Oreja served as Spanish minister of foreign affairs from 5 July 1976 to 1980. July 1976 Oreja set out to reform Spain’s 1953 Concordat with the Vatican, which resulted the same month in agreements with the Vatican laying out the separation of church and state. The Spanish chief of state no more had the right to nominate Roman Catholic bishops, in exchange the Vatican dropped its right of “ecclesiastical forum”. Two months later Oreja signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on behalf of Spain.