The Spanish government sparked a furious row yesterday after it emerged that it had drawn up a timetable to halve state funding of the Roman Catholic Church and to ban crucifixes from public buildings.
The Socialist government has already pedged to confront the Church ideologically and fiscally and to transform Spain into a fully secular society by scrapping the Church's "privileged position in society".
The newspaper El Mundo reported yesterday that the government has now drawn up a timetable to break the bonds, removing any lingering hopes that it might reach an accommodation.
The government plans to put an end to the arrangement whereby Spaniards can offer a percentage of their taxes to the Church. This arrangement contributes £54 million a year to Church funds.
Governments in the past have made up the remainder directly or indirectly through government funds paid to Church organisations. This funding, which was agreed in accords signed 17 years ago, is also now under review.
El Mundo complained in an editorial yesterday that the government's "secularism should not be used as a weapon against half the country". Although only a minority are regular churchgoers Spain continues to be "a sociologically Catholic country", it said. In a reference to the Spanish Civil War the editorial said: "If we should learn anything from recent history that it is a mistake to use secularism as a weapon against believers."
Earlier plans included a pledge to scrap the promise of the previous centre-Right government of Jose Maria Aznar to re-introduce obligatory religious instruction. The new government said religious education would be optional.
It is also to scrap the existing system whereby teachers of religion are paid by the government but proposed by bishops. The teachers will now be subject to secular employment regulations.
The newspaper reported that a commission under a senior government figure, Gregorio Peces-Barba, is drawing up proposals to eliminate Christian symbols, such as the crucifix, from state-owned public buildings such as schools, prisons and military headquarters.
Mr Zapatero's first act after winning the general election in March was withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq, to the irritation of America and Britain. He then turned on the Church, which he views as part of the "old Spain", announcing a string of reforms that have infuriated ecclesiastical authorities.
Mr Zapatero plans an entire programme of social reform, including equality for homosexuals, allowing women to inherit the Spanish throne, liberalising abortion laws, lifting restrictions on embryo research and cracking down on domestic violence.
In July, the Church struck back, springing an ambush on Mr Zapatero when he accompanied King Juan Carlos to the annual national offering at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. With 52 clergymen looking on, the Archbishop of Santiago, Julian Barrio, let loose a withering denunciation, accusing Mr Zapatero of perverting the natural order.
He declared that marriage was "essentially heterosexual" and that the Church had every right to interfere in national politics "in cases of people's fundamental rights, or the salvation of souls."
Recent surveys show that 80 per cent of Spaniards consider themselves to be Catholic but half of that figure admit 'almost never' going to church. Only 20 per cent of Spaniards claim to go regularly to church.
Further enraging conservatives, the government has drawn up plans to finance the teaching of Islam in state-run schools and to give funds to mosques on the grounds that it will create greater understanding of the country's one million Muslims.
Although Spain has been a Catholic country since the expulsion of the Moors in 1492 is has also long had a tradition of anti-clericalism that flared violently during the civil war. The old saying was that "a Spaniard is always behind a priest, either with a candle or a stake."