Toledo, Spain, Apr 20, 2006 / 22:00 pm

The archbishop of Toledo, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, offered an analysis this week of the first two years of the current administration in Spain, noting his disagreement with its policies related to the family, marriage and education, as well with a number of laws recently passed which seek to establish a secularism in society that he says would radically affect the human person.

The cardinal said that his comments were not meant to offer any kind of political assessment, but rather were in reference to human rights and ethical principles related to the laws passed by social government. These laws, he said, affect “the truth about marriage” in relation to divorce, the right to life in relation to the law on assisted reproduction, and the law on education in relation to the government’s educational reform.

Cardinal Cañizares decried efforts to instill secularism in Spanish society that would “radically” affect the human person.  Consequently, he said he “personally disagreed” with everything the current government has done in these areas.

At the same time, the Spanish cardinal encouraged greater cooperation between Church and State, saying the State could maintain its non-sectarian nature without falling into a secularism that “limits the faith to the private sphere.”  The Church, he said, is not trying to interfere in State matters, but rather seeks to defend a series of principles that are in keeping with the common good and that correspond to “human reason and the truth about man.”

Asked about the government’s educational reform, Cardinal Cañizares said a State-Church committee established to ensure compliance with the accords between Spain and the Holy See has been “absolutely ignored.”

Anniversary of Benedict XVI’s pontificate

Regarding the first year of Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate, the Spanish cardinal said it has been “a year of grace from the Lord,” during which the Pope has shown himself to be a “faithful servant” in continuing the work of his predecessor, John Paul II.  He also noted the “simplicity and wisdom” with which Benedict has won over the masses.