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16 March 1974 The international Catholic weekly 15p

Irish Supplement: a survey oJ ?som e o f the regions The Liberal phenomenon: Norman St John-Stevas South African witness: Mona Macmillan Donog] liue’s Prometheans: Ro ►ger Sharrock Lenten Reading Text o f Vatican statem ent on b irth control

C o n f r o n t a t io n in S p a i n A confrontation of Church and State in Spain—deriving from the character of the Spanish Church and drawn-out discussions about revising the Concordat of 1953—has come into the open with the house arrest and moves towards deportation (now discontinued) of the Bishop of Bilbao. It is a situation without precedent in the 38 years of General Franco’s regime. We hope that this crisis will be seen by both parties as the opportunity for a new point of departure in their relationship; otherwise divisions in the Church as well as in the State will deepen and accelerate with damaging consequences to both.

The facts of t'he matter have been widely reported but for convenience they are recapitulated here in terms of two documents little known outside Spain: the statements of the case by the Ministry of Information in Madrid and the note in reply from the Bilbao Diocesan Secretariat for Social Communication. The Government document states that a pastoral letter from the Bishop of Bilbao dated 28 January and ordered to be read on Sunday 24 February “contains in the view of the ministry a very grave attack on Spanish national unity.” It goes on to say that prior to the date fixed for the reading of the pastoral letter approaches were made to the papal nuncio and the highest ecclesiastical authority in the land for measures to be taken to prevent the diffusion of the letter. That these gestures were fruitless, says the document, is evident from the fact that Bishop Anoveros made the reading of his third homily obligatory and gave the text to news agencies in advance. In the view of the Government, this was in effect “a clear incitement to civil discordance.” Its note goes on to recall that the bishop had recently impeded judicial proceedings against the superior of a religious centre where dynamite and subversive leaflets had been discovered: it reports that, once the pastoral had been read, various violent incidents followed; that in order to safeguard Bishop Anoveros, precautionary measures were taken in his interest, although no restrictions were imposed as to visitors, consultations with his clergy or his communications with the outside world. The significance of these measures, says the ministry, caused the papal nuncio to fly to Rome, where he was in contact with the Spanish Ambassador to the Holy See in order to find some solution. Meanwhile, the Government put an aircraft at the disposal of Bishop Anoveros and offered to take him and his vicar general to Rome. The offer was refused and consequently precautionary police measures were taken “to avoid possible incidents.”

In reply to this document, the appropriate secretariat of the diocese issued a statement maintaining that the cycle of three homilies circulated by the bishop to his clergy was intended to instruct the faithful about the role of the Church in the world today. With the exception of the last one,their reading from the pulpit was optional. When the bishop heard by telephone from the papal nuncio of the Government’s intervention, he pointed out that the homilies had already been distributed to parishes and to nowhere else. He did not want the message to be transmitted by any other means. He said that after the reading of the third homily, which had the title “Christianity—a message of salvation for all peoples,” there were minor incidents in three churches but no disorder. The bishop, says the note, proceeded with his normal pastoral duties until Ash Wednesday when the chief of police of Bilbao informed him that he was under house arrest, giving no reason. On the following Sunday the police told the bishop to prepare himself within