The Pope’s relationship with the Government: tune in front of the extreme right and approval for the resignification of the old Franco Valley | Spain

The government has decreed three days of national mourning by The death of the Pope. The president, Pedro Sánchez, highlighted his « commitment to peace, social justice and the most vulnerable. » The Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, in charge of relations with the Church, has defined it as « a good man and a great pope. » And the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, to add, who also visited him, dedicated these affectionate farewell words on social networks: « He has been a great ambassador of decent work, peace, and social justice. He used his position to boost a better world. He taught me that hope never disappoints and his spirits still last. We will pay attention to him: we will not loosen. Government and Francisco’s speeches aligned in front of the extreme right on more than one occasion, especially in relation to immigration and climate change. During the Pontificate of Bergoglio, the Executive reached several agreements with the Vatican, being one of the most outstanding approval for Move the remains of Franco del Cuelgamuros Valley in October 2019. Others were still negotiating, such as compensation to the victims of pedophilia.

Sanchez met with the Pope twice: The first, in October 2020 And the second, In October last year. Both took place in the Vatican, since Bergoglio never visited Spain during his papacy, something that his predecessors did, such as Juan Pablo II (five times) or Benedict XVI (in three). However, just seven months ago, Francisco said he was thinking of traveling to the Canary Islands for the immigration crisis to show their « closeness to the rulers and the people. » His first trip outside of Rome, at the beginning of his pontificate, was precisely to Lampedusa, The small island of southern Sicily famous for the continuous landing of immigrants on its coasts. However, although the kings invited Spain to Spain since the beginning of their reign, in 2014, that visit did not occur. In his book Let’s dream togetherhe wrote: « You have to go to the periphery if you want to see the world as it is. » The concept of « periphery », both geographical and figurative, is part of its legacy.

Immigration was one of the issues that Sánchez and the Pope addressed in his first meeting, in 2020, while the EU worked at the Immigration and Asylum Pact. And it is one of the affairs, due to the fundamentally humanitarian approach, where they showed greater synchrony against the Postulates of the extreme right. During his visit to Lampedusa, Francisco already denounced: « We are anesthetized before the pain of others. » Nor did he subscribe that ultra theory that rejects immigration as a method of defending himself with an alleged cultural « replacement », including Catholicism. In successive address, the Pope criticized Catholics who refuse to host immigrants and the « cruelty » of those who intend to raise walls. Vox took offered, and its leader, Santiago Abascal, replied: « When the citizen Bergoglio speaks and gives his political opinions, I respect them, but I do not have to share them and in fact I do not share them. » Iván Espinosa de los Monteros also, then still in the party, he declared: “It seems very good that the Pope waits in the Vatican to how many illegal immigrants who arrive without papers want; we think that nations have the sovereignty of deciding how many immigrants wants to receive (…) and the right to decide which immigrants come because a Spanish -American one is not the same, which has a Latin American, culture, culture, integration … what others ”.

The other issue in which the coalition government and the Pope aligned in front of the extreme right was ecologism. Francisco, as the political scientist Cristina Monge, an expert in ecological transition, is recalls, “he is the only Pope who has written an encyclical, Laudate yes’, On the need to take care of the common house, the planet Earth. ”Vox usually refers to the Sustainable Development Agenda or 2030 Agenda, promoted by the UN Assembly and supported by the Spanish Government, such as“ Climate Fanaticism ”.

Criticisms of the Pope have not only come from the extreme right. In 2021, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, It seemed to rebuke the Pontiff when he was “surprised” by the letter he had sent, on the occasion of the 200 years of independence of Mexico, to the president of the Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Rogelio Cabrera López, inviting to “heal the wounds” of the past. A few days before, Ayuso had made an allegation in favor « of the real history and one of the most important moments in history », and against « the dangerous current of communism through indigenismo. » Since the beginning of his pontificate, in the most conservative sectors of politics and the Church itself there were currents that identified Bergoglio as a left -wing Pope. In Spain, the ORIHUELA Bishop came to depart from its functions to a priest to cross out Francisco de « Hereje » for blessing « irregular couples, that is, homosexuals, not married or divorced. » And the Archbishop of Toledo He rebuked two other priests for « praying a lot for the Pope so he can go to heaven as soon as possible. » Another group of priests from the archdiocese led a collection of signatures so that Francisco annulled the statement SUPPLICANS FIDUCIAin which He approved blessing homosexual couples, although without equating them to marriage.

The resignification of Cobamuros

In his second meeting with the Pope, in October last year, Sanchez took the Vatican two other issues, to try to unbrid them out: the payment of compensation to victims of pederasty and the « resignification » of the Cazgamuros Valley, which for the government passed through the eviction of the Benedictine community. In the first case, the Church insists on carrying out its own repair plan, and in the second, the Executive ended up yielding by allowing a member of the Church to participate in the jury to choose the best project in an international ideas contest and above all, by accessing the Benedictines to remain in the mausoleum, something that had ruled out until that moment when they consider their presence there “incompatible” with the resignification. The pact, reached after a new visit from Bolaños to the Vaticanallows this remodeling to affect part of the basilica, where the crypts in which more than 33,800 victims of the civil war are located. In 2019, the Vatican did not oppose the transfer of the remains of Franco del Mausoleum to the Mingorrubio cemetery, despite the hopes deposited in the Pope by the heirs of the dictator and the then prior, Santiago Cantera, who spoke of “desecration”. Government sources celebrate the relay of quarry and the departure of two other profranquist monks after the agreement for the last step of the remodeling of the mausoleum.

I had also put the Pope at the end of to Opus Dei, Organization founded in Spain by Escrivá de Balaguer almost a hundred years ago and that today has an open cause in Argentina, the country of origin of Francisco, by Trafficking in people and labor exploitation. The book Opus, Financial engineering, manipulation of people, and the rise of the extreme right in the Catholic Church (2024), to which British Gareth Gore dedicated five years of research, It ended precisely like this: « If Francisco dies before a real reform occurs – and if his successor is unable to continue his initiative -, Opus Dei will be vigorized and challenging of his experience close to death. »

Hypatriculations, taxes and agreements with the Holy See

In 2022, after a job of years and dozens of meetings in a specific commission on the matter, the Government managed to admit at least a thousand of the 35,000 goods (20,000 of them places of worship) that immatriculated in an extraordinary way As of 1998, taking advantage of José María Aznar, they are not his.

With Pope Francis, Sánchez parked old promises linked to the relationship with the Church. “We are not anticlerical, but lay. We will repeal the agreements of the Holy See « promised in 2014. The review of these agreements appeared and disappeared from socialist electoral programs. In 2016, the commitment to « denounce the agreements of Spain with the Holy See » and « Update in the Constitution the principle of secularism according to the interpretation of the Constitutional Court and suppress the reference to the Catholic Church. » And the political resolution of the last Congress of the PSOE, of December last year, prayed like this: « Our will is to culminate a lay educational system with religion outside school hours when the agreement on educational and cultural matters signed between the Spanish State and the Holy See. » Something similar happened with the fiscal bull of the Church. The Government agreed in 2023 with the Episcopal Conference The end of the exemptions that affected the tax on constructions, facilities and works and the tax for special contributions, but the Church remains without paying the IBI for the properties that generate benefits and other taxes.