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Vatican holds largest beatification

Critics say the church is hitting back at Spain's Socialist government.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican took on Spain's Socialist government Sunday, criticizing its social policies as the church beatified nearly 500 victims of leftist persecution during the country's civil war era.

The ceremony was the largest mass beatification by the Vatican, which supported the fascist dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco during and after his war against the leftists.

In his homily, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins also took aim at Socialist legislation that facilitates divorce and gay marriages, as well as the Spanish administration's scrapping of plans by a previous conservative government to make religion an obligatory subject in schools. The Spanish government did not comment on the ceremony.

Some in Spain questioned the timing of the beatification of the 498, which comes days before Spain's Parliament is expected to pass a Socialist-sponsored law that will for the first time formally condemn Franco's rule and order the removal of all fascist symbols from the country.

Critics say the Vatican was hitting back at the government by simultaneously beatifying the two bishops, 24 priests and 462 members of religious orders, as well as a deacon, a subdeacon, a seminary student and seven lay Catholics. Since the late 1980s the church has beatified nearly 500 other clergy killed in the war, but in a series of smaller ceremonies.

Starting in 1931, the leftist forces targeted the Catholic Church, an institution they saw as a symbol of wealth, repression and inequality. Their attacks, which killed an estimated 7,000 clergy from 1931 to 1939, gave Franco a pretext for launching his rebellion. He emerged victorious from the 1936-39 civil war and presided over a nearly 40-year dictatorship.

[Last modified October 29, 2007, 01:01:08]