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Omella links the imminent approval of the new abortion law with the Pegasus scandal
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The president of the bishops avoids taking sides in the territorial debate in Catalonia: “They are political options, of each one”
Juan Jose Omela, president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, has behaved this Friday in a “malicious” way, as he himself admitted. Faced with the new abortion law, which the Government wants to approve next Tuesday, the Archbishop of Barcelona has also argued that the real motive that this norm is going to go forward now lies in a matter that has nothing to do with the interruption of pregnancy: Pegasus, the computer program that has been used by the National Intelligence Center (CNI) to spy on pro-independence leaders, including the ‘president’ of the Generalitat, Pere Aragones, taking relations between the Executive and ERC to its worst moment in this legislature.
“And I wonder, and this is a malicious question, village priest: curious that they bring up this topic at a certain moment political crisis, maybe it’s for divert attention of other issues that are important. And this is using moral issues for political issues & rdquor ;, pointed out Omella, born in Cretas (Teruel) in 1946, during a conference in Madrid organized by the New Economy Forum.
The abortion law, which Equality has been preparing for more than half a year, incorporates two novelties with respect to the current regulation, based on a deadline system, as in the vast majority of European countries.
On the one hand, it restores the possibility that under 16 and 17 years can terminate their pregnancy without the parental permission, to those who will not have to inform, a measure that the PP repealed in 2015. “It seems to me An atrocity. Parents have something to say. For vote, It is from the age of 18. And for such a serious decision, from the age of 16. We are touching on very delicate issues & rdquor ;, Omella has said.
On the other hand, the law, at least in its draft, will regulate the conscientious objection of doctors in a similar way to what is included in the regulation on euthanasia, which establishes the obligation to create objector Records, as a way for more abortions to be performed in public health than in private, where in 2020, the last year for which there is data, 87.25% of these interventions were performed. “Let’s help the doctors, let’s not force them. They can be conscientious objectors & rdquor ;, Omella has reacted.
A more conciliatory attitude
But the president of the bishops has shown a somewhat conciliatory attitude with the government, far from the messages that his predecessors used to transmit, such as Antonio Maria Rouco Varela. Omella has made it clear that his intention is to continue maintaining “good relations” with the Executive, that in recent times have materialized in agreements such as registration, the anomalous system that allowed the Catholic Church to keep ownership of any property without providing any document. The bishops registered in this way, an exception in the European context, 34,961 properties between 1998 and 2015. On January 24, Omella and the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, They sealed an agreement by which the Church recognized that at least 912 of these assets (barely 2.86% of the total) were of dubious ownership.
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“We, as a Church, have to maintain good relations with all the institutions. There is no other way than agree for the good of society. Unfortunately, we have polarized so much society that sometimes we go against each other, to see who wins and who loses. So whatever the government does, we have to understand each other and agree for the common good & rdquor ;, the archbishop of Barcelona has insisted, who has also shown a very different tone from that of some of his predecessors when they have asked him about the independence in Catalonia.
Rouco always made clear his defense of the “unity of Spain & rdquor ;. Omella, on the other hand, has insisted that he should not take a position on an issue that corresponds “to the people and the public powers,” he said. “Ours is to announce the Gospel. The house of God must be an inclusive place. In Catalonia there are many who come to mass who have an idea of independence and others who do not. The priest cannot take sides. They are political options, of each one & rdquor ;, the cardinal concluded.