`SPAIN, WITH POLAND, COULD BECOME A POWERHOUSE IN THE NEW EUROPEAN SPIRITUAL RENAISSANCE' DESMOND O'GRADY PREVIEWS THE POPE'S NEXT TRIP

SPAIN'S NEW DEMOCRACY
AT THE time of the Vatican Council, Spain had Europe's oldest bishops and youngest priests. The conciliar innovations were a real breath of fresh air for the Spanish church.
Moreover Paul VI was opposed to Franco's dictatorship and, through the Vatican nuncio in Spain, promoted a new breed of bishops.
The result was that the Church distinguished its position from that of Franco before his death in November, 1975. It emerged as one of the fresher elements in post-Franco Spain.
But since then society has moved faster than the Church foresaw or in directions it does not approve. Secondly, there are indications that the Vatican Council has had some disquieting consequences within the Church.
The result is a measure of uncertainty.
The Spanish Church welcomed democracy but this has 'also entailed deplorable aspects such as a thriving pornographic industry which would have been censored under Franco.
In more general terms, the Church is worried by the rapid spread of secularism, the replacement of traditional values by permissivity.
Religious practice has dropped sharply in the past 20 years. Sunday Mass attendance averages a little under 40 per cent. It is much higher in some rural areas but dips below 20 per cent in certain city parishes although 98 per cent of Spain's 37 million describe themselves as Catholic.
The political scene is in rapid evolution. It is expected that in the elections which will be held just before John Paul's arrival, the Socialists will poll better than ever and may even come to power for the first time in postwar Spain.
The Church is not allied with the outgoing centreist government even though there is a group of Christian Democrats, who claim to be inspired by the Church's social teaching, within the ruling Union of Democratic Centre party.
But there has been considerable criticism of the hierarchy from "Christians-forSocialism" type movements which claim the Church should back the Socialists.
These same Catholics are less than enthusiastic about John Paul II for his alleged incomprehension of Catholic Leftists in Latin America.
They deplore the cost of his Spanish visit. They also disapprove John Paul's support for the Opus Dei movement, powerful in Spain, which was recently granted a worldwide personal prelature by the Vatican.
Several of the Franco regime's Ministers in its last years were members of the Opus Dei secular institute. They pushed for a techno0-atic modernisation of the regime but the Christiansfor-Socialism see Opus Dei as politically conservative and as a power lobby within the Church.
John Paul II ascribes great importance to his Spanish visit which had to be postponed because of the assassination attempt on him in May, 1981.
It is said he intended to spend several weeks in Spain but was persuaded that a high pitch of enthusiasm could not be sustained for such a long period. But his ten-day trip will enable him to cover much of the country.
Despite the tensions within society and the Church John Paul, as the first Pope to visit Catholic Spain, seems assured of a triumphal welcome.
His trip can be seen as a culmination of the resurgence of Spanish society: as survival of the attempted rightwing coup d'etat in 1981 shows, it has achieved the difficult transition from a dictatorship to a democracy; it attracted world attention this year by staging smoothly the World Cup at the end of June it entered NATO and it is expected to be accepted into the European Common Market within 1984; despite a high inflation rate, its
economy is vigorous; Madrid is one of Europe's most bustling cities.
Spain has emerged from the Franco period lethargy (or convalescence) and is about to participate more fully in European and international affairs.
This could well be one of the themes John Paul picks up in Santiago de Compostela for pilgrimages there in the Middle Ages forged a European spirit and spirituality during Arab occupation of much of Spain. Spain's many saints (such as John of the Cross who was the subject of the future John Paul IL's doctoral thesis; the Jesuit founder Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Avila) warrant these high hopes.
John Paul is expected to preside over the celebrations in Avila of the fifth centenary of the death of the mystic and reformer Teresa.
But the hopes for Spain's spiritual influence will lapse if a hedonistic society prevails.
It is likely, therefore, that John Paul, will warn against secularism obliterating the transcendent dimension.
This would lead him to back the Spanish hierarchy's expressed concern for the family which is adjusting to the shift from a rural to an urban, industrialised society; from the extended to a nuclear organisation; from a patriarchal to a permissive model. Divorce was introduced in Spain last year and the Communist Party did propose an abortion law but then withdrew it.
Family problems cannot be tackled in isolation from those of society as a whole. John Paul will be long enough in Spain to give regional emphasis in his talks.
For instance, in the poor agricultural south, in Andalusia, he is likely to talk of unemployment while in Galicia, in the north west, he will probably talk of the problems of emigrants as many workers leave there for jobs in France, Germany, Holland and Switzerland.
In the ancient university town of Salamanca, the relations between faith and culture will be an obvious theme while in the Basque region, he will probably talk of the autonomists' terrorism and the government's repression of it which have been the subject of pronouncements by the local bishops.
In preparing his trip, he sought advice from the bishops of the various regions on their major problems; they are probably a pointer to his speeches. It is expected he will meet representatives of the 15,400 cloistered nuns as well as ordain priests. Doubtless he will underline the validity of religious vocations in decline in recent years in Spain.
His overall and interrelated themes are likely to be that Spain grew in continuity with its spiritual heritage and that unity be preserved.
In society at large there is a danger of the fearful polarisation of the civil war. There is also a danger in hitting this theme too bard, however, for many consider it was Franco's great resource in anaesthetising the nation for almost 40 years.
The comparison between Russia and Spain might strike John Paul: in both, there is fear that the alternative to autocracy is not democracy but anarchy.
John Paul may underline that unity should be based on more than fear of divisions.
He may bring the same message to the Church. Some elements, from bishops to laity, want a return to the status the Church had under Franco. (It is estimated that about 10 per cent of the hierarchy is nostalgic for Franco).
The bulk of the Church is absorbing the Vatican Council, which began twenty years ago, and wondering about its efficacy in a society accelerating towards the 21st century. It is the sort of challenge John Paul seems to relish.