Spain's bishops have succeeded in boosting the importance of religion
in the school curriculum through education reforms approved by the
Government.The reforms make it obligatory to study either Religious Education (RE) or an alternative on cultural and social ethics in secondary school.
In future RE will be a mainstream subject, equivalent in weight to all other academic subjects, with RE students gaining credits that can be used towards their final average and for grant applications.
The reforms, approved on 17 May, also put an end to citizenship classes and lessons on values, which Madrid Cardinal Antonio Rouco had denounced as an "invasion" of religious freedom and the rights of parents to demand a moral education for their children.