Bishops in Spain reiterate legitimacy of conscientious objection to government school course

Madrid, Spain, Oct 27, 2008 / 13:59 pm

The president of the Spanish Bishops’ Committee on Education, Bishop Casimiro Lopez Llorente of Segorbe said last week parents have the right to conscientiously object to the controversial material included in the Education for Citizenship course which the government is imposing on all schools.

During a ceremony opening the new academic year at the Catholic University of Avila, Bishop Lopez Llorente said he has requested that the contents of the course be modified and that questionable ideological material be removed.

“I have submitted a proposal which is viable and within the law that modifies the decrees so that this course will conform to the Constitution and its principles, to fundamental rights and to the structure and functioning of society, and I think this is in conformity with what the European Union is requesting,” the bishop said.

His proposals would eliminate from the course all content that is based on an “anthropology that disregards God, moral relativism and all discussions of gender ideology.”

“If this is not possible, and I think it is, it would be good if it were at least optional and that those who do not want to take it for reasons of conscience were at least respected,” the bishop added.

“The choice to object is a position that is totally correct and even constitutional allowed according to the Supreme Court,” he told the thousands of parents who have refused to allow their children to take the course. “In no way are they disobedient and they should never be threatened,” he said.