The president of the bishops accuses the State of becoming a "band of thieves" and raises the tone against the Government

The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Luis Argüello, has once again fully entered the political debate with an especially harsh intervention against the Government. During the closing of the summer course organized by the CEE, the Pablo VI Foundation, and the Pontifical University of Salamanca, the archbishop of Valladolid stated that “when a State forgets ethics, it becomes a band of thieves” and then added: “I refer to the evidence”.

Argüello made this reflection in the course titled The collapse of democracy. The opportunity for a geopolitics at the service of the human being, where he called for a “regeneration” of democratic systems and asked to recover a common ethical reference. After the most controversial phrase, the president of the bishops clarified that this demand should also apply to citizens, mentioning tax declaration frauds or undeclared payments.

The intervention comes after months of tension between the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the Government. Argüello had already placed himself at the center of the controversy for his appeals to bring forward elections or activate constitutional mechanisms such as a motion of no confidence or a vote of confidence, a position he later tried to tone down by assuring that it was not his place to call for early elections.

Against public aid and LGTBI rights

The president of the bishops also criticized what he called “welfare” democracies. According to Argüello, the State runs the risk of becoming a “secular Caritas” that distributes “alms” or “small payments” to generate citizens dependent on subsidies.

The discourse hardened even more when he addressed the laws on sex and gender approved in recent years. Argüello denounced an alleged project of “anthropological deconstruction” and criticized the prohibition of conversion therapies, arguing that “accompaniment” to certain people is condemned as such.

Conversion therapies have been rejected by human rights organizations and professional groups for attempting to modify a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. In Spain, state legislation and several regional regulations have pursued them as practices contrary to the dignity and rights of LGTBI people.

The Church once again steps into partisan territory

Argüello did not speak from a minor pulpit. He did so as president of the Episcopal Conference, at an event organized by Church institutions and before an audience convened to debate democracy, geopolitics, and the common good. His intervention once again placed the bishops in a political space that in recent years has moved between criticism of the Government, the clash with Vox over immigration, and internal dispute between more social sectors and harder sectors of the Spanish Church.

The paradox also remained within the course itself. In the inaugural session, the secretary general of the CEE, Francisco César García Magán, had defended the welcoming of migrants against discourses he considered hardly compatible with the Gospel, in a direct reference to the political climate fueled by the far-right Vox. Two days later, Argüello closed the meeting with a speech much closer to the cultural framework of the right against the Government, equality policies, and the social model of the State.

The phrase about the “band of thieves” has already been incorporated into a new political intervention by the president of the bishops. The next step will be to check whether the Episcopal Conference presents it as a general moral reflection or if it again accuses the media of having taken out of context words spoken before the CEE's own summer school.