ENTREVISTA A GONZALO PUENTE OJEA ("Un día es un día", TVE, 23-08-90)

Ángel Casas interviews Gonzalo Puente Ojea (1924-2017), ambassador of the Holy See between 1985 and 1987. This prominent intellectual defended atheist activism and always maintained an openly critical stance toward the Catholic Church, as demonstrated in his extraordinary essays. He considers the Church a powerful institution that exerts great control over believers. "It has enormous power, a power that has lasted for centuries; it seizes the soul of the Spaniard from the cradle (...) It is a doctrine of consolation, easy to accept," he asserts. He affirms that the Church was not founded by Jesus. According to Puente Ojea, this figure embarked on a messianic adventure within the framework of the Judaism of his time, believing that the Kingdom of God was imminent. But it was all a messianic failure. He clarifies that the Church arose as a Judeo-Christian sect, but when Jerusalem was destroyed, the Pauline church consolidated itself as an episcopal organization, and the Catholic Church was born. "The Church was born for proselytism, to gain adherents, and above all, to control and dominate social institutions and the power with which it very quickly allied itself," he explains. Ultimately, the myth of Christ was constructed, based on the crucifixion and resurrection. He also states that he is more atheist than agnostic. "When you live as a Spaniard, you are born into the framework of Spanish Catholicism, you suffer this Catholicism in its political, social, economic, etc., forms for many years, you are more than just agnostic, you are belligerent against the reign of lies, against the reign of oppression, and against the reign of the abuse of power; then it is a militant stance, and that militancy is called atheism," he asserts. Title: INTERVIEW WITH GONZALO PUENTE OJEA. Program: "Un día es un día" (One Day is One Day). TVE. Date: August 23, 1990. We thank RTVE for retrieving this program from its archives. Visit our blog PARADIG+ XXI: http://elblogdemoisesyclaudia.blogspo... Facebook:   / paraufologia   Twitter:   / paradigmasxxi