VATICAN CITY — Rarely have the policies of a new government been so roundly condemned by Church leaders.

In the latest attempt by Spain's socialist government to turn the country into a radically secular state, a draft bill allowing homosexuals to marry and adopt children was passed by the country's cabinet on Oct. 1.

The measure is likely to be approved by Spain's Parliament before January.

Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, called the move “a sad step.” Speaking to Vatican Radio, he said governments present such laws as if they “were a conquest of modernity and of democracy, but really they are falling into deep dehumanization.”

Another leading curial official, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, called the legalization of same-sex unions “one of the great goals of the culture of death” — the destruction of the family.”

“They even give cockroaches the rank of family now because they live under the same roof,” said the president of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Health Care in an interview Oct. 12 about Spain's new law with the Mexican publication Reforma. “If there's a cat, a dog, two lesbians and everything living there, it's a family.”

Father Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, spokesman of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, also pulled no punches, warning that homosexual unions are a “false notion” similar to a counterfeit currency and that allowing such a statute will unleash a “virus” in Spanish society.

Defending his government's position, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Rodriguez Zapatero argued for a clearer distinction between the Church and the state. “Spain is a democracy whose sovereignty lies in Parliament,” he told the Associated Press Sept. 30. “Church doctrine has to differentiate between the civil sphere and the sphere of private convictions.”

Father Brian Johnstone, professor of moral theology at Rome's Alphon-sian Academy, dismissed such an argument as fundamentally flawed. Not only must the Church oppose Spain's legislation because it does not accept homosexuality as a morally acceptable act, there is also the requirement that “general law be based on human reason and acceptable for all,” Father Johnstone said. In other words, every law must be based on the natural moral law.

The basic mistake made by the government, he added, is that it supposes that relationships are simply a case of personal preference. “They are not,” he said, “because they affect others.”

On additional Spanish legislation concerning the adoption of children by homosexual couples, Cardinal Trujillo explained that having parents of the opposite sex is necessary because they provide “a complementarity that is essential to the child's psychological development.”

He dismissed studies that purport to show that children are happy with same-sex couples. “That's a lie,” the cardinal said, “because we have different studies which show the contrary.”

Legislation on homosexual unions and adoption by homosexual couples is just one of a number of bills proposed by Spain's government which run counter to the Church.

Currently, abortion is allowed only when mothers’ lives are in danger, or for rape and fetal abnormality. The government hopes to extend those criteria so that pregnancies can be aborted when they would “result in personal, family or social conflict.”

On other issues, the government plans to end compulsory religious education in schools, to change the way in which the Church is funded — currently 30 million euro ($380 million) comes from the state annually — and remove religious symbols from public places. It has already greatly sped up divorce proceedings.

This is not the first time a Spanish government has drawn the ire of the Church. The advent of political liberalism at the beginning of the 19th century led to a series of conflicts between Church and state, especially over land ownership and control of education. Attempts to radically alter Church-state relations were a leading cause of the nation's 1936-1939 civil war.

And ever since a new constitution was ratified in 1979, Spain has had no official religion and, although Roman Catholicism continues to be recognized, its influence has diminished inexorably.

But is Spain's secularizing trend any different from other European countries? Father Angel Rodríguez Luño, professor of moral theology at Rome's Holy Cross Pontifical University, thinks not. But he says the reasons for the socialist government's actions are more complex than simply wishing to promote a secular agenda.

Father Luño notes that the government, which lacks an absolute Parliament majority, needs political allies. But it does not agree with all the policy proposals of these parties, so it has resorted to “politically correct” ideology where there is more common ground and less expenditure in the short term.

As a result, the government has a vested political interest in pinning blame only on the Church when it criticizes laws that the government intends to legislate. But, Father Luño said, “To twist or quite destroy the fundamental and legal institution of marriage is not an issue that only involves Christians.”

Furthermore, Father Luño said, the government has not consulted other segments of Spanish society and “stands accused of systematically silencing scientific evidence available on the complex phenomenon of homosexuality.”

Still, all is not lost on the issue. At the moment, there is a petition circulating that would oblige Parliament within months to discuss a law in favor of the family. And, Father Luño noted, there are many other pro-family initiatives “that are a cause for hope.”

Edward Pentin writes from Rome.