Religion in Spain

Everyone knows that Spain is a Catholic country.  Everywhere you turn there are churches, grand cathedrals, and monasteries.  Every other street, holiday, and person is named for a saint.  Yet in the year we have been here, we have met almost no families here that regularly attend church, or that seem at all religious.  One family we know mentioned going to church on Easter, and another family's son attended Catechism classes.  But other than that, nothing.

 According to an February 2013 study by the Spanish Center of Sociological Research, about 70.5% of Spaniards self-identify as Catholics, 3.1% other faith, and about 24.1% identify with no religion.^[2]   Most of these present-dayCatholics only attend services a few times a year.  It used to be that becoming a priest was an excellent career move and brought prestige to the family.  It guaranteed a high level of education, a good salary, and high social standing.  However, the number of priests and nuns in the country has been declining steadily for years.  What an incredible reversal of history!  How did this come to pass, I wondered.  Well, here's what I've found out...

The Catholic Church in Spain was incredibly powerful in the Middle Ages-- unfortunately often corrupt and oppressive.  It concentrated its wealth and power along with the feudal nobility, and together they ruled the populace with an iron fist. The country we now think of as Spain began with the Christian Reconquest of the Iberian peninsula (from the Moors in 1492) under Ferdinand and Isabel, who are called The Christian Monarchs.  Jews, Muslims, and people of any other religion were forced to convert or literally driven out of the country a few months later that year.   The Spanish Inquisition was notoriously brutal in their persecution of heretics for over 300 years.  Spanish missionaries voyaged to all corners of the New World just one step behind the Conquistadors.  Christianity and political power in Spain were inextricably intertwined for centuries. 

By the early 20th century, the long-suffering underclasses began to become swayed by the anti-religious ideologies of Communism and Anarchism.  During the Spanish Civil War between 1930-35, hundreds of churches were sacked and burned by the working class revolutionaries, and some 7000 priests were killed.  The Catholic Church supported Franco and his brutal dictatorship, and I think the Spanish people have never quite forgiven them for it.  During the 39 years of Franco's dictatorship, Roman Catholicism was the only religion to have legal status; other worship services could not be advertised, and only the Catholic Church could own property or publish books. The Government not only continued to pay priests' salaries and to subsidize the Church, but it also assisted in the reconstruction of church buildings damaged by the war. Laws were passed abolishing divorce and civil marriages as well as banning abortion and the sale of contraceptives. Homosexuality was banned. Catholic religious instruction was mandatory, even in public schools. 

When the dictator died in 1975, the country underwent radical social changes, which included rejection of the religion which had been shoved down their throats for so long.  Religious freedom was declared, the democratic government was secularized, and church subsidies gradually phased out.  Divorce and contraception are legal and not stigmatized. 

In 2005 Spain became the third european country to legalize gay marriage.   It is not uncommon for people not to marry-- to have children and live together for years, and it does not seem to scandalize anyone.  If you walk down the beach you will discover plenty of uncovered breasts, and in some areas complete nudity, and no one seems to bat an eyelash.  This is no longer a socially conservative place!

Obviously Spaniards are proud of their glorious cathedrals.  On Palm Sunday people still buy palm leaves to take to mass and to decorate their houses with.

An intricately braided palm frond for Palm Sunday.

Especially in the south, religious feeling runs deeper.  During Easter week (known as Holy Week or Semana Santa) we traveled to Cordoba in Andalusia to view the processions.  They take over the entire town, blocking roads every day for hours.  Each church has it's own elaborate parade float featuring images of the Virgin or Jesus Christ on the cross, illuminated by hundreds of candles and decorated with flowers.  These gigantic floats are carried by 10 or more devout church members who are hidden beneath a cloth covering.  It seems as though the entire town must participate, young and old.  Large marching bands playing solemn dirges heavy with trumpets and drums were comprised of both students and adults.  Both adolescents and church elders walked with gigantic candles wearing robes and tall, pointed hood/masks, which look to American eyes like KKK outfits.  Women wearing black dresses and lacy veils walk behind, singing mournfully.  Traditions like these are still deeply ingrained in Spanish culture.

However, on a recent tour, our Spanish guide commented that nowadays it is the Latino immigrants who are the ardent, conservative churchgoers.  How ironic that the Spanish brought Catholicism to the New World, and now it's they who are keeping Catholicism alive in Spain.