Cerro de los Ángeles, Province of Madrid, 1936After the approval of laws legalizing "express divorce" and abortion as a "right", on demand, and regardless of parental notification, the current Socialist government of Spain has urgent priorities (and, no, they are not new measures to rescue the Spanish Treasury from the brink of bankruptcy). Libertad Digital reports this Sunday:
... the Government has leaked to daily El País the draft of the Religious Liberty bill. ... It contains a total of 37 articles, among which are those related to several bans, selected by El País. According to this information, "religious symbols must not be displayed in public establishments and buildings, unless they are of artistic-historic, architectural, or cultural worth." ... "This means that, for instance, crucifixes will be removed from all public schools ... and from public buildings."
"Official acts and celebrations will not include religious ceremonies."
This Sunday, the Belgian elections should be a sign of the increasing support for independence in Flanders. The former Spanish Netherlands always had only one true unifying principle: a vigorous and firm Catholicism. The attempt to replace it with a mild Secular French identity under a very superficial Catholicity merely fostered resentment among the Dutch-speaking Flemish during the first century of the Belgian state. The vertiginous secularization of Belgian society following the Council has led to the inevitable result: Flemish Nationalism, of course, for, after the demise of their shared Catholic identity, what do Flemish and Walloons have in common? Flanders will in the end become independent - not now, but shortly.
The same will certainly happen in Spain, a diverse nation which was always held together by its festive and colorful, yet stern, Catholic identity. As the remains of Catholicism are expelled from the public square, the Flemish lesson will soon be learned. As the great Menéndez Pelayo famously said, "España será católica, o no será" ("Spain shall be Catholic, or shall not be.").
Spain ya no es, and a glorious chapter of the History of Christendom will soon come to an end.
