Political Left and Right in Spanish Church

by MICHAEL WALSH, SJ POLITICAL associations are permitted in Spain, but not political parties. The distinction is important. Associations have to stay within the principles of the Movimiento, the political wing of the Falange.
Serious politicians with hopes of office in a more democratic regime steer clear of them. Seiior Fraga Irribarne, until this week Ambassador to London, has helped to found not an association but a limited company. for research into social and political problems. Official disapproval does not mean that no political parties exist. The old joke: "one Spaniard — one political party . two Spaniards — three political parties" is. alas, once more coming true. It has been alleged, for example. that there are more than 50 parties which would call themselves Communist.
The Right-wing party, the Falange, is permitted to exist. The danger is of fragmentation in the Centre and Left. Hence the formation or political groups. The Junta Democratka, for example, contains everything from left-ofcentre Christian Democrats to the Moscow-recognised Communists.
No party with the title of "Christian Democrats" is likely to emerge. Joaquin RuizGimenez, one of the leaders of the group, explained why.
If they are opposed to the idea of' an officially "Catholic" regime they must, to be consistent, oppose parties which have religious labels though members may be inspired by Christian principles. The problem with the Centre and Centre-Left parties is they are all brain and little brawn.
There is no "middle management". Only the parties of the fur Left, well represented on the factory floor, and that of the far Right, officially entrenched in the legal trade unions and town halls, have anything like direct access to potential voters.
For the grouping of the far Right the Spanish Press has coined the term "the Bunker": those ready for a last-ditch stand to maintain the old regime. The Falange, the Army and the Church are all represented.
Ecclesiastics on the whole are cautious, but there is no doubt about the political leanings of, say, the Primate of Toledo, the Archbishop of Zaragossa, and the Bishop of Cuenca. Of these three the last is by far the most outspoken — and the most dangerous — adversary of the Left.
The Archbishop of Zaragossa and the Bishop of Cuenca both hold State appointments. They are procuradores in Cortes, members of the Spanish National Assembly. As the senior of the two, the
Archbishop is also a member of the three-man "Council of the Realm". Should he retire (and he is not in good health) his place will be taken by Bishop Guerra Campos of Cuenca.
The career of Bishop Guerra Campos has been extraordinary. He was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Madrid by Archbishop Moreillo, and then sacked by Cardinal Tarancon. He was voted out of office as secretary to the Episcopal Conference and was, for a time without any ecclesiastical function at all.
As a protege of the Franco family, however, he had access to television. In a broadcast after the 1971 assembly of bishops and priests he reminded the astonished viewers that there had been a time when all -le bishops fell into heresy, and only the ordinary Christians had kept the Faith. He has made of his diocese Of Cuenca a base for continued propaganda for the Franco regime.
Right-wing, intgrist movements, claim Christian backing. The "bully-boys" of the Right arc the "Warriors of Christ the King". Made up, it would appear, of off-duty policemen, as threats to the life of Mgr Alberto Iniesta were the cause of his sudden departure from the country, reported in this paper last month.
Right-wing clergy have organised themselves in the "Priestly Brotherhood of a Anthony Claret". The magazine Iglesia-Mundo, just over a hundred issues old, represents their views, although not actually published by them. It has been repeatedly condemned by members of the Spanish hierarchy.
Its influence may not he great, but it has chalked up successes. A campaign mounted by the magazine, and by some priests in (Iran Canaria who sympathise with its thinking, led to the banning, earlier this year, of a meeting called by the Bishop of Las Palmas, Two members of Opus Dei were among the small group which brought pressure to bear on the Madrid government to prohibit a similar assembly organised by Bishop Iniesta in Vallecas, a working-class suburb of the Spanish capital, in March, Opus appears to be in some disarray at the moment. It no longer wishes to be known as a "secular institute" (a concept it helped to create), but no viable alternative seems to have been found. Its heyday in Spain, when Opus Dei cabinet ministers followed one another with remarkable consistency, is over,
The success of the 'sixties has turned sour. Its founder's book of maxims Camino (literally "the road", although translated into English as "The Way") has been lampooned in Autopista ("Motorway"). A hostile
biography of the founder has recently appeared with the title "The Life and Miracles of Mgr Escriva."
But if it has lost power for the moment, Opus remains influential. It has a university. many periodicals with wide circulation and lots of money — or, at least many of its members have. One member of Opus has recently been appointed editor of the Madrid daily ABC.
... The organisation rightly insists that it cannot be identified with the activities of each one of its adherents. But a common spirituality should give rise to a common outlook. And that outlook is, for the most part, strongly Right-wing. The founder's maxims speak the language of Franco's "crusade", the language of national Catholicism.
In comparison, ecclesiastical pressure groups on the political Left arc weak. The 1971 assembly of bishops and priests pledged itself to work for the rooting out of injustices in Spanish society and the betterment of life for the working classes,
Some of the clergy, it is alleged, have taken this to the extreme of becoming cardcarrying members of the Communist Party (as in Italy, one does not have to be an atheist to belong). But these cardcarrying clergy are difficult to identify.
Some priests have played important roles in the "Worker's Commissions" and, more recently, in the "Workers' Revolutionary Organisation" (ORT). A new clericalism of the Left' is emerging to balance the clericalism of the Right.
The nascent "Christians for
Socialism" movement is gaining ground, but this, like many of the Left-wing groups, is as critical of the Church as it is of the State. After the banning of the Vallecas assembly only Bishop Iniesta was excluded from the condemnation of the entire hierarchy for their inact iv ity on behalf of the oppressed.
On the face of it, such criticism seems unfair. It is easy to be excited by the opposition to the regime displayed by the Spanish Episcopal Conference (though riot by all its members individually) and by the Justice and Peace Commission. But appearances can deceive.
The map of religious practice in Spain published in the Catholic Herald on November 14 showed how high a proportion of the population went to Sunday Mass. But that disguises the fact that members of the urban proletariat are rarely practising Catholics.
In May this year 1 attended a clandestine meeting in the basement of a church in central Madrid. Protest songs were sung, Flamenco style. Such concerts had been banned several times before, and the singer arrested. This time there were no interruptions. The audience was made up of teenagers and young adults for the most part, although there were one or two middle-aged men and a handful of soldiers. Afterwards I talked to a good many of them. None was a practising Catholic. Some seemed surprised that 1 should ask. Yet they met under the protection of the Church.
One wonders, sometimes, who is using whom. And for what.