Spain Is a Key Battleground for Church’s Future

[Are_grits_groceries]

VALLADOLID, Spain — The Macías Picavea primary school hardly looks like the seat of revolution. But this unassuming brick building in a sleepy industrial town has become a battleground in an intensifying war between church and state in Spain.

In an unprecedented decision here, a judge ruled in November that the public school must remove the crucifixes from classroom walls, saying they violated the “nonconfessional” nature of the Spanish state.

Although the Roman Catholic Church was not named in the suit, it criticized the ruling as an “unjust” attack on a historical and cultural symbol — and a sign of the Spanish state’s increasingly militant secularism.

If the judge’s ruling was the latest blow to the Catholic Church’s once mighty grip on Spain, the church’s response showed Spain to be a crucible for the future of church-state relations in Europe.

For Pope Benedict XVI, who has staked his three-year-old papacy on keeping Europe Catholic, Spain, with its 90 percent Catholic population and rich history, represents a last hope in an increasingly irreligious continent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/world/europe/06church.html?_r=1&hp

Whoa!! This wasn't even on the radar. Keeping my eye on this now.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

1. Zapatero means business.

His government also saw the legalization of gay marriage. AND he was re-elected handily, AFTER that.

I like that guy. A lot.

[charlie]

2. The Pope's crapping his shorts

because Spain is liberalizing at light speed. The reforms they've made in a few short years is breathtaking.