Madrid, Spain, May 22, 2008 / 08:24 am
In his most recent pastoral letter Bishop Jose Ignacio Aguirre of Palencia in Spain encouraged parents who are engaged in a “holy rebellion” by conscientiously objecting to the government's mandate that their children attend the school course Education for Citizenship.
In his letter the bishop referred to the more than 30,000 parents who have formally objected to the course. “Their objections are not aimed at the school, the teachers or the book…but rather at the excesses of a State that seeks to make itself the moral educator of their children. I am sure God will bless these parents who have decided to declare a ‘holy rebellion’ for the good of their children,” he said.
The bishop explained that parents “have understood that when the lesser evil becomes the ordinary choice, it ends up becoming a slippery slope downwards toward the ‘greater evil.’ Their active resistance is one of the most beautiful pages in the history of this struggle for the good of children, as well as of the defense of the principle of subsidiarity in the face of the tyranny of the states.”
The Spanish bishop also encouraged more involvement by parents who are not yet engaged in objecting. “And when the day of victory arrives—which it will!—those of us who remained on the sidelines will perhaps feel admiration and thankfulness, and perhaps a bit of timidity and embarrassment.”