Praying Less
Spain, home of the Inquisition and the Catholic Monarchs. Home of the black-clad women walking to Mass every Sunday, their heads covered with pious black mantillas. Country where every major ceremony came punctuated with a priest sprinkling his blessing on the encounter. Country where just about everyone was baptized into the Catholic Church at birth, and where the yearly celebration was not a person's birthday, but the day of the saint he was named after.
Spain, one of the first European countries to legalize same-sex marriage and adoption. Country with (finally) one of the most liberal abortion laws (up to twelve weeks, no reason asked). Country with a continuous downturn in practicing Catholics. Country where most openly criticize the Church many were still baptized into. What happened to make the most Catholic of countries one of the most agnostic? Even Portugal is more religious now.
I think this is a rebound effect from Francoist times. Franco was extremely Catholic. Every thing he did was done in God's name according to Catholic doctrine, even killing the enemies of Christ, such as the Red communists, which were poisoning Spain with their anticlericalism. As he saw it. He was so much a Catholic, that when the Civil War ended, he invited the Church into the government. Morality laws were set up. Censure of the press wasn't only political, it was also moral. Pictures of boxers were touched up to make them look like they were wearing tank tops. Décolletage was practically banned in public. Boys and girls could not hold hands in public, and kissing was an extreme mortal sin, even if they were engaged to be married. For any little official paper (and there were many) a citizen needed an affirmation from his parish priest that he was a good Catholic. To attend school, children had to be baptized with a Christian name (a Christian name had to come from one of the saints - foreign names included). Marriage was forever, no matter what happened. Abortion and birth control was something only heathens had access to abroad, not anyone in Catholic Spain. No other religions were allowed for a very long time, and everyone had to be married in the Church because civil marriages had been banned.
Under these conditions, of course church attendance was very high. Spain gave the impression of being even more Catholic than it had been in the Middle Ages. Which is why it was so normal that when Franco died, and the Transition came about, people started to leave the Church. First, through actions, then spiritually. Right after Franco died, it was possible to find pornography openly sold. It's still possible, but now it's more hidden from view. There was a magazine that was founded during the Transition in the late seventies, Interviu. The cover photo was always of a topless woman. Inside, there were timely news and opinion articles, interspersed with Playboy-type centerfolds. I think it's been the only news magazine to kill two birds with one stone - satisfy the desire for openness in sexuality, and the desire for real reporting and not parroting of the "official" news. Franco would have had its founder shot on the spot.
Most people now, even though baptized and with the First Communion under their belt, will affirm they are not practicing Catholics and never were. In fact, a child's First Communion is now a social act more than a religious one. Fewer go on to get confirmed. Increasingly, there are more people that haven't been baptized. In recent years, civil marriages went up while Catholic marriages went down. The Spanish clergy isn't helping much, with bishops who insist that a woman who was bashed by her husband was bashed because she had not been a good wife. Or those who believe priests who indulged in pedophilia did so because the children were too sore a temptation and the priest should be forgiven for having fallen. And those who think a woman is merely a husband's helpmate and should defer to him in everything. Those are also the ones that affirm that feminism and "newfangled" ideas are the reason for gender violence.
Yes, there are those who still believe, and who will attend religious ceremonies with all the fervor of their faith. But they are less every year. In December, 2009, about 75% of Spaniards said they were Catholic. Only about 15% went to Mass weekly. By March of this year, 69% considered themselves Catholic and only 13% went to weekly Mass. The discrepancy is simply that, while many consider themselves Catholic because they were baptized and believe in "something," few of them actually practice their faith.
In a country famous for its religiosity in history, and for its very public religious ceremonies, such as at Holy Week, faith is diminishing. It's been too many centuries of enforced beliefs and morality, especially in this last century. In the middle of the twentieth century, as other surrounding countries opened up, Spain remained cloistered in the nunnery created by Franco and his reactionary religious beliefs. Now, people want nothing to do with an institution in which some would like time to roll back and impose its age-old tenets on a modern nation. The Church in Spain must learn a little humility.
Spain, one of the first European countries to legalize same-sex marriage and adoption. Country with (finally) one of the most liberal abortion laws (up to twelve weeks, no reason asked). Country with a continuous downturn in practicing Catholics. Country where most openly criticize the Church many were still baptized into. What happened to make the most Catholic of countries one of the most agnostic? Even Portugal is more religious now.
I think this is a rebound effect from Francoist times. Franco was extremely Catholic. Every thing he did was done in God's name according to Catholic doctrine, even killing the enemies of Christ, such as the Red communists, which were poisoning Spain with their anticlericalism. As he saw it. He was so much a Catholic, that when the Civil War ended, he invited the Church into the government. Morality laws were set up. Censure of the press wasn't only political, it was also moral. Pictures of boxers were touched up to make them look like they were wearing tank tops. Décolletage was practically banned in public. Boys and girls could not hold hands in public, and kissing was an extreme mortal sin, even if they were engaged to be married. For any little official paper (and there were many) a citizen needed an affirmation from his parish priest that he was a good Catholic. To attend school, children had to be baptized with a Christian name (a Christian name had to come from one of the saints - foreign names included). Marriage was forever, no matter what happened. Abortion and birth control was something only heathens had access to abroad, not anyone in Catholic Spain. No other religions were allowed for a very long time, and everyone had to be married in the Church because civil marriages had been banned.
Under these conditions, of course church attendance was very high. Spain gave the impression of being even more Catholic than it had been in the Middle Ages. Which is why it was so normal that when Franco died, and the Transition came about, people started to leave the Church. First, through actions, then spiritually. Right after Franco died, it was possible to find pornography openly sold. It's still possible, but now it's more hidden from view. There was a magazine that was founded during the Transition in the late seventies, Interviu. The cover photo was always of a topless woman. Inside, there were timely news and opinion articles, interspersed with Playboy-type centerfolds. I think it's been the only news magazine to kill two birds with one stone - satisfy the desire for openness in sexuality, and the desire for real reporting and not parroting of the "official" news. Franco would have had its founder shot on the spot.
Most people now, even though baptized and with the First Communion under their belt, will affirm they are not practicing Catholics and never were. In fact, a child's First Communion is now a social act more than a religious one. Fewer go on to get confirmed. Increasingly, there are more people that haven't been baptized. In recent years, civil marriages went up while Catholic marriages went down. The Spanish clergy isn't helping much, with bishops who insist that a woman who was bashed by her husband was bashed because she had not been a good wife. Or those who believe priests who indulged in pedophilia did so because the children were too sore a temptation and the priest should be forgiven for having fallen. And those who think a woman is merely a husband's helpmate and should defer to him in everything. Those are also the ones that affirm that feminism and "newfangled" ideas are the reason for gender violence.
Yes, there are those who still believe, and who will attend religious ceremonies with all the fervor of their faith. But they are less every year. In December, 2009, about 75% of Spaniards said they were Catholic. Only about 15% went to Mass weekly. By March of this year, 69% considered themselves Catholic and only 13% went to weekly Mass. The discrepancy is simply that, while many consider themselves Catholic because they were baptized and believe in "something," few of them actually practice their faith.
In a country famous for its religiosity in history, and for its very public religious ceremonies, such as at Holy Week, faith is diminishing. It's been too many centuries of enforced beliefs and morality, especially in this last century. In the middle of the twentieth century, as other surrounding countries opened up, Spain remained cloistered in the nunnery created by Franco and his reactionary religious beliefs. Now, people want nothing to do with an institution in which some would like time to roll back and impose its age-old tenets on a modern nation. The Church in Spain must learn a little humility.
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