Abstract
While the importance of the Catholic church is waning in most of Europe, it still exercises huge influence in Spain.
According to the foundation, only 26.6% of the population go to church. But the church still wields huge influence over key aspects of Spanish society and enjoys enormous privilege, despite this fall in the number of practising Catholics.
Juanjo Picó, from Europa Laica, an association working towards “protecting the state from any religious interference”, goes further. He says that as Spanish society has become less religious, the power of the church has become surprisingly large.
“Society is secularised,” he said. “But, in the institutional field, the intrusion of the church has grown since the beginning of democracy.”
Munárriz’s book, Iglesia S.A. concentrates on the money and power of the church in major areas of Spanish society. The elites of the Catholic church in Spain, he told Index, are historically intertwined with the state. And he argues that successive governments have not addressed the full separation of church and state. Today, this relationship underpins the economy and education, and the church still has influence in areas such as the judiciary.
The omnipresence of the modern church is based on the 1979 agreement between the Spanish state and the Holy See. After the end of Franco’s dictatorship, the new constitution established the non-denominational nature of Spain. Even so, the clergy maintained its privileges, which were mainly economic.
Article II of the agreement established the commitment of the state to “collaborate with the Catholic church in the attainment of its economic sustainability”.
“A young, non-denominational democracy assuming its duty to economically co-operate with an institution that sustains a particular creed borders on unconstitutionality”, said Munárriz.
The church is sustained mainly through taxes. Each year, Spaniards can mark the so-called “church box” on their income statement to allocate 0.7% of their contributions to the church. Fewer and fewer are doing it. Only 14.2% of taxpayers, according to the Ferrer i Guàrdia Foundation, actively decide to contribute taxes to the church, but the total amount the church receives is extracted from the money collected from all taxpayers. As Munárriz puts it: “Catholics decide that we all pay to finance the church.”
There is also indirect financing, according to Picó, who was referring to tax privileges such as the exemption from paying the IBI – the real-estate tax – on buildings of religious worship. In the absence of national data, Europa Laica estimates the church is exempt from paying almost $800 million per year.
In its defence, the church points out that mosques or synagogues do not pay, either, and neither do charities. Munárriz takes issue with this. “The church is the largest real-estate owner in Spain. Its exemptions have an incomparably higher incidence,” he said.
Its non-profit nature is also in question. “Visitors have to buy tickets in at least 40 out of 78 Spanish cathedrals, [as well as at] dozens of churches, basilicas, monasteries and museums.”
He also says education is essential to perpetuate the church’s social influence.
The system for public financing of private schools was launched in 1985. Since then, no government has worked for the end of the so-called educational accords.
Moreover, according to the ministry of education, Spain devoted more than $6.8 billion to private education in 2017 – $184 million more than in 2009. But as Munárriz explains, 2016 investment in public education was still $7.2 billion less than in 2009, and most of the private schools which receive public funds are church-owned.
In 2013, the Organic Law for Improving the Quality of Education (LOMCE), approved by the conservative People’s Party government, required schools to offer the Catholic religion as a subject, with bishoprics deciding the curriculum and textbooks.
In Resurreccion Galera’s case, the church thought it could stop her teaching because of the way she ran her private life. She had been teaching Catholicism in Almeria’s Ferrer Guar-dia public school for seven years when, in 2001, she married a man who had been divorced.
As a result, Almeria’s Bishopric decided not to renew her contract. She took it to the supreme court and last year was reinstated. The court had declared the dismissal was void “for violation of fundamental rights”.
Galera’s case shows the church’s power when hiring and firing teachers. But it is the state that pays their salaries. According to online newspaper eldiario.es, the ministry of education has spent an average of $112 million each year on religious education teachers during the past nine years. “Public money is being devoted to indoctrinate,” concluded Picó.
The shadow of the church also falls on the judicial system. “Spanish justice is secular and non-denominational,” said Munárriz. “But the presence of Opus Dei in the judiciary is important.” Opus Dei is a Spanish institution of the Catholic church that manages universities, schools and hospitals and places its members in the highest levels of the state.
For instance, constitutional court magistrate Andres Ollero is a well-known opponent of abortion. In 2018, he voted in favour of the constitutional court sentence that concluded segregated private schools were allowed to receive public subsidies.
There are 109 segregated schools receiving Spain’s public money. According to Munárriz, 62 of these centres have direct links with Opus Dei. “We consider it normal for an Opus Dei member to vote on abortion or segregated education from the constitutional court... what if [the court] had a communist magistrate?”
The presence of the church in the judiciary also raises concerns on free expression. “Freedom of expression in Spain is clearly limited when it comes to talking about the church,” said Picó. Spain is one of 71 countries that include the offence “to the feelings of the members of a religious confession” in its penal code.
“It is archaic, but the judicial power prevents many legal advances. Why, then, is euthanasia not approved? Why are Catholic schools being state-funded? The judiciary is packed with confessional sects,” he said.
Believers gather before a statue of Jesus during the Semana Santa (Holy Week) procession on 19 April 2019 in Hos-pitalet de Llobregat, Spain
CREDIT: Manuel Medir/Getty
In recent months, the Spanish Association of Christian Lawyers has filed lawsuits against theatre companies, artists and actors under the guise of “the defence of religious freedom and of all citizens who see their rights are being violated because of their faith”. Many complaints are accepted by the prosecution and taken to court. “They want allegations to be registered so that it seems there is a religious persecution going on,” added Picó. The Association of Christian Lawyers has even launched an academy to educate “judges and prosecutors who share Christian values”.
Munárriz does not think the church is a threat to freedom of expression. “The church in Spain is not just one. There are around 40,000 institutions and each one acts independently. Groups like the Association of Christian Lawyers are more radical, but they go free.”
Owning media outlets such as COPE radio station and Trece TV channel makes it easier for them to transmit their message without the need to “attack” others. “The church does not want to be talked about as a repressor. Yes, they polarise debates and generate division, but they do not pursue freedom of expression or press,” he concluded.
Picó is adamant, though, that it is time for radical change in Spain, saying: “We must repeal the 1979 agreements with the Holy See.”