SPAIN: Spanish gay rights activists handed in 1,500 letters to the Catholic Church yesterday from people renouncing their faith in anger at its opposition to gay marriage, which the Socialist government plans to legalise.
A draft law will be presented in September.
The mass apostasy was a powerful gesture in a country where 95 per cent of people define themselves as Catholics and where the new government has announced several measures that have irked the church.
"I do not wish to belong to an institution that crushes gays, lesbians and transsexuals daily," said Mr Pedro Zerolo, a member of the Socialist Party executive board and one of the 1,500 who asked that their names be struck from church records.
He said he did not want the church to count him in any tally of the number of Catholics, particularly if it used such figures to justify state subsidies.
The church receives 25 to 30 per cent of its budget from the state, mostly from people ticking a box in their tax returns to give 0.5 per cent of their tax to the church.
A spokesman for the conference of bishops said the church did not need to present records or figures to get those funds.
The activists handed in the letters to the archdiocese of Madrid and said they expected a response within 10 days.
A spokeswoman for the archdiocese declined to comment.