VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI warned of the consequences of a climate of indifference or even hostility to faith in increasingly secularized Spain and the dangers presented by the current difficult economic climate.

Pope Benedict told the new Spanish ambassador to the Vatican that the role of the Church and the help it can offer should not be overlooked, especially in such hard times.

The Pope made his remarks April 16, when Maria Figa Lopez-Palop presented her diplomatic credentials at the Vatican. She is the first female ambassador in the long diplomatic history between Spain and the Church, which was first established in the 15th century.

Pope Benedict said that the increasingly secular society in Spain “does not favor openness to transcendence” and demonstrates “sophisticated forms of hostility to the faith.”

In certain sectors, he said, “religion is considered socially insignificant, even troublesome,” with the result that faith is marginalized “through defamation, ridicule, even indifference to evident cases of profanation” of religious objects and monuments.

He said that while the economic problems of Spain, especially unemployment, are “truly worrisome,” the Church is in a unique position with its diverse institutions to help those in difficulty.

The Church, he said, watches over fundamental human rights, including “the right to human life from its beginning to its natural end.”

The Church also “watches over” the rights of the family by encouraging economic, social and legislative measures that support families, so that men and women “can carry out their vocation as a sanctuary of love and life.”

The Pope also said that parents should have the right to educate their children as they see fit and that religious instruction should be available at all schools.

While formal relations with the traditionally Catholic country are good, there has been tension with the current Spanish government. Both the local Church and the Vatican strenuously opposed legislation that ended obligatory Catholic instruction in public schools and laws allowing abortion and same-sex “marriage.”

In a trip to Barcelona and the pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela last November, the Pope warned of hostility to the Catholic religion in the country.

He will be traveling to Spain again this summer to World Youth Day in August.

Figa, the new ambassador, reminded the Pope of the long-standing ties between Spain and the Vatican and said that most Spaniards still recognize the Christian roots of their personal and national identities. She pledged continuing cooperation and dialogue in Spain’s relations with the Church, especially in the areas of solidarity and social justice for those in need.