Page 10, 2nd June 2006

2nd June 2006

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Page 10, 2nd June 2006 — Why Spain is no longer Catholic
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Locations: Seville, Madrid

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Why Spain is no longer Catholic

Nearly 50 per cent of young Spaniards no longer consider themselves to he Catholic, believing that the Church is out of touch with modern life because of its attitudes to sexuality and gay rights. Fiona Flores Watson reports on the worrying phenomenon of `apostasisation' in the former stronghold of the faith Catholicism has been deeply entrenched in Spanish society for over 500 years socially, politically and economically. But could this be changing? A new educanon law making religious classes in schools optional, the advent of gay marriage and adoption. and even increasing numbers of people wanting to leave the Catholic Church are all signs that the Vaticails previously unshakeable grip is loosening. Nearly 50 per cent of young people in Spain no longer consider themselves Catholic. How has this happened? Is Catholicism, until now so institutionalised. losing its hold on Spain?
. Under General Franco's 40-year dictatorship Church and state were intimately. linked. Life was so strictly regimented that missing Mass was frowned upon, while the dictatorship was openly supported by the Church, which held a uniquely privileged position.
Since the move into democracy the Church has allied itself with the PP, the right-wing Popular Party which lost power in the national elections immediately following the Madrid bombings two years ago. Its successor, the current socialist PSOE government, under President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has clashed with the Church over every issue from abortion and fast divorce to the LOE, the controversial Lev Organica de Education (Organic Education Law), under which religious instruction is no longer compulsory in schools
Massive protests were mounted against the LOE, with rallies attended by two million people. As well as Catholic organisations, students' and parents' associations also turned out in Ibrce.
The Church, outraged by these attacks on its basic authority and teachings. has complained that the country is "undergoing a process of lay fundamentalism".
It accused the government of being "anti-family" and "anti-clerical". A senior Franciscan prelate asked: "Do they seek to destmy Christianity as one of the essential values of the Spanish soul?"
But the Socialist Party's response has been robust. It argues that the Church is oldfashioned and is "defending positions which have nothing to do with the evolution of society in the 21 st century". And it stated, unequivocally, its position with regard to the Church's authority: "We can't allow Catholic doctrine to be superior to the government and the government's legitimacy."
Last week Pope Benedict XVI stated that what most concerns him about Spain is "the right to practise one's own religious faith without either private or public hit alnulce". There is growing anxiety in the Vatican that the Church in Spain is now under attack with suggestions that the government is even eacriaiehing on people's freedom to worship.
Yet Spanish Catholicism has to date enjoyed an economic and spiritual stronghold since the 15th century. In 1492 the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabela reconquered Spain from the Moors. Soon after, the Conquistadores brought back untold wealth from the Americas and news of the "souls" that had been saved through the conversion of the indigenous Indian populations. In Spain the Inquisition purged the nation of heretics. and then seized their property. In this lay country nearly every holiday and social or family celebration is still based on some religious act, be it baptism, First Communion, marriage, Saint's Day, Yonteria (pilgrimage), Sawn° Santa (Holy Week) or other holy festivity. Yet many people are attending these religious events in some cases perhaps routinely, rather than with any spiritual intent instead of going to Mass.
According to the latest figures. 80 per cent of Spanish people affirm that they are Catholic; the Church's own figures are closer to 95 per cent, based on the total number of those baptised. However. only 35 per cent are "practising", half of whom attend Mass every Sunday. The majority of the faithful are elderly.
So what of Spain's youth? How many of the post-Franco offspring, children of those brought up under the dictatorship, actually call themselves believers?
A study by the wellrespected Fundacion Santa Maria in April this year found that 49 per cent of Spaniards aged 15-24 do not consider themselves Catholic. This is a sharp drop from 10 years ago, when the figure was over 75 per cent. If the trend continues it could result in the next generation in Spain no longer being Catholic. The reasons cited are complex: loss of trust in the Catholic Church, which is rated below multinationals on the trustworthiness scale; a feeling that the Church is "out of touch with modem life", especially in sexual matters such as gay marriage; adoption; abortion and its excessive wealth.
Consider the case of gay marriage. a key part, incidentally, of Zapatero's manifesto. Sixty per cent of the population supports it. of which the majority are nominally Catholic. Yet many bishops came out strongly opposed to the law, calling it a "disgrace" and accusing the President of unleashing a "virus" on Spain. One bishop went so far as to suggest that it was a "sinister plot to destroy Christian values".
But the condemnation wasn't universal. The more liberal Cardinal Carlos Amigo Vallejo of Seville, for example, counselled tolerance.
"The important thing is to have respect for people and recognise their rights," he said.
Since the law was passed a year ago over 1,000 gay couples have celebrated their marriage and the controversy has quietly faded. The fact that Catholic Spain introduced official homosexual unions before famously liberal countries such as Sweden is a sign of the changing times. The latest controversy concerns a new law affording legal rights to tm. nsexuals.
Again, Cardinal Amigo has distanced himself from the Church's official stand over this matter by openly supporting the law.
"For some people. the only aspect about them that's male or female is their appearance." he said. -People should be recognised by their own identity, and it may be that this identity doesn't correspond to their [sexual! organs."
One issue that concerns a wider section of the population is the system of the casilla or "tick box". On the tax return in Spain, there's a box you can mark to donate 05 per cent of your tax to the Catholic Church, or to social projects.
This method of subsidising the Church dates back centuries, but was formally incorporated in a 1979 statute. Now, however, Zapatero's government wants to end the arrangement. Spaniards are irritated by the tax gift and argue that the monies raised give the Church an unfair economic advantage.
The total garnered annually from the 20-odd per cent of the population who choose to tick the box is estimated to be around 100 million euro, which is supplemented by a further 40 million euro from the government itself. The casilla provides a third of the total monies needed to run the Catholic Church winch has asked. nevertheless, that the amount be raised to 0.8 per cent.
For those whose views against the Church are so extreme that they prefer to have nothing, more to do with it, there is the option of apostasisation the total rejection of one's religious faith. Growing numbers of people in Spain are applying to debaptise themselves even though it involves a lengthy and complicated process.
Documentation has to be requested from the original parish of baptism, forms must be filled and finally a formal declaration is signed at the local diocesan office. The details are then entered in the Libro tie Abandonos.
Again, the government is keen to bring in new measures to speed up the apostasisation process, registering the growing disaffection with the Church. It argues that the process is "very slow and uncertain" and that the Church uses boosted nuinbers from the baptism registers to obtain "social and economic privi
leges". There are no figures. either official or unofficial, available on how many people have asked for, and achieved, their apostasia from the Church, but demand is said to be especially high in Catalonia, in the north-eastern region of Spain.
lama Rodriguez, a 52-yearold retired physical education teacher from Seville, abandoned the Church last year. Her nine brothers and sisters and 84-year-old father have also left the Church.
"I didn't want to be counted as part of a private organisation which sells a spiritual service and charges a lot for it." she explains. "I didn't want to be another member on the list, so the Church can say it has so many members."
But the decision was not taken lightly. had to pay the price of my faith to leave the Church, but it was worth it," she says.
The Church's response to the issue of apostasia, as cited by Cardinal Amigo, is pragmatic. "We are very worried [about apostasisationl; and not just the formal process of leaving the Church; but the
hidden apostasisation which leads to indifference, and living as if God didn't exist."
He believes that young people suffer from an . endemic apathy. "There's a general trend towards relativism in today's youth, where the appreciation and assessment of reality invariably ends up close to indifference," he says.
Spain is a society which has changed faster and more radically than any other in Europe in only 30 years of democracy it has gone from a repressive society where women couldn't get a job. own property or even travel without their husband's writ ten permission. to a society with divorce, abortion and equality of the sexes.
Who's to say what will happen in the future'? But judging from what has happened in just the past couple of years the Catholic Church is at grave risk of losing its previously impregnable position of power and influence in this dual society, split between racing towards modernity and clinging on to the long, widely and deeplyheld traditional beliefs and values that have shaped it.
Fiona Flores Watson is a freelance journalist who lives in Seville




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