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The Catholic Church has clashed repeatedly with the Socialist-led government over reforms in family life and education.

MADRID, SPAIN (CNS) - Spain's Catholic bishops have urged voters in March elections to back candidates who uphold Christian values and not to vote for candidates who favor dialogue with militant separatists.

"We do not intend that those in government should submit to the criteria of Catholic morality, but to the common denominator provided by a morality based on right reason and each nation's historic experience," the permanent council of the Spanish bishops' conference said in a statement.

"Although it is true that Catholics can support and participate in various parties, not all programs are compatible with the faith and obligations of Christian life or with the aims and values Christians should promote in public life."

Auxiliary Bishop Antonio Martinez Camino of Madrid, council spokesman, presented the bishops' statement Jan. 31 at a Madrid press conference.

The bishops said church leaders hoped to encourage citizens to "use their votes responsibly," by not confusing "a nonconfessional, secular state with a breaking of moral bonds and a release from objective moral duties."

"It is unjust to try to build a society artificially with exclusively worldly, nonreligious references, without worship of God or any aspiration to the eternal life," the bishops added. "We respect those who see things differently.

We only ask freedom and respect for proposing our own viewpoint freely so no one will feel threatened, and our intervention will not be interpreted as an injury or danger to other freedoms."

The bishops' statement criticized the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for talks with the Basque separatist group ETA, which has killed more than 800 Spaniards in a struggle for independence since the 1960s. The separatists called off a truce last June.

"A society that wishes to be free and fair cannot recognize, directly or indirectly, a terrorist organization as (a) political representative of any part of the population," the bishops said.

"In principle, the church recognizes the legitimacy of nationalist positions which, using democratic methods and without resorting to violence, aim at modifying the political configuration of Spain's unity."

Zapatero's Socialist Party rejected the bishops' statement, saying Feb. 1 that all previous Spanish governments had maintained contacts with the ETA. In a statement, the party accused the bishops of "acting immorally" by "using terrorism in the election campaign."

"If one cannot vote for a party which has engaged in dialogue with ETA, one cannot vote for anyone," the Socialist Party said.

"The vast majority of Spanish, Catholics and non-Catholics, defend a constitutional state and secular society in which everyone has the right to live according to their own views and beliefs. It is obvious the bishops who signed this note do not recognize such a society."

The Catholic Church has clashed repeatedly with the Socialist-led government over reforms in family life and education. In recent statements, the bishops' conference deplored a sharp rise in abortions and defended Spain's Catholic schools, some of which could face closure after planned government budget cuts.