Spanish bishops win fight to put RE back in schools

Spain's Conservative government has decided that religion will be a compulsory subject in schools, to the satisfaction of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. which has been campaigning for years.

But the decree announced on Thursday prompted a backlash from opposition politicians and parents' associations, who condemned the decision as a threat to Spain's constitutionally defined status as a non- confessional state.

Jose Sole Tura, a socialist former culture minister and one of those who drafted Spain's 1978 post-Franco constitution, condemned the decision as "absurd, stupid and a serious mistake - a return to the Franco era" when the dictator imposed National Catholicism as a state doctrine. "Nowadays we have liberty of action and everyone can have the religion they choose, or none," Mr Sole Tura said.

For 26 years, religion has been an optional extra in state schools. Pupils who opted out were offered singing, games or a study period as an alternative. Now they must take either religion - taught, even in state schools, by Catholic priests or teachers appointed by the church - or a new, vaguely defined subject called religious fact. The choice, one sceptic observed yesterday, amounted to being excused football but forced to play rugby.

The Parents' Association accused the government of caving in to the bishops. They said religion should be taught at home or in church, and it was no business of the state to decide what, if any, religious education their children receive.

The Education Ministry insists the religious fact course is "non-confessional": it will include history of religions and "prayer, the religious attitude, the individual in face of mystery, and the fascination of religious faith." A pass in one or other religious course will be essential to qualify for higher education, - putting it on a par with subjects such as maths and science.

Catholic bishops have been pressing for the change ever since democratic Spain reduced Catholicism to one religion among many in a secular state - laying a stone for all-party consensus that made peaceful transition possible. Previous governments of the centrist UCD, the socialists, and even that of Jose Maria Aznar's first term, all resisted years of pressure until this week. The bishops' victory is attributed to the influence of conservative Catholic organisations, including Opus Dei, in Mr Aznar's government.

Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco, the Archbishop of Madrid, whose spokesman welcomed the decree yesterday, argues that the religion course is as scientific as mathematics. He says Spain's special relationship with the Vatican, defined in a 1976 treaty given papal approval, is "supra-constitutional".

Carme Chacon, the socialists' education spokesman, condemned the decree as "incompatible with the constitution, with legislation and the Supreme Court," and demanded it be withdrawn. The measure compelled Spaniards to declare their faith, in contravention of their constitutionally guaranteed right to religious freedom, Ms Chacon added.

Union confederations, the Workers Commissions and the General Workers' Union criticised the government for "kneeling before the Bishops' Conference". The alternative course purporting to offer religious history "was nothing more than proto-Catholicism, with a nod to Islam and Judaism", the unions said. They thought religion should not be taught at all in state schools.

Jacobo Israel, the leader of Spain's small Jewish community, said Catholicism "should be outside the system of academic evaluation". Criticisms have also mounted over the church's power to hire and fire teachers of religion in state schools, even though their salaries are paid from public funds.