No, if she would have said that the catholic church and the conservative newspapers and opinion makers would have made a fuss, as they always do. And they would have been quite right about it.
I am not so sure of that, Marengo.
The Vice-president of PSOE, the
socialist ruling party in Spain, didn't critisize the queen. Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said "the queen is respected and beloved inside and outside Spain. She has been working greatly during her 30 years as queen of Spain".
And, IMO, the same would have happen with the conservative opinion makers and the roman catholic church.
The roman catholic church in Spain is very close to the royal family and although the Bishops could feel angry if she had said she was pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, etc, they wouldn't critisize her so openly as others are doing now.
Besides, the roman catholic church has several lines of thought. The conservative line, more related with Opus Dei is indeed against gay marriage, but there are another liberal roman catholics who simply don't care with civil gay marriages. As long the bishops don't approve religious gay's marriage, they don't care what the governments decides or not.
Again, I am not sure if queen Sofia ever said she was a roman catholic. I am not a roman-catholic, and I am not defending the church of Rome, but I don't see why so many people say that Opus Dei is very happy with this book... The author may be a Opus Dei member, but the answers were given by the queen, not by Pilar. Her answers don't even attach her to the roman church. Evengelical's, anglicans', protestants, mormons', Jeovah witnesses', roman catholics', orthodoxs' churches think exactly as Sofia.
It must be your first suggestion Regina, Sofia giving a personal opinion in general. It is not her job to do so because her position demands keeping neutrality and not offending one or the other part of society what is inevitable when commenting on ethics or politics.
Princess Máxima of the Netherlands ( a roman catholic) attended some pro-gay's rights meeting. She didn't only attended as she spoke there too. Did you criticize her so much as you're doing with queen Sofia? Or
everyone (100% of the population!) in the Netherlands agree with gay's marriages? There are no evangelicals there? No roman catholics against gay's marriage? No one seemed to care with the
offended dutch citizens... but most people seem very concerned with the
offended people in Spain...
The real reason why most (I said
most, not
all) people dislike Sofia's book is due to the fact they don't agree with her, and not really because she offended one or the other part of spanish society.