Spain: The Spanish government summons the Papal Nuncio

“The Nuncio has been summoned today” by Miguel Angel Moratinos, the minister of Foreign Affairs, a spokesman for the Nunciature said on December 22, 2005. In fact, a journalist of the Catholic radio channel, COPE (Cadenas de Ondas Populares), passed himself off as the Prime Minister Zapatero with the Bolivian Socialist leader in order to congratulate him by telephone on having rejoined the Cuban-Venezuelan “mainstream”. On December 20, Evo Morales said during a press conference that Zapatero had called him to congratulate him on his victory. Interviewed by Agence France, the Prime Minister’s office had denied on the same day this “unacceptable” telephone hoax.

 This is why Mgr. Agusti Cortes Soriano, the bishop of Sant Feliu de Llobregat (Barcelona), asked the Spanish Bishops Conference diplomatically, to “correct” Jimenez Losantos, the COPE journalist, so that he would “immediately abandon” his “inappropriate language.” The Catholic hierarchy, the proprietor and majority shareholder of COPE, does not seem to be affected by this incident.