attendance point to dramatic social and religious changes in Spain. In the country's two main cities, Barcelona and Madrid, regular attendance at church is as low’ as 15 per cent of the population, according to recent census figures. In Barcelona last year just two priests were ordained, and it is estimated that more than 1000 priests have left the church in recent years. Meanwhile the editor of

Spain’s biggest daily "El Pais" wrote yesterday that a Right-wing coup was being prepared. Juan Luis Cebrian likened the situation to the latest novel of the Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez. "Chronicle of Death Foretold," where a whole town knows a murder is about to be committed, but no-one does anything to stop it. “We know a crime is being prepared, we almost know where and when and the characters of the story. But what is being done about it?" he wrote in a front-page editorial. Cebrian quoted officials as saying that they had uncovered only a minor part of an alleged plot for a violent military take-over. “The reactionary Rightwing is in such a panic at a possible Socialist victory that it is prepared to use all legal and illegal means to prevent it. They hardly have any legal means left. They could only try to stop the ballot.” he wrote. Three ' colonels were charged earlier this month with conspiracy to rebellion in connection with the alleged plot, and nine senior officers have since been transferred to desk jobs in remote provinces amid a flurry of rumour about further coup attempts.