The Catholic Church in Spain​—The Contradictions

By Awake! correspondent in Spain

“Things are seldom what they seem.” This observation by Sir William Gilbert aptly describes the Sagrada Familia temple in Barcelona (depicted on page 10). Its majestic towers conceal an empty interior​—after a hundred years of construction, the temple is still just a shell. Spanish Catholicism too is a curious mix of strength and emptiness, as comments by the following Spaniards reveal:

“John XXIII? The name sounds familiar. Was he a king?” said Cristina, a Spanish teenager, who had never heard of that popular pope.

Madrid taxi driver José Luis and his wife, Isabel, made a rare appearance at the parish church in order to get their son christened. “Why do you want to christen your son?” they were asked. “Because we are Catholics,” the father replied. However, when pressed, he admitted that the main reason was to avoid problems with the family.

A PERSON who visits Spain during Holy Week may well be impressed by the processions held in cities throughout the country. But some Spaniards​—especially the younger ones—​may know little, if anything, about the religion they profess.

Religious illiteracy is often coupled with religious indifference. Although most Spaniards are christened, married, and buried by the church​—and indeed view themselves as Catholics—​living according to Rome’s decrees is another matter.

Parents may christen their children but rarely feel obliged to teach them Catholic doctrine. Married couples likely have their vows solemnized by the church but seldom feel bound to follow church teaching on marital matters. And 10 percent of those who say they are Catholics do not even believe in a personal God.

This situation is not entirely surprising, considering Spain’s lasting but contradictory relationship with the church. Described as formerly “the light [of the council] of Trent, the hammer of the heretics and the sword of Rome,” Spain has also begotten the “most bloody persecution suffered by the Catholic Church in all its existence,” states a professor of contemporary history at the University of Deusto, Vizcaya.

In the 16th century, Spanish money and Spanish armies defended European Catholicism against the Protestant tide, but in 1527 Rome and the Vatican itself were mercilessly sacked by the army of Spanish king and Holy Roman emperor Charles V.a Charles, like other Spanish sovereigns, blithely ignored any Vatican decrees that he disliked.

Spain’s independent yet exclusive brand of Catholicism owes these contradictions to a unique Church-​State relationship, forged when both were at the height of their power.

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