Spain's Roman Catholic Church, incensed by the Socialist government's sweeping liberal reforms, hopes its influence will be felt at Sunday's general elections, despite its declining numbers of followers.
  
The country's Episcopal Conference has indicated its support for the conservative opposition Popular Party, and the Church has joined rallies against the government of Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
  
"Even if Catholics can support different political parties and be militant, all campaign platforms are not equally compatible with faith and the demands of Christian life," the Conference said in a statement on moral values for voters.
  
A month earlier, hundreds of thousands of believers -- two million according to the organisers -- demonstrated in Madrid in "defence of the Christian family" in Spain, which is officially 80 percent Catholic but where only 45 percent practise the religion.
  
The conservative wing of the Church has lashed out at the government's reforms, with the Archbishop of Valencia, Agustin Garcia-Gasco, charging they would lead to the "dissolution of democracy."
  
A whole series of reforms have angered the Church, including fast-track divorce, optional religious education, and the legalisation of stem-cell research, said Ricardo Benjumea, editor of the Catholic weekly Alpha y Omega.
  
But it is probably the law that allows same-sex marriages and gives gays and lesbians the right to adopt children that has "most shocked and mobilised believers," he said.
  
"They touched something very dear to Spaniards, the family," said Jose Carlos Martin de la Hoz, a priest and professor of history and theology.
  
Bishops have also criticized the recognition of a "terrorist organisation as a political interlocutor," a cutting remark viewed by the government as a criticism of its negotiations with the armed Basque separatist organisation ETA.
  
The government fiercely denounced the criticisms by "fundamentalist"  bishops.
  
"Society is not ready to return to a time when a single moral code was imposed on all Spaniards," said Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, referring to the 1939-75 dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.
  
The opposition Popular Party has tried to steer clear of a debate that is more likely to mobilize voters on the left than to enlarge its support.
  
The Church "has not entered the political arena, it has done what it has always done, get to the heart of issues," said Martin de la Hoz.
  
In one parish in Madrid, a priest acknowledged the "great tension" on social issues. "The situation is complicated at this moment, conflictual," he said.
  
Esther, a young Catholic in Madrid, said she would vote for the right, as she has already done twice before, backed by the idea that the "current government is attacking Christian principles."
  
But a massive Catholic vote against the Socialists seems unlikely.
  
"There would not have been a majority for the left in 2004 if a majority of Catholics had not voted for the Socialist Party," said Evaristo Villar, a theologian and spokesman for Redes Cristianas, a group of leftist Catholic associations.
  
Nerea, 30, a Catholic teacher, sees a real "divorce" coming between the conservative Catholic hierarchy and most followers of the Church.
  
"The Church that I know is indignant and shameful," she said. "None of the measures taken by the Socialists bothers me and I will definitely vote Socialist."