Spain, Secularism and the Pope

Pope to Confront Growing Secularism During Trip to Spain

Pope Benedict XVI travels to Spain next week to celebrate the fifth annual World Meeting of Families. As RNS's Vatican correspondent Stacy Meichtry reports in this week's full text article (linked above), there's a lot at stake.

Quote:

Since the election of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in 2004, the Spanish government has overhauled laws affecting nearly every hot-button issue in the country. Gay marriage and adoption have been legalized. Laws on divorce, in vitro fertilization, embryonic stem cell research and euthanasia have been loosened. State subsidies to the church have been questioned, as has the place of religious instruction in public schools.

The changes have left local church leaders staggering and caused alarm among officials at the Vatican, including the pope himself.