Rouco Varela reelected as synod head

Madrid's conservative archbishop, Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela, was confirmed as the leader of the Spanish synod for another three years in a close vote at the plenary assembly of the Episcopal Conference (CEE) in Madrid on Tuesday morning.

The 74-year-old won 39 votes out of the 75 cast to earn his fourth mandate as head of Spain's Catholic forces, surpassing the three consecutive terms of the legendary Cardinal Vicente Enrique y Tarancón, who led the synod from May 30, 1971 to February 23, 1981. Rouco presided over the synod between 1999 and 2005, and returned in 2008 after a three-year rule by then-bishop of Bilbao, Ricardo Blázquez.

Blázquez, now archbishop of Valladolid, was yesterday elected synod vice president with 51 votes of the 74 cast. He had previously earned 28 votes in the presidential race. The archbishop of Valencia, Carlos Osoro, won three votes, while Juan del Río, the chief military chaplain, scored two.

"I don't have the feeling that the Church is not credible or respected"

"Our youths are exposed to an indifference to good"

The big loser of the vote was the archbishop of Barcelona, Lluis Martínez i Sistach, who Rouco had wanted as his vice president. He only earned 17 votes.

Rouco's appointment is not without its controversies. The Galician turns 75 next August and must theoretically resign his bishop's duties, as the Roman Catholic Church dictates. But everyone seems to be ruling out the possibility of his stepping down from the CEE presidency before the end of his new three-year mandate in 2014.

Although some have considered his running a challenge to the Vatican, others interpreted his meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on February 15 as a show of support for his reelection, despite the age problem.

Further support to this view is given by the fact that Rouco is also preparing to host Pope Benedict in Madrid from August 16 to 21 for World Youth Day, where the pontiff will have the opportunity to wish Rouco a happy 75th birthday on August 20 in person.

In practice, the Vatican often extends the mandates of bishops that it likes particularly well, or speeds up their resignation if they displease Rome. When Tarancón tendered his resignation in 1983, it was immediately accepted - proof that he was not held in high esteem by John Paul II. But in any case, no mandate has previously been extended for as much as three years.

"The president of the synod is not the president of the bishops," a satisfied and more cordial than usual Rouco told journalists after the vote. "That is the pope, from St Peter's. But, yes, the synod is an institution with a lot of importance, with a role of diagnosing and studying the work that we must tackle together and with the task of bringing about actions within the Church and in the face of society.

"Spain's bishops want to act together and that is why we do not want to renew ourselves, as is becoming clear in the course of the day. But we are not a parliament, nor a government. And neither are we exactly the Spanish church. The church is Catholic and universal, it doesn't start in the Pyrenees and end in Gibraltar."

Talking about the Church's loss of prestige, reflected in surveys and sociological studies, Rouco was also relaxed. "Sociology is not an infallible science, nor the definitive measure of what the Church means in people's lives. There is great popular warmth, the participation rate in Sunday mass is very high, in Madrid we have constructed 60 new churches and parish centers, and all that comes from people's initiative. I don't have the feeling that the Church at this moment is not credible or respected, but rather the contrary."