The Holy Father Arrives in Valencia, Spain

Photo Source: REUTERS/Chris Helgren (SPAIN)

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Valencia, Spain today to attend a gathering on family values in a country where church influence has waned and where the government has angered the Vatican with liberal reforms including gay marriage.

The highlight of the 26 hour trip is expected to come at 6:30 p.m. Saturday local time, when Pope Benedict meets José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Socialist Prime Minister of European Catholicism. Since taking office in 2004, Zapatero's government has either adopted or discussed legislation in favor of:

Same-sex marriage legislation; Fast-track divorces; Curbing religious education in state schools; Supporting embryonic stem-cell research; Easing abortion laws; Reducing or eliminating public funding for the church.

The latest such move came just a month ago, when the government proposed allowing transsexuals to legally change their gender without undergoing surgery. To add insult to injury, the government has chosen moments to move on this agenda seemingly designed to maximize Catholic irritation. The law on same-sex marriage, for example, was adopted two days before the inaugural Mass of Benedict XVI, an act that even the country's ambassador to the Holy See described as "sticking a finger in the church's eye."

In a country where 94 percent of the population is officially Catholic, that sort of thing gets noticed.

This time around, just days before Benedict's visit for the close of a Vatican-sponsored World Meeting of Families, Zapatero's government funded a rival event organized by the Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals, also in Valencia. In a press statement, the organizer said it shows "the church has to accept that it doesn't have a monopoly on family."

Cumulatively, the impact of all this has been to make Spain the front line in the battle against what Benedict XVI has called the "dictatorship of relativism."

The stakes are doubly high, from the Vatican's point of view, because not only is Spain a traditional Catholic stronghold in Europe, but it exercises a strong gravitational pull on Latin America, home to almost one-half of the 1.1 billion Catholics in the world.

It was not supposed to be like this.

When Zapatero was elected just three days after the March 11, 2004, terrorist attacks in Madrid, he attracted support even from practicing Catholics. Many thought his government would be akin to former Socialist Prime Minister Felipe Gonzales -- cautious on social questions, albeit officially committed to progressive positions, and respectful of the church. Prior to the election, almost no one predicted a serious church/state clash. Zapatero campaigned in favor of dialogue, and he was actually closer to the church on what was the election's deciding issue, the war in Iraq.

Once in office, however, Zapatero let loose the dogs of cultural war.

The result has been what many observers see as the most serious crisis to confront the Spanish church since the civil war in the 1930s. Media commentators will be anticipating something akin to the Ali-Frazier prizefight when Zapatero and Benedict meet, the first encounter between the two men.

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