Archbishop calls on believers to support Far Right

[Ferran]

Archbishop calls on believers to support Far Right

7 May 2007

PAMPLONA – The archbishop of Pamplona , Fernando Sebastián Aguilar, caused controversy on Monday by saying two far Right parties were worthy of support.

Archbishop Aguilar said in a message on the Catholic Church website in Navarre that parties of the far Right, including the Falange and the Spanish Alternative are “worthy of consideration and of support”.

The Falange was led by the dictator Primo de Rivera during the 1920s [wrong, the leader of Falange was José Antonio, his son] and later backed General Franco.

The archbishop’s text formed part of a speech given at a conference in Leon in March.

Entitled ‘The Actual Situation of the Church – some practical orientations’, the paper gave suggestions about how the Church could regain some influence in society.

In a section called ‘How to make us present in society’, it said: ‘Today in Spain, there are some parties that want to be faithful to the doctrine of the Church in its totality, like the Spanish Alternative, the Falange (and others). All these are parties little considered. They are worth a vote. They do not have much chance to influence in political life even though if they could manage to establish important alliances if they receive the support of Catholic citizens.

‘For this reason, they cannot be considered obligatory but they are worthy of consideration and support.’

The archbishop said there was a ‘silent desertion’ by former believers. He blamed the ‘revisionism’ of the Transition period when Spain moved from the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco to democracy.

The archbishop blamed groups like Christians for Socialism and the liberation theology.

The archbishop is no stranger to controversy.

In 2005, he warned Spain could be about to endure a ‘epidemic of homosexuality, strong psychological problems and painful frustrations’ if gay marriage was legalized.

The present socialist government legalized gay marriage and same-sex adoption in 2005.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]



Source:
Archbishop calls on believers to support Far Right , Spanish News, Spain, Expatica

[Ederico]

Sounds perfect, except that "far right" labelling. Don't know much about these groups, what is their credibility? Also, what about this particular Archbishop?

[Marcus Marulus]

A good archbishop.

[Ferran]

Originally Posted by Ederico

Sounds perfect, except that "far right" labelling.

Agreed, but the archbishop did not speak of "far right", it's the journalist the one who labeled these parties as such.

Don't know much about these groups, what is their credibility?

I can't tell much about that, but I can assure you that they have more than most of the main political parties.

Alternativa Española is a very young party of which its founder (former member of Fuerza Nueva) tells was born to compete with the Partido Popular (the major liberal-conservative party) and defines it as standing on the right of the aforementioned party regarding moral issues (strong defence of Catholicism) and to its left regarding social and economic ones. Even if he dislikes the left/right-wing division.

Seems to be an interesting one, what I don't like of them is their support to some pseudo-regionalist Valencian party that defends strange linguistic theories that make no sense for any real Catalan/Valencian-speaker.

About Falange, not sure which one he might be referring to, what I know is that it would not be Falange Autentica (pro-abortionists). So if I have to decide between the resting two, I think it would be Falange Española de las JONS (the one that is not in the European National Front), as they have traditionally had more contacts with the Church and bear the name of the historical pre-Francoist Falange.

Again, a decent party, although Falangism has already lost its train IMO, it was basically a response to the envioriment of the 20/30's, but world has changed a lot since then and unfortunately José Antonio is not here to answer.

Also, what about this particular Archbishop?

Well, you can find a little biography of him here.

Everything seems to be fine except the fact that he founded the magazine "Iglesia Viva", a publication dedicated to diffuse the doctrine of the II Vatican.

[Strengthandhonour]

I remember when I was a boy, I use to go to this church with my grandfather in the countryside of Calabria. I recall the father saying how we should not by any circumstances mix our blood with the blacks or arabs and to support the far right so they make it back to power.

[Almost a Christian]

Refreshing to see some guts from at least one cleric. The rest of the meek lot appear to think of nothing but putting their morals in their pockets..

[Franze]

He didn´t say that, he only say, that a catholic can support catholic parties like them. And this, more than any archibishop has said in the history in Spain, has been used by socialists to say that the archibishop is far right.
I am very sceptical in bishop matters, I have a great devotion for my catholic church, but the pastors are very depriment.