Madrid, December 14 (EFE).- The Minister of Presidential Office, Justice and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños, accused this Sunday the President of the Episcopal Conference, Luis Argüello, of having broken “the political neutrality of the Church” by advocating “the end of the current government” and called on him to respect democracy and the executive.
In a letter accessed by EFE, Bolaños responds to Argüello’s statements this Sunday in the newspaper La Vanguardia, in which the president of the Episcopal Conference stated that the political situation in Spain was even more “blocked” than six months ago due to a lack of budget resources, and therefore asked to move on to “a vote of confidence, a motion of censure or giving the floor to the citizens”.
In his letter, Bolaños regretted that Argüello had spoken out for the end of the current government “for the second time in a short time,” thereby once again breaking the church’s political neutrality.
“I expressly ask you not to break your political neutrality and to act with respect for democracy and the government. And in this sense, I ask you to constructively address the challenges facing the Church and the relationship with the government, respecting all the sensitivities that exist in our country,” Bolaños explained in his letter.
The minister stressed that he had warned Argüello in a first letter dated June 20 that such “partisan statements” from the President of the Bishops’ Conference “are not appropriate in a non-denominational state based on double neutrality and respect: that of the public authority towards the religious freedom of each individual and its own denominations and that of each religious denomination towards the holders of political power.”
Bolaños has also accused Argüello of stating in his interview with La Vanguardia that his relations with the executive branch focused on the “Valley of the Fallen,” ignoring that “since the current democratic memorial law came into force, it is called Valle de Cuelgamuros” and on “reparations for victims of abuses of ecclesiastical pedophilia.”
The minister added that from Argüello’s statements “it can obviously be deduced that he would prefer if his interlocutors were different political forces (Vox and PP), since he assumes that “a government of the right and the extreme right” would have “more understanding of the positions of his organization.”
However, Bolaños has clarified that this “personal preference” of Argüello “is not a sufficient reason to break the partisan neutrality that should be expected of the Church.” EFE
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