The Spanish bishops have expressed their concern this week about the “climate of social tension”, due to the protests in Madrid after the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. These considerations come within the framework of the plenary assembly in November, in a statement with which the Spanish Church intends to escape the current political polarization. “We share the concern raised by the current ideological polarization, social tension and episodes of disagreement,” they point out.
In this sense, both the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, the archbishop of Barcelona and cardinal Juan José Omella, and the secretary general and spokesperson of the body of prelates, the auxiliary bishop of Toledo, Francisco César García Magán, have expressed themselves, who requested “that the autonomy of the Judiciary and the freedom of judges be scrupulously respected” as well as the separation of powers.
García Magán spoke out against the amnesty law before there was a definitive agreement between the PSOE and the pro-independence forces, a fact that bothered some sectors of the Catalan Church. The Catalan bishops, for their part, amended the words of the spokesperson of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, who had gotten wet without there being a consensual position among all the prelates like the one there is now.
Omella, in turn, pointed out on Monday in his speech that “all pacts are legal” and called for political dialogue without sanitary cordons, in addition to demanding that the President of the Government “work with all political forces to recover social cohesion and sew “the wounds that have been caused” by some pacts of his investiture, although he avoided referring specifically to the amnesty, which has stirred up the most conservative sector of the Spanish episcopate. There are several bishops who in their personal capacity have criticized the possibility of applying penal oblivion to the leaders of the process.
In this week’s communications, the Church has asked to leave the tension and polarization behind, striking balances and even at the risk of not satisfying anyone, as indicated by sources from the bishops’ body.
“All pacts are lawful to the extent that they respect the legal system, the rule of law, the separation of powers of our democracy, ensure the equality of all Spaniards and guarantee political, economic and social balance,” remarked the archbishop of Barcelona when opening this month’s assembly, in a speech in which he asked to work towards cohesion and unity.