Word: zapatero
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...Pope Benedict XVI?s lightning-quick visit to Spain was to celebrate the Christian family, helping to close the Catholic World Meeting of Families in Valencia this weekend. Intead, the Pope's much-anticipated handshake and photo op Saturday evening with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero looked more like a heavyweight boxing stare-down of ideas over the direction of Western civilization and the meaning of morality in the modern world...
...Since his March 2004 election, Zapatero has led a virtual revolution in social policy in once-devoutly Catholic Spain, legalizing gay marriage, easing divorce and encouraging stem-cell research. The 45-year-old Socialist leader has become the smiling symbol of Old Europe's rising secularism. Benedict may have had ?Zapatero's Spain" in mind when, on the eve of the conclave that chose him to replace Pope John Paul II, he denounced ?the dictatorship of relativism" in a powerful and oft-cited speech to his fellow Cardinals. In the 15 months since, the pontiff?s fierce intellect and clear...
...doubt Benedict was buoyed by the enthusiastic welcome he received in Valencia. Not even a tragic accident in the city's subway system last week dampened the raucous crowds in the streets and public squares. Papal supporters reportedly booed and whistled at Zapatero as he entered the Valencia archbishop's residence for the brief meeting with Benedict. Inside, there were uneasy smiles and rigid body language. The customary exchange of gifts was also telling, with Zapatero giving the pontiff a modern abstract painting and Benedict handing the Spanish leader a copy of the Vatican codex. (Not very likely that...
...arguably best represents the relativist tyranny he so dreads. Having accepted an invitation to attend the church's World Meeting of Families in Valencia on July 8-9, Benedict will arrive in a once devoutly Catholic nation that both admirers and critics around the globe now refer to as "Zapatero's Spain." Since his March 2004 electoral victory, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has pushed through a series of social policies - from gay marriage and adoption to easier divorce proceedings and increased stem-cell research - that have made him a lightning rod in the ongoing...
...Spain stay the course? It seems almost churlish to ask. So much wealth has been created in the last two decades that Spaniards appear largely immune to the "declinism" that plagues France, Italy and Germany. The two main political parties, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's ruling Socialists and Mariano Rajoy's conservative Popular Party (PP), spit and scream over everything from Franco's legacy to gay rights; last week the PP broke off all relations with the government to protest what Rajoy called its "ignominious" dealings with the banned Batasuna party to negotiate...