Madrid, Spain, Aug 7, 2009 / 18:53 pm
Bishop Miguel Asurmendi of Vitoria, Spain said Thursday that new norms for schools issued by officials in the Basque region have led to a dramatic decrease in the number of students taking religion classes and that if steps aren’t taken, “classes on Catholic morality will disappear from public schools and Basque schools.”
During a Mass on Thursday, the bishop prayed for “the gift of overcoming the grave crisis of moral conscience in the Basque and Spanish societies which is affecting the right to life, to religious and moral education and to work.”
He also mentioned the reform of the country’s abortion law, which will be put to a vote in Parliament in the coming months. He said the most troubling aspect of the reform is that it makes abortion a right that must be protected by the state. The proposed abortion reform, Bishop Asurmendi said, is “a venomous source of immorality and injustice that tarnishes the entire bill.”
Bishop Asurmendi criticized the measure for assisting pregnant women in “the destruction of their children, instead of protecting maternity and the family in order to prevent women from becoming victims of abortion.”