Spanish Leader, Church, Spar Over Education Reforms

In Spain, Catholic bishops have attacked the public schools’ new "Education for Citizenship and Human Rights" curriculum. Kath.net says that the curriculum’s goal is to encourage students to reject "racist, xenophobic, sexist, and homophobic social prejudices." The bishops say that the program violates Sec. 27(3) of Spain’s Constitution that provides "The public authorities guarantee the right which will assist parents to have their children receive the religious and moral formation which is in keeping with their own convictions." However a leading socialist party figure who was one of the drafters of the constitution, Gregorio Peces-Barba Martínez, published an op-ed this week accusing the Bishops of "extreme arrogance" and threatening a "new status", presumably a less privileged one, for the Church in Spain if it does not stop attacking the Education for Citizenship program.