Once they governed an empire, their crusaders and missionaries spreading the faith to newly discovered corners of the world. Today the Catholics of Spain are an angry and fearful group, convinced that the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero wants to oust them from public life. The Socialists are "engaged in a brutal assault on the Catholic Church on many fronts", says Elena Fernández-Trapiella, a Madrid-based public relations executive with three sons in primary school. "They are attacking the very Christian foundations of Spain." Like many Catholic parents she is particularly concerned about the Government's new citizenship classes, introduced this academic year amid great controversy. "I am worried because of my children," she says. "They are trying to demolish fundamental pillars of our society that I grew up with, believe in and feel comfortable with. They are leaving us in a moral void."
Once they governed an empire, their crusaders and missionaries spreading the faith to newly discovered corners of the world. Today the Catholics of Spain are an angry and fearful group, convinced that the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero wants to oust them from public life.
The Socialists are "engaged in a brutal assault on the Catholic Church on many fronts", says Elena Fernández-Trapiella, a Madrid-based public relations executive with three sons in primary school. "They are attacking the very Christian foundations of Spain."
Like many Catholic parents she is particularly concerned about the Government's new citizenship classes, introduced this academic year amid great controversy. "I am worried because of my children," she says. "They are trying to demolish fundamental pillars of our society that I grew up with, believe in and feel comfortable with. They are leaving us in a moral void."
