MADRID, Spain - Spaniards might be forgiven for thinking they're stepped back in time to an era when kings and bishops vied for political power and doubters were condemned as heretics.
A pastoral letter by four bishops criticizing the government's campaign to outlaw parties that refuse to condemn terrorism has unleashed passions in Spain and blurred the line between church and state in the Basque separatist conflict.
The government, which has called on all "believers" to come to its aid, is being accused of playing the role of the Spanish Inquisition — the medieval ecclesiastical tribunal which, under royal control, condemned thousands of non-Catholics and doctrinal deviators to torture and death.
The bishops, meanwhile, have been cast as cowards for warning of potential destabilizing effects of the government's proposed legislation in a conflict that has already left hundreds dead and polarized opinion in the largely self-governing northern region.
"Although we are now a highly secularized society," said Rafael Aguirre, dean of theology at the University of Deusto in the Basque city of Bilbao, "everybody uses the powerful and abundant symbolism of religion to legitimize their positions."
The Political Parties Law, which would ban factions that "foment hatred and violence" as a way of furthering political objectives, was sent last month to Spain's parliament.
It is a key part of the government's battle against the Basque group ETA, classified as a terrorist organization by Spain, the United States and the European Union and blamed for about 800 deaths since the late 1960s in its campaign for an independent Basque state.
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's stated aim of banning a Basque-based coalition known as Batasuna, widely viewed as ETA's political wing, has raised fears among many Basques that the government is trying to take away legitimacy from the nonviolent advocacy of independence.
Last week, the government suffered a setback when the Supreme Court ruled that Batasuna's leader Arnaldo Otegi could not be prosecuted for having yelled "Long live the ETA!" at a rally in France.
Two days later, bishops Juan Maria Uriarte of San Sebastian, Miguel Asurmendi of Vitoria and Ricardo Blazquez and Carmelo Echenagusia of Bilbao published their pastoral warning that outlawing Batasuna could be a "charged and slippery matter."
"As pastors we are concerned about the grim consequences which we foresee as solidly probable and which — whatever the relations between Batasuna and ETA — should be avoided," the bishops said, adding that the government was "renouncing true peace" by refusing to negotiate with those who want independence.
Condemnation, particularly from the government, recalled that usually reserved for ETA.
"This peace they propose," said Aznar's spokesman, Pio Cabanillas, "is the peace of the silence of the victims and the impunity of the killers ... It is the peace of the weak and the cowards."
Jaime Mayor Oreja, who heads the Basque branch of Aznar's Popular Party, claimed that "the believer, more than anyone, has the moral obligation to isolate Batasuna and to help in its illegalization."
And Foreign Minister Josep Pique took the rare step of summoning the papal nuncio, Manuel Monteira, to express his government's "displeasure."
Although the Vatican has withheld comment, the Spanish bishops' conference insisted the prelates' statement was written under "their exclusive responsibility as pastors of their own particular churches."
The furor reignited Monday when Aznar, in his first public statement on the matter, told reporters during a visit to Finland that the bishops had committed "a grave moral and intellectual perversion."
Among Basques, the letter had an entirely different reception. A petition signed by 358 of the region's nearly 1,500 priests over the weekend said only Basques had the right to decide their own future.
"Apparently, saying what we think has become a crime if we don't think as the Spanish government does," said Juan Jose Ibarretxe, president of the Basque self-rule administration.