Religion in Spain

Religion in Spain

Religion in Spain

Spain, like other European countries, gives total freedom to its people to practice the religion of their choice. Even though Spain does not have any official state religion, it is still predominantly Catholic country. Catholicism has played, and continues to play such a large role in the life of the country and its people, that it can easily be called one of the bases on which the country stands politically and culturally. Today, Spain is rich of different religions therefore people of different faiths follow their religious practices without much intervention from others. Regardless of this present situation, religion in Spanish has seen many faces and reflects many struggles between religions throughout the centuries. These struggles were mainly between the religions like Catholicism, Islam and Judaism.
Under Franco’s regime, the restoration of the church’s privileges came to existence and Roman Catholicism was the only religion to have a legal status. For example, the Roman Catholic Church was the only one that could publish books and own properties while the government continued paying priests’ salaries, subsidizing the church and promoting unequal rights of women. Many laws were passed abolishing divorce, as well as banning abortion, homosexuality and the sale of contraceptives. (Meaney, 51) Catholic religious instruction was mandatory, even in public schools and all marriages were performed according to the Catholic religion. Though much later, when the Constitution of 1978 granted the right of Spaniards to religious freedom, the process of disestablishing Catholicism as the state religion began. (Hooper, 92, 98) Spain was declared as a “non-confessional” state which meant that Spain no longer had an official religion and the church no longer had the power of authority. This reestablishment of the churches privileges along with its legal status, I believe, was very influential in allowing the people to freely practice their...