The text first considers the demography of the Church in the world in general, according to various criteria, before detailing the case in Spain.
The observatory, or Center for Studies, Formation, and Social Analysis (CEFAS), is affiliated with the San Pablo University of Madrid (Center for University Studies, CEU).
CEU-CEFAS aims to promote the fundamental principles that inspire the social doctrine of the Church in the cultural and political spheres through the organization of courses, conferences, and publications.
The Demographics of the Church in the World
The study notes that the Catholic Church is currently the oldest and largest human organization, with over 1.4 billion faithful in 2023. It also stands out as the largest humanitarian and charitable organization in the world, with fundamental historical contributions.
North and South America have the largest number of Catholics (nearly 50% of the world total) and the highest percentage of Catholics (over 60%). Africa is the next most Catholic continent and the one with the fastest growing number of Catholics, representing more than half of the world's new Catholics.
The Church's social work worldwide is "colossal," with 227,262 educational centers serving 70.6 million students, 5,412 hospitals, 14,207 clinics, 15,476 centers for the elderly and disabled, and 8,774 orphanages.
The Demographics of the Church in Spain
The Church "continues to have significant sociological weight" in Spain, the study notes, but much less than in the past.
According to the data, 55.5% of Spaniards identify as Catholic, and 18.7% are practicing. 8.2 million people attended Sunday Mass in 2023, three times fewer than in 1973 (24.5 million), with a practice rate of 70% among adults.
Sunday practice experienced a first sharp decline around 1975, at the time of the Transition. Between 1973 and 1978, Sunday practice fell from 68% to 40%. It dropped to 17% in 2010. The study also found that approximately 10% of people attend Mass at least once a month.
As for the sacraments, less than half of children born in Spain receive baptism, whereas, according to the Pontifical Yearbook, 99.4% of Spaniards were baptized in the Catholic Church in 1971: the rate has halved in 50 years. In 2001, it was still 72%, then dropped to 55% in 2015. Unsurprisingly, less than half of children make their First Communion.
Religious marriages have also experienced a significant decline. In 1996, they accounted for 77% of marriages. Church marriages then declined sharply, especially since 2001, falling below 20% in 2023. While in 1977, approximately 270,000 Catholic marriages were celebrated in the country, in 2023, they had fallen by 87%.
The number of priests has decreased by 40% since 1971, with 15,285 priests in 2023 (24,585 in 1971), and their average age has increased considerably, from 35 in 1960 to 58 in 1995, then 63 in 2009 and 65.5 in 2018. The number of new priests (79 in 2023) covers only 30% of the necessary replacement number of priests.
As for the number of seminarians, it collapsed over a decade between 1965-1966 and 1975-1976, with a loss of 80%: the numbers fell from 8,079 to 1,613 during this period.
In its conclusions, the report states that it is difficult to know precisely when Spain ceased to be a country with a predominantly practicing Catholic population. But it cannot help but note that, in terms of the number of seminarians, the decline began just after the Second Vatican Council, even though the Council had launched the Church into aggiornamento.
The text also notes that "in Spain, the Church has taken a leftward turn, despite the persecution it had suffered only 30 years earlier." The report previously recalled the 7,000 victims killed in hatred of Catholicism during the Civil War, including 13 bishops, priests, religious men and women, as well as numerous lay people.
This demographic illustration of the "conciliar" effect has been made elsewhere and by others. It is a fact, and facts are stubborn. The revitalization of Catholicism, which the authors of the report ardently desire, cannot be achieved without returning to the Tradition of the Church and without rejecting the innovations that brought about this debacle.