Government-sponsored secularism is deconstructing the family, says Spanish archbishop

Jun 20, 2006 / 22:00 pm

In his weekly pastoral letter, Archbishop Agustin Garcia-Gasco of Valencia has denounced State-backed efforts to secularize society and deconstruct the family by replacing traditional values with those said to be “progressive.”

“For several decades, secular ideologies have desired to take control of the concept of family.  Little by little, these same ideologies introduce variations into the essence of marriage, until they empty it even of its nature as a covenant between the complementarity of the sexes,” the archbishop wrote.

The respect and protection of the family is based on its “contribution to the common good and to the improvement of society,” he continued.  Therefore, those who claim that the family based on heterosexual marriage represents a “conservative model of the past” are “gravely mistaken,” the archbishop warned.

Under the guise of accepting “family diversity,” he went on, the promoters of secularism are deconstructing the family. “Never before in history has what we are experiencing taken place,” he said.

Archbishop Garcia-Gasco also denounced the government-sponsored “Education for Citizenship,” which he called another secularist strategy to indoctrinate young people and instill in them “so-called progressive values.”  

Likewise the archbishop criticized those who are attacking the World Meeting of Families, saying they have carried “their ideological freedom to a point beyond what is admissible.”  He noted that the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches respect for all persons and rejects “all unjust discrimination, or disrespect.  All persons of good will are accepted by the Church.”  At the same time, however, Archbishop Garcia-Gasco called on Christians not to be fooled by radical activists and to be conscious that “every person deserves to hear the saving call of the Risen Christ.”