Following the news published on December 3 in Diario de Navarra about the PSOE's request to the Government to break the agreements with the Holy See, I wonder if they are obsolete or not. In my opinion they are not; they are still valid and it is desirable that they remain in force. Personally, I question the validity of some specific points. I will give two examples: the disappearance of compulsory military service left some parts of it without object. And nowadays there is a great difference between canonical marriage and Spanish marriage; consequently, perhaps it is no longer of interest for canonical marriage to serve as a form of civil marriage. But these and other points do not detract from the general validity of the Agreements as an instrument of cohabitation. It may be worthwhile to consider minor modifications, but not a general revision.

Let us go to the background of the Agreements and place ourselves in the transition period. The common feeling of the Spanish people after Franco's death could be formulated as follows: "not another war, please"; and this means "not the two Spains again", "we have to get together at agreement". That is why reconciliation was sought. And it was achieved by means of a work of art composed of many elements. The main one was the Constitution. Others, for the purposes that interest us here, were the Organic Law of Religious Freedom and the Agreements with the Catholic Church (later, also with other confessions). The four agreements of 1979 were approved by a large majority, including the vote of the PSOE (except for one of them: the one on military service).

These three elements, the Constitution, the Organic Law and the Agreements, form a fairly successful basis that facilitates coexistence. I would like to emphasize that this is what is important: it is not a question of achieving a juridical status ¿in which the Catholic Church feels comfortable¿, but a good basis for coexistence ¿for all¿, a social order in which we all feel reasonably comfortable. For this is the task of legislation.

Let's go back to what was said before. All reconciliation is fragile, it can be broken and we must make efforts to nurture it. I believe that both the Church and politicians can learn from the experience of the last century.

Let's start with the Church. In my opinion, the Spanish Church became too politicized in the 20th century. To put it very simply: first it identified itself with the monarchy, then with the Republican right, then with the Franco regime. In the post-conciliar period, with the civil service examination to Franco; then, with the task of the transition; later it made its nods to the left; finally, it looked again to the right to see, bewildered, that no one found its company profitable anymore.

I believe that the Church should make an effort to "get along equally well with everyone": with the right and with the left, with the independentistas and with the supporters of a united Spain. These issues are not totally alien to him, but they are not his specific skill . Sometimes it will have to speak out, but it must avoid the danger of becoming a social services NGO, or an anti-abortion International (or being perceived as such). It is not healthy for us to see one political faction as "our potential friends" and another as "our potential enemies".
Let us now turn to the other side. We would be grateful if politicians would facilitate this "difficult balance". Not only to the Catholic Church, but to all denominations. On the one hand, anticlericalism does not harm only the Church, as all the ¿anti" causes harm to the whole society. On the other hand, the same happens with the "attempt to use the Church" for political ends: it harms the Church and the polis. For this reason, it does not seem right to me to accuse the opposing party of "subjugating the bishops", because today, fortunately, this is simply impossible. But it is even less correct, as a consequence of this unrealistic accusation, to use the revision of the Agreements as a ¿throwing weapon". Spain is, unfortunately, a very Manichean country, a country of good guys and bad guys. Of course, the good ones are mine, and the bad ones are those of the opposite side (in politics, in religion, or in any other sector). But the reality is that no one is an angel, nor a devil. However, we manufacture them: we make ghosts and worship them as angels or exterminate them as demons. That is why there is a real danger of reconciliation breaking down, of returning to the two Spains. We must all make an effort -the different political forces, the different social agents, the believers of different confessions and the non-believers- to overcome little by little this Manichaeism.