Bishop decries silence of political leaders in response to attacks on Christianity in Spain

Madrid, Spain, Mar 2, 2006 / 22:00 pm

Bishop Juan del Rio of Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, decried this week what he called the double-standard that exists in the country, as Spain’s leaders “call for ‘sensitivity’ in understanding Islam but remain silent or look the other way in response to attacks on Christianity.”

 

Bishop del Rio mentioned blasphemous theatrical productions that, with “significant public financing,” have recently debuted in Spain, as well as various television programs that ridicule or denigrate the images of Christ and the saints and that paint Catholics as “a group of repressed cave-dwellers.”

 

“The impression is that anything goes against Christianity, including lukewarmness in applying the laws of our Penal Code,” the bishop said.  The Church “is the most persecuted human group in the world in these modern and supposedly civilized times.”

 

Regarding the publication in Denmark of cartoons depicting Mohammed, Bishop del Rio said it was clear the controversy was driven by politics and ideology.  Freedom of expression has its limits under the law, he said, but the name of God must not be used to justify “the violent destruction of the principles that make societies free.”  “Freedom of speech,” he noted, “cannot mean the right to offend the religious sentiments of believers.”