Roman Catholic Church in Spain

Map of the bishoprics of Spain with the archbishopric in dark color

The Roman Catholic Church in Spain is the largest religious community in Spain . According to a recent survey by the state Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS), 73.1% of Spaniards consider themselves Catholic. However, as in Europe in general, fewer and fewer people are actively participating in denominational life. Of the faithful (Catholics and other denominations) 16% attend Mass occasionally a year, 9.2% more often a month and 15.6% at least once a week, 58.5% never or almost never - with the exception of celebrations of the phase of life such as baptisms , Weddings, funerals (data from CIS January 2013).

history

Catholic Christianity became the dominant denomination in Spain after the end of the Reconquista in 1492 at the latest . The Reformation could not prevail in Spain, no other nation remained more impervious to the ideas of the Reformation. In the period that followed, Spanish missionaries played a leading role in the Catholic missionary work in America, Asia and Africa. In Spain and the overseas possessions, the Catholic Church played an important political and social role in close cooperation between throne and altar; For example, the Spanish Inquisition was an important instrument of power for the Spanish king in the exercise of rule.

As a result of the French Revolution and the spread to Spain, however, the Catholic Church saw itself threatened in its traditional role of power. The fierce domestic political struggles of the 19th century between liberal-anti-clerical and traditionalist-church-related circles were not without consequences for the church, so that the revolutionary, anti -monarchical forces of Spanish society institutionally equated “the” Catholic Church in Spain with the state to be overcome. Also as a reaction to the anti-church excesses during the Second Republic (1931–1936) and v. a. During the civil war (almost 7,000 priests, monks and nuns murdered), the Catholic Church in Spain, especially the national Catholic and hierarchical Church, became one of the most important social pillars of the Franco dictatorship that followed . In the late phase of the dictatorship, however, decisive impulses for social and political opening came from left-wing Catholic church circles.

After Francisco Franco's death , Spain and the Holy See signed four treaties in 1979 that replaced the 1953 Concordat . Apostolic Nuncio has been Archbishop Bernardito Cleopas Auza since October 1, 2019 .

Ecclesiastical provinces

Administratively, the diocesan scheme of the Catholic Church divides Spain into 14 ecclesiastical provinces with a total of 70 diocese (of which 14 are archdioceses ). A bishop (or archbishop ) is responsible for each .

Military Ordinary Spain

Spanish Military Ordinary (Headquarters in Madrid)

Web links

Commons : Maps of Spanish Catholic Dioceses - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

^ RB Wernham (Ed.): The New Cambridge Modern History , Volume III, p. 244.
↑ Herder Korrespondenz , Vol. 33 (1979), pp. 108-109.

[1] RB Wernham (Ed.): The New Cambridge Modern History , Volume III, p. 244.

[2] Herder Korrespondenz , Vol. 33 (1979), pp. 108-109.

Roman Catholic Church in Spain

contents

history

Ecclesiastical provinces

Ecclesiastical province of Barcelona

Church province of Burgos

Ecclesiastical Province of Granada

Ecclesiastical province of Madrid

Ecclesiastical province of Mérida-Badajoz

Ecclesiastical province of Oviedo

Ecclesiastical province of Pamplona

Ecclesiastical Province of Santiago

Church province of Zaragoza

Ecclesiastical Province of Seville

Ecclesiastical province of Tarragona

Church province of Toledo

Ecclesiastical Province of Valencia

Church province of Valladolid

Military Ordinary Spain

See also

Web links

Footnotes