A Time for "Cooperation"... and Another For Critique... All In One Day

After making nice with the Spanish government in bilateral talks yesterday in Madrid, earlier today B16's top lieutenant enumerated the church's differences with the ruling Socialists:

Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone on Thursday indirectly criticized Spain's liberal social reforms such as homosexual marriage, downgrading religious education in schools and plans to liberalize abortion.

Cardinal Bertone stressed the right to life and the importance of the heterosexual family in a lecture he gave at the headquarters of the Spanish Bishops' Conference after meeting Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, King Juan Carlos, the deputy prime minister and the foreign minister on Wednesday....

In his lecture, Bertone indirectly criticized the Spanish government's plans for a more liberal abortion law, saying human dignity implied a respect for life 'from its conception to its natural decline.'

Family life was based on 'the marriage of a man and a woman,' Bertone said in the country where thousands of gay couples have wed since the Zapatero government legalized same-sex marriage in 2005.

The cardinal also stressed the right of parents to choose the kind of education they wished for their children.

According to another report, the "Vice-Pope" said in response to the abortion proposal that it was "necessary to restrict and not increase the possibilities" for abortions.

In a press scrum after the talk, the wire says Bertone made especially clear that his comments weren't solely intended for the Spaniards.

Along those lines, here's the original fulltext; el narador habla español... but too much is up right now to hash it out in English. That said, though, if someone's keen to do the yeoman's work of a translation, the Stateside bench might well find its pointers useful.

PHOTO: AFP/Getty

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