From the July-September 2008 Issue
Church and State in Spain
Jose and Anneke de Segovia
CuencaThe roles of Church and State have always been mixed up in Spain, but the Roman Catholic Church wants to have an influence now which does not correspond with contemporary politics. In 1998, 83.5% of Spaniards said they were Catholic. This was down to 77% in 2007. Yet more than half these supposedly ‘Catholic’ people hardly ever go to Mass, and a mere 17% of them go most Sundays. Practising Catholics now make up only 24% of the population.
Yet the umbilical cord which ties the State to the Roman Catholic Church remains as tight as ever. Roman Catholic State funerals, public officials sworn in surrounded by crucifixes and street processions led by politicians, all of which demonstrate that Spain is far from being a religiously neutral country. This despite the clear declaration in Article 16 of the 1978 Constitution: ‘No religious confession shall be linked to the State.’ Add to that the enormous financial support given year on year to the Catholic Church from public funds, and the clamour for a real State-Church separation becomes deafening.
Religious Pluralism
One of the effects of the large numbers of immigrants entering Spain is the rapid increase in the number of religious groups. Most of the 14,000 registered religious organisations are Catholic, but those representing minority faiths are growing fast. In 2005, according to government figures, there were 12,453 Catholic organisations (today up to 12,585), while non-Catholic groups totalled 1,388 in 2005, but are up to 1,895 today. Most of these non-Catholic groups are Protestant or Evangelical, but there are also Muslim, Jewish, Orthodox, Hindu, Buddhist, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormon groups.
In round numbers, the Spanish population is 44 million, of whom 34 million are officially Catholic. However, it is impossible to know how many of them are actually still in the Catholic Church in any meaningful way, given that the Catholic Church does not recognise apostates. Government figures suggest about half of all Catholics are non-practising. Behind the Catholics come the Muslims, who number over a million in Spain at present, and the Protestants, who represent a community of about 400,000 people, which has increased considerably in recent years with the huge wave of immigration from Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. The Protestant Federation calculates that there are a further 800,000 foreign Protestants who live in Spain for at least six months a year, most of them from northern Europe. This would put Protestants in second place, with a total of around 1.2 million.
New Law?
The Socialist Party is now looking at the 30-year-old Law of Religious Liberty to see what modifications are necessary. Its aim in a possible alteration of the Law is twofold: to reflect the greater religious plurality of modern Spain and ensure no group is discriminated against, and also to strengthen the religious neutrality of the State. Prime Minister Zapatero has several alternatives on his desk. He has rejected the option of revising the special Accords signed after the death of Franco with the Vatican, but he has confirmed his intention that new legislation would include the strengthening of the principle of Church-State separation, and that of religious freedom.
The reform will specify how different faiths and groups are recognised. Representatives of several religious minorities have complained to the government that current legislation is discriminatory. Even groups like the Evangelicals, who have been granted special status as an ‘historically recognised group’ complain that in practice they are still treated as second-class religions, in comparison with the preferential treatment received by the Catholic Church. Initially, the reform is likely to develop the agreements which have been signed by the government with various religious groups – Evangelicals, Jews and Muslims, plus one or two others.
State Church?
The European Commission is waiting for a reply from Spain regarding the fiscal privileges it extends to the Roman Catholic Church. The Commission is looking at the compatibility of tax exemption with a single market. Such State aid might run foul of European legislation and if so, Spain would be asked to remove the offending help given to the Catholic Church, or else the Commission would open an official investigation.
This year sees an increase in the amount the Catholic Church will receive through people’s tax returns – those who tick the ‘Catholic’ charity option. 0.7% of their tax will go to the Roman coffers. This new arrangement is open-ended, despite countless government statements to the effect that the aim is for the Catholic Church to become self-financing. Yet the years go by, and nothing changes – except that the amount the State shells out goes up and up, which is exactly the opposite of what was agreed back in 1979. The idea is that the State pays less each year until the Church can pay for itself. It is estimated that the Catholic Church will receive around 144 million euros this year. To change it means altering the 1979 agreement, and that would have a high political price.
Is the Government buying off religious minorities?
Mariano Blázquez, Executive Secretary of the Protestant Federation, claims that their official relationship with the State is acceptable, and has been so with governments on both sides of the political divide, even though they have often given little consideration to the Protestant community in general. Jaume Llenas, General Secretary of the Evangelical Alliance, feels the religious policy of the government is more open than any previous government in its dialogue, but Llenas says the creation of institutionalised links such as the Pluralism and Coexistence Trust is not ideal either.
César Vidal, an Evangelical writer and political broadcaster, believes Zapatero will continue what he calls his ‘social indoctrination, which will include the legalisation of euthanasia, the extension of abortion and the control of religious groups’. He believes things could get dangerous for Evangelical Churches that ‘do not allow themselves to be bought, or do not submit in silence’. Vidal thinks the policy of the government is to win over religious minorities through financial aid, with the aim of controlling them.
What is clear is that in recent years, two trends have developed in the Christian world: those who have channelled their energies into social action, and those who have tried to uphold morality, while what characterised Christianity in the New Testament was the preaching of the Gospel. Laws cannot change moral behaviour, because only the saving grace of God can transform our lives. Why then do Christians speak the whole time about the moral situation of our society, as if anything else could be expected of people without God? What our country needs is to hear the Gospel!