MADRID (AFP) - The niece of the conservative head of Spain's Catholic Church has bared her breasts in a bestselling Spanish soft porn magazine in protest at the "hypocrisy" of her uncle.

Magdalena Rouco Hernandez appears topless on the cover of Interviu as well as in eight full-sized photos inside, including one were she is wearing nothing but a necklace of green beads and a red flower.

"I wanted to lay bare the hypocrisy of my uncle," the 27-year-old mother of two told the magazine. "Through my uncle I discovered the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church which preaches one thing and does the opposite."

Hernandez added:"My uncle does not stop repeating that the family is sacred, that you must respect it and fight for it, but then he scorns and abandons his own."

By way of example, she said her uncle, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, 71, turned down her request for financial help when her husband lost his job and did not call her family in the wake of her mother's death.

She also accused the cardinal of lying about having a meeting with the late Pope John Paul II to justify not attending her father's funeral seven years ago.

Rouco Varela, who is close to Pope Benedict XVI, has been an outspoken critic of the progressive social reforms introduced by Spain's socialist government such as the legalization of gay marriage and the relaxation of divorce laws.

He was re-elected head of the Spanish Episcopal Conference in March.