A group of attorneys in Spain issued a complaint on May 16 to the UN
High Commission on Human Rights demanding that its commissioner, Navi
Pillay, should investigate alleged violations against freedom of
religious belief by the Iberian country.
The State Association of
Christian Attorneys (AEAC) is demanding sanctions to be applied upon
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and his Socialist
government.
The group provided a report in which it provides 150 cases of
“repeated, persistent, and manifest violations of the freedom of
religion and belief” in Spain.
The report mentions statements by
various government officials such as a former commissioner for the
victims of terror, Gregorio Peces-Barba, who was quoted as saying that
Catholics “only understand the bludgeon,” in reference to measures the
government would like to see applied against the Catholic Church.
The
report also contained descriptions of various attacks upon Catholic
places of worship, such as a bomb at a church in the Majadahonda borough
of Madrid, and acts of vandalism at Catholic churches and religious
images.
Also noted was the aborted parade of atheists that was planned
for Holy Week that would have accompanied faithful Catholics during the
traditional processions marking the passion, death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ.
These were denounced by the report as seeking to
“thoughtless damage” and to “chastise Catholic consciences.”
The AEAC gave assurances that should the UN prove the veracity of the
report’s claims, Spain could then be sanctioned by losing its right to
veto at the Commission on Human Rights at the international body.
While has historically been a Catholic country , it is no longer the
religious monolith that it was. According to studies done by Spain’s
Centre for Sociological Research (CIS) during Pope Benedict’s 2006
visit, for example, only 50 percent of Spain’s young people consider
themselves to be Catholic. This has led some observers to predict that
within 20 years Spain could cease to have Catholic majority as even the
sentimental ties to the Church fade away.
According to the CIS, half of the Spaniards aged 15 to 29 years of age
no longer consider themselves to be Catholic. Similar results were
registered in 2006 by the Santa Maria Foundation, a Catholic nonprofit
that specializes in studying young people and their values.
The drop in
the number of young believers came in the early part of the 1990s:
between 1992 and 2010, the percentage of those within this group who
considered themselves to be Catholic dropped from 82 percent to 52
percent.
During the same period, the overall number of Catholics in
Spain fell from 87 percent to 73 percent. Young people traditionally
show lower levels of adherence to religion in Spain. In 1992, only 5
percentages points separated young people from the overall population as
to religious belief. That number now stands at 21.
According to a CIS
study released in April 2009, 73.2 percent of Spaniards considered
themselves Catholics.
Sociologists and political pundits appear largely in agreement that the
secularization of Spain is inexorable and accelerating. Since the
election of Spain’s second Socialist government under Rodriguez
Zapatero, the sense that Catholic belief or identity is also bound up
with Spanish identity appears to be fading.
Until the 1990s, the
percentage of Spaniards who considered themselves Catholics was still
close to 90 percent.
Among those who do consider themselves believers, Catholics appear to
reject a number of central beliefs of their church.
According to a CIS
study of 2008, approximately 80 percent of Spain’s young Catholics
reject Church teachings on condoms, pre-marital sexual relations and
divorce. Also , an overall majority of Catholics also oppose Church
teachings about the above mentioned areas, as well as homosexual
liaisons, same-sex marriage, adoption by homosexuals, and married
priests.
The study found that while Catholics may not actually engage
in abortion, for example, they do belief that Church teachings are too
severe.
Critics of the Church claim that this means that the Catholic
Church is out of touch and needs reforms.
In an interview in Spanish media, Catalonian journalist Daniel Arasa said “Certainly, there has been over the last few years a decline in the practice of religion in Spain that has been even more marked among young people.”
He conjectured that consumerism, and the drive to
materially succeed at all costs, as among the reasons for a decline in
belief and practice.
Even so, his son Daniel, who works in Rome,
appeared more optimistic when he noted that the Church was founded some
200 years ago at Pentecost with but 12 apostles and the Virgin Mary.