Madrid, Spain, Sep 18, 2008 / 16:26 pm
The Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, together with two other Spanish bishops, is calling on schools to facilitate conscientious objection to the controversial school course Education for Citizenship.
The cardinal’s comments came in response to a notice sent out by school teachers who were under the impression that parents only had until the first day of classes to register their conscientious objection to the state-sponsored course.
According to the Spanish daily, La Razon, the three prelates, Cardinal Rouco Varela, Bishop Jesus Catala and Bishop Joaquin Maria Lopez de Andujar, sent directives to all Catholics schools reiterating that the Spanish Bishops’ Conference considers the course to contain elements “contrary to Catholic teaching and to authentic humanism, such as moral relativism and gender ideology.”
The bishops of Madrid, “in exercising our duty to watch over the Catholic schools in our territories,” direct administrators to inform parents that the course contradicts “the fundamental right of parents to decide what kind of moral and religious education they want for their children.”
They said school officials should “facilitate the exercise of [parents’] right” to register conscientious objection to Education for Citizenship without any time limit.