Madrid was the scene of a huge protest in Spain Saturday 18th June, as Roman Catholic cardinals and a number of leading archbishops led a march against the government’s proposed legislation for gay marriage. The action was the largest outcry yet by the Church to Spain’s new liberal Socialist government.

Over 500,000 Catholic campaigners marched, and were supported by 20 senior bishops against the new law which is expected to be brought into effect later this month when the Spanish Parliament rule on the bill on 30th June. The legislation will see Spain become just the third country in Europe to legalise gay marriage, and just the second to pass both this along with adoption rights for homosexual partners – following Belgium (legalised gay marriage) and Netherlands (legalised both gay marriage and homosexual adoption rights).

The huge show of power by the Church was organised by the Spanish Forum for the Family, and was historical for the fact that this is the first time the Church had backed a protest against an elected government, which broke a traditionally strict ecclesiastical guideline.

The protest indicates a new low point in the relationship between Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the Church. Their relationship has never actually been on good terms however, because as soon as Zapatero’s government came to power many social reforms were proposed in direct conflict with traditional Church teachings.

Madrid's Cardinal Jose Antonio Maria Rouco Varela was among 20 bishops at the head of the rally, along with the opposition Popular Party's leaders, Angel Acebes and Eduardo Zaplana.

Banners that were seen throughout the demonstration read: "Family = Man + Woman" and "A mother and father for every child". The event was attended by families and individuals of all ages, with priests and nuns mixed in amongst the other protesters.

For the whole protest, cries echoed Madrid calling for Zapatero to resign.

The Bishops' Conference, which was held last week stated that the gay marriage bill was the biggest challenge to the Church and its values in 2,000 years.

The Archbishop of Madrid expressed the urgency of the declining situation to the Church, saying, "If it is the State itself which establishes a law which ignores the essence of marriage, then the damage it causes to the true family, to children and society will be incalculable."

The gay marriage bill is just one of several highly controversial proposals introduced by Zapatero's Socialist government since it drove out the Popular Party from office the 2004 elections, after the Madrid bombing by terrorists brought discontentedness to Spain’s public. Others issues have been to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq, halt an education bill that would have made religion obligatory in schools, scrapping a national water plan that envisaged hundreds of dams and major water transfer construction projects, as well as proposing easing the laws to allow abortions to be given easier, and to loosen stem-cell research restrictions.