For centuries Spain and Catholicism have seemed as inseparable as the Madonna and child. The triumphant papal visit to Spain in 1982, during which millions acclaimed John Paul II with the words Totus tuus (All yours), ostensibly confirmed the country’s devotion to her traditional faith.

But after the euphoria subsided, nagging contradictions persisted​—some rooted in history, others a product of our time. The following articles will examine some of these contradictions together with their causes and their implications for the once all-​powerful Spanish church.

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Agencia EFE

The Catholic Church in Spain​—The Contradictions

By Awake! correspondent in Spain

“Things are seldom what they seem.” This observation by Sir William Gilbert aptly describes the Sagrada Familia temple in Barcelona (depicted on page 10). Its majestic towers conceal an empty interior​—after a hundred years of construction, the temple is still just a shell. Spanish Catholicism too is a curious mix of strength and emptiness, as comments by the following Spaniards reveal:

“John XXIII? The name sounds familiar. Was he a king?” said Cristina, a Spanish teenager, who had never heard of that popular pope.

Madrid taxi driver José Luis and his wife, Isabel, made a rare appearance at the parish church in order to get their son christened. “Why do you want to christen your son?” they were asked. “Because we are Catholics,” the father replied. However, when pressed, he admitted that the main reason was to avoid problems with the family.

A PERSON who visits Spain during Holy Week may well be impressed by the processions held in cities throughout the country. But some Spaniards​—especially the younger ones—​may know little, if anything, about the religion they profess.

Religious illiteracy is often coupled with religious indifference. Although most Spaniards are christened, married, and buried by the church​—and indeed view themselves as Catholics—​living according to Rome’s decrees is another matter.

Parents may christen their children but rarely feel obliged to teach them Catholic doctrine. Married couples likely have their vows solemnized by the church but seldom feel bound to follow church teaching on marital matters. And 10 percent of those who say they are Catholics do not even believe in a personal God.

This situation is not entirely surprising, considering Spain’s lasting but contradictory relationship with the church. Described as formerly “the light [of the council] of Trent, the hammer of the heretics and the sword of Rome,” Spain has also begotten the “most bloody persecution suffered by the Catholic Church in all its existence,” states a professor of contemporary history at the University of Deusto, Vizcaya.

In the 16th century, Spanish money and Spanish armies defended European Catholicism against the Protestant tide, but in 1527 Rome and the Vatican itself were mercilessly sacked by the army of Spanish king and Holy Roman emperor Charles V.a Charles, like other Spanish sovereigns, blithely ignored any Vatican decrees that he disliked.

Spain’s independent yet exclusive brand of Catholicism owes these contradictions to a unique Church-​State relationship, forged when both were at the height of their power.

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The Catholic Church in Spain​—The Power and the Privilege

“The Lord left to Peter the governance not of the Church only but of the whole world.”​—Pope Innocent III.

WHEN Innocent III wrote those words in the early 13th century, the medieval Catholic Church had reached the pinnacle of its power. But the road to temporal power had been paved by political rather than spiritual alliances. Nowhere was this more so than in Spain.

The Spanish church grasped power and privilege by joining forces with the State.

Religious Unity a Political Tool

In 1479, after centuries of rule by divided and fractious kingdoms, nearly all of Spain became united under the rule of Ferdinand and Isabella. But how was the newly formed nation to be united in thought and purpose? Ferdinand enlisted the aid of the church. In 1478 the Inquisition had been set up with papal backing. Now, controlled by the king and run by the church, it proved to be one of the most powerful weapons yet devised for suppressing religious and political dissent. With the rapid submission of all baptized Spanish Catholics to its yoke, the only remaining obstacle to unity were the several million unbaptized​—the Jews and the Moors.

In 1492, under pressure from Inquisitor-​General Torquemada, Ferdinand and Isabella ordered the expulsion from Spain of all unbaptized Jews. Ten years later, all Moors who refused to become Catholics were also expelled. Friar Bleda described the forced exodus of the Muslims as “the most glorious event in Spain since the time of the Apostles.” He added: “Now religious unity is secured, and an era of prosperity is certainly about to dawn.” La España Católica (Spain, the Catholic) had become a reality, and in recognition Isabella and Ferdinand were named “the Catholic Sovereigns” by Pope Alexander VI.

With religious unity achieved at home, the Spanish church widened its horizons. Under Spanish royal patronage, Columbus had just discovered new lands and peoples in the Americas. Accompanying the conquistadores, Dominican and Franciscan friars sailed to the New World, bent on bringing the heathen into the bosom of the church.

Cortés, conqueror of Mexico, was told that the primary goal of his expedition was to serve God and spread the Christian faith. Notwithstanding, he frankly admitted: “I came for the gold.” Perhaps the majority of the conquistadores had mixed motives, similar to those expressed by one of their number: “We came here to serve God and also to get rich.”

Before embarking on the conquest of a certain region, the conquistadores read aloud a document entitled Los requisitos​—in or out of the natives’ hearing—​according to which the natives were required to recognize that the church governed the world and that the king of Spain was its representative. A refusal to acknowledge such was sufficient to consider the military colonization a “just war.”

Millions of natives were baptized, many immediately after being conquered. Thereafter, priests and friars cooperated with the Spanish monarchs in governing the colonies. As church historian Paul Johnson observed: “The Catholic Church was a department of the Spanish government, and never more so than in the Americas. . . . In return, the Church required protection, privilege, and the crown’s unswerving devotion to the orthodox faith.”

Thus, by the end of the 16th century, the church in Spain had become the most powerful national church in Christendom. It exercised absolute religious control throughout Spain and a vast part of the New World. But the singular power and privilege that it enjoyed inevitably led to abuses more pronounced than in other lands.

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“We came here to serve God and also to get rich”

The Catholic Church in Spain​—The Abuse of Power

“The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.”​—Edmund Burke.

THE man who wielded the greatest power in 16th-​century Europe was Philip II, king of Catholic Spain. His vast empire, “on which the sun never set,” stretched from Mexico to the Philippines, from the Netherlands to the Cape of Good Hope.

But his ambitions were religious rather than political​—to defend Catholicism in Europe and to spread the faith throughout his empire. Reared by priests, he was convinced that the Catholic Church was the ultimate bulwark of his monarchy and of civilization itself. Above all, he was a child of the church.

To further the cause of Catholicism, he gave his blessing to the cruel methods of the Inquisition; he fought against Protestants in the Netherlands and against Turkish “infidels” in the Mediterranean; he reluctantly married Mary Tudor, an ailing English queen, in a fruitless attempt to provide her with a Catholic heir; he later dispatched the “invincible” but ill-​fated Armada to wrest England from the Protestant fold; and at his death he left his country bankrupt​—despite huge infusions of gold from the colonies.

The Inquisition​—Three Centuries of Repression

Next to the king, the most powerful man in Spain was the inquisitor general. His duty was to keep Spanish Catholicism undefiled and orthodox. The unorthodox kept their opinions to themselves or went into exile, provided the agents of the Inquisition did not find them first. Everyone, with the possible exception of the king, was vulnerable to the Inquisition’s power and abuse thereof​—not even the Catholic hierarchy was above suspicion.

The archbishop of Toledo was imprisoned for seven years on the flimsiest of evidence, despite repeated papal protests. Nobody in Spain dared to speak in his defense. It was argued that ‘it is better for an innocent man to be condemned than for the Inquisition to suffer disgrace.’

The Inquisition accompanied the conquistadores to the Spanish colonies in the Americas. In 1539, just a few years after the conquest of Mexico, Aztec chief Ometochtzin was accused of idolatry, on the evidence of his own ten-​year-​old son. Despite his plea for freedom of conscience, he was condemned to death. In the colonies, as in Spain, the Bible in the vernacular was forbidden. Jerónimo López wrote in 1541: “It is a most dangerous error to teach science to the Indians and still more to put the Bible . . . into their hands. . . . Many people in our Spain have been lost that way.”

For three centuries the Inquisition kept its narrow vigil over Spain and its empire until it finally ran out of money and victims. And without victims, who were obliged to pay heavy penalties, the whole machine ground to a halt.a

Winds of Change

With the demise of the Inquisition, 19th-​century Spain saw a growth in liberalism and a gradual decline of Catholic power. Church lands​—until that time they constituted a third of all the cultivated land—​were confiscated by successive governments. In the 1930’s, socialist prime minister Azaña declared: “Spain has ceased to be Catholic,” and his government acted accordingly.

The church was completely separated from the State, and subsidies to the clergy were abolished. Education was to be nonreligious, and even civil marriage and divorce were introduced. Cardinal Segura lamented this ‘severe blow’ and feared for the survival of the nation. It seemed that Catholicism was destined to an inevitable decline when, in 1936, a military uprising rocked the nation.

Civil War​—A Cruel Crusade

The army generals who led the coup were motivated by political considerations, but soon the conflict took on religious overtones. Within a few weeks of the uprising, the church, whose power had already been undermined by recent legislation, suddenly found itself the target of widespread and vicious assault.b Thousands of priests and monks were killed by fanatical opposers of the military coup, who equated the Spanish church with a dictatorship. Churches and monasteries were plundered and burned. In some parts of Spain, just wearing a priest’s cassock was enough to sign a man’s death warrant. It was as if the monster of the Inquisition had returned from the grave in order to engulf its own progenitors.

Faced with this threat, the Spanish church turned once again to the secular powers​—in this case the military—​to champion its cause and to restore the nation to Catholic orthodoxy. But first the civil war had to be sanctified as a “holy war,” a “crusade” in the defense of Christianity.

Cardinal Gomá, archbishop of Toledo and primate of Spain, wrote: “Is the war in Spain a civil war? No. It is the fight of those without God . . . against the true Spain, against the Catholic religion.” He called General Franco, the leader of the insurgents, the “instrument of God’s plans on the earth.” Other Spanish bishops expressed similar sentiments.

Of course, the truth was not that simple. Many on the Republican side of the conflict were also sincere Catholics, especially in the Basque region, a traditionally Catholic stronghold. Thus, the civil war found Catholics fighting Catholics​—all in the cause of Spanish Catholicism, according to the bishops’ definition of the conflict.c

When Franco’s forces finally overran the Basque Provinces, they executed 14 priests and imprisoned many more. French philosopher Jacques Maritain, writing about atrocities committed against the Basque Catholics, observed that “the Holy War hates the believers that don’t serve it more fervently than the unbelievers.”

After three years of mutual atrocities and bloodletting, the civil war came to an end, with a victory for Franco’s forces. From 600,000 to 800,000 Spaniards died, many of them because of the harsh reprisals of the victorious forces.d Unfazed, Cardinal Gomá asserted in a pastoral letter: “Nobody can deny that the power that has resolved this war has been God himself, his religion, his statutes, his law, his existence, and his recurring influence in our history.”

From the establishment of the Inquisition in the 15th century to the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), with few exceptions, Church and State had made common cause. Doubtless, their mutual interests had been served by this unholy alliance. Nevertheless, five centuries of temporal power​—and the accompanying abuses—​had seriously undermined the church’s spiritual authority, as our following article will show.

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The Spanish Civil War​—The Bishops’ Pronouncements

Soon after the outset of the war (1936), Cardinal Gomá described the conflict as a fight between “Spain and anti-​Spain, religion and atheism, Christian civilization and barbarism.”

La Guerra de España, 1936-1939, page 261.

The bishop of Cartagena said: “Blessed are the cannons, if the Gospel flourishes in the breaches they open.”

La Guerra de España, 1936-1939, pages 264-5.

On July 1, 1937, the Spanish bishops issued a collective letter outlining the Catholic position on the civil war. Among other things, it stated the following:

“The church, despite its peaceful spirit, . . . could not be indifferent to the fight. . . . In Spain there was no other way to reconquer justice, peace, and the benefits that derive from them than through the National Movement [Franco’s Fascist forces].”

“We believe that the name National Movement is appropriate, first because of its spirit, which reflects the way of thinking of the large majority of the Spanish people, and it is the only hope for the entire nation.”

Enciclopedia Espasa-​Calpe, supplement 1936-1939, pages 1553-5.

Catholic bishops in other countries were quick to support their Spanish colleagues. Cardinal Verdier, archbishop of Paris, described the civil war as “a fight between the Christian civilization and the . . . civilization of atheism,” while Cardinal Faulhaber of Germany exhorted all Germans to pray in behalf of those who “defend the sacred rights of God, that He may grant victory to those who fight in [this] holy war.”

Enciclopedia Espasa-​Calpe, supplement 1936-1939, pages 1556-7.

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From this monastery-​palace complex of San Lorenzo del Escorial, Philip II ruled over his empire, “on which the sun never set”

The Catholic Church in Spain​—Why the Crisis?

“They sow the wind, they will reap the whirlwind.”​—Hosea 8:7, “The Jerusalem Bible.”

ON MAY 20, 1939, in the church of Santa Bárbara, Madrid, General Franco presented his victory sword to Archbishop Gomá, primate of Spain. The army and the church celebrated together the triumph that the pope described as the “desired Catholic victory.” The civil war had ended, and apparently a new dawn of Spanish Catholicism was breaking.

The church triumphant received generous State subsidies, control of education, and wide censorship powers over anything not conducive to national Catholicism. But the successful military-​religious crusade had also sown the seeds of the church’s decline.

In the eyes of many Spaniards, the church was implicated in the atrocities of the victorious forces. True, during the immediate postwar years, the majority of the population went to Mass. To get a job or a promotion, it was wise to be a good Catholic. But had genuine faith been fostered by armed might and political pressure?

Forty years later, a series of crises were to answer that question.

Crisis of Faith: By 1988 only 3 out of 10 people in Spain were regularly practicing the Catholic religion, and most people considered themselves “less religious than they were ten years ago.” A survey, carried out for El Globo, a Spanish weekly, showed that although the majority of Spaniards believe in God, fewer than half of them are convinced that there is life after death. Most surprising of all was the finding that as many as 10 percent of those who considered themselves practicing Catholics said that they did not believe in a personal God.

Crisis of Vocations: Spain used to send priests to the four corners of the globe. Thirty years ago, 9,000 were ordained every year. Now, that number has fallen to a thousand, and many large seminaries lie idle. As a result, the average age of Spanish priests is increasing​—16 percent are now over 70 years of age, while only 3 percent are under 30.

Crisis of Funding: The new Spanish constitution separates Church and State. Formerly, generous State subsidies were automatically assigned to the Catholic Church. The present government has introduced a new system whereby a small percentage of each person’s taxes is allotted either to the church or to some worthy social cause, depending on the wishes of the taxpayer. Surprisingly, only 1 out of every 3 Spanish taxpayers preferred to have the church receive his money. This was a blow for Catholic authorities, who had estimated that almost double that number would assign this “religious tax” to the church. It means that a self-​supporting church is still a long way off.

Meanwhile, it appears that the government will reluctantly have to keep on subsidizing the church to the tune of $120 million a year. Not all Catholics are happy about this situation. One Spanish theologian, Casiano Floristán, pointed out that “a church that does not receive sufficient contributions from the faithful either does not have the faithful or is not a church.”

Crisis of Obedience: This crisis affects both priests and parishioners. Younger priests and theologians are often concerned with social rather than religious issues. Their “progressive” tendencies clash with the conservative Spanish hierarchy and also with the Vatican. Typical is José Sánchez Luque, a priest from Málaga, who feels that “the Church does not have a monopoly of the truth” and that it should “orientate the citizens, but without dominating.”

Many Spanish Catholics think similarly​—only a third of Spanish Catholics generally agree with what the pope says. And the Spanish episcopacy is viewed even less favorably. Of the Catholics interviewed in a recent poll, one fourth explained that they “couldn’t care less” about the bishops, while 18 percent said they could not understand them anyway.

“A Second Evangelization”

In the face of this alarming situation, the Spanish bishops published in 1985 an extraordinary series of confessions. Among other things, they admitted:

The bishops also acknowledged that the country was becoming more and more secularized, or religiously indifferent. They recommended a “second evangelization” of Spain. Few, however, heeded their call. Two Catholic ladies who went from house to house had a surprise. They spent more time explaining to householders that they were not Jehovah’s Witnesses than they spent giving their Catholic message.

This should not have been surprising, for Jehovah’s Witnesses spent more than 18 million hours last year visiting the homes of people in Spain in a genuine nationwide evangelization. All Witnesses​—like the first-​century Christians—​feel obliged to “do the work of an evangelist.” (2 Timothy 4:5, Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition) And although they may find widespread apathy toward the church, the evangel, or good news concerning God’s Kingdom, that they impart does find many a hearing ear.

One elderly man they met was Benito. When the civil war broke out, he found himself in the area controlled by the military insurgents. He was forced to enlist as a soldier, but in his heart he felt that it was wrong to take up arms. He refused to accept that it was a “holy war.” Rather than kill his fellowman, he deliberately shot himself in the hand so that he would be unable to pull a trigger.

Forty years later, he and his wife started studying the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. Benito was delighted to learn that God himself urges his people to “beat their swords into plowshares,” just as his conscience had urged him to do many years earlier. (Isaiah 2:4) Despite failing health, before long he too was doing the work of an evangelist.

“A Beautiful Bubble”

Gloria was a Catholic who had resigned herself to worshiping God in her own way. For years she had devoted her life to the church as a missionary nun in Venezuela. But she had become disillusioned when she was unable to find answers to her questions regarding church doctrines, such as the Immaculate Conception of Mary, purgatory, and the Trinity.

When she sought explanations, she was always told that it was a mystery. ‘Why does God make things so difficult to understand?’ she asked herself. On one occasion she was warned that if she had lived in the time of the Inquisition, she would have been burned. ‘And that’s probably true,’ she thought.

Because of such rebuffs, she was skeptical when Jehovah’s Witnesses visited her. But when she realized that everything they were teaching was confirmed by the Scriptures, that she could at last understand God’s message for mankind, she was overjoyed. She now devotes much of her time to the preaching of the good news of God’s Kingdom.

“Now, when I think about all the religious ceremonies of the Catholic Church,” Gloria says, “I compare them to a beautiful bubble, glistening with many colors, but empty​—if you try to probe further, it just disappears.”

Benito, Gloria, and thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses like them in Spain, have found real spiritual refreshment by turning to the unadulterated waters of truth contained in the Holy Scriptures. Such refreshment was missing in that venerable Iberian institution, the Spanish church​—so rich in tradition but so poor in spiritual content, so powerful for centuries but now so helpless to allay the apathy of her dwindling flock.

Jesus Christ once said, referring to the need to identify and avoid religious error: “Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits. . . . I repeat, you will be able to tell them by their fruits.”​—Matthew 7:15-20, JB.

We leave the reader to judge for himself the fruits of Spanish Catholicism.

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Catholic bishops called for a second evangelization of Spain. Few heeded their call

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Only 3 out of 10 Spaniards regularly attend church

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The Sagrada Familia Church in Barcelona is still unfinished after a hundred years of building and soliciting donations

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Photo: Godo-​Foto