Archbishop Luis Argüello, president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, made this observations at the opening the Bishops’ 127th plenary assembly this week, according to the Catholic Herald. “The time has passed”, he said, “…when we said: I’m Catholic because I was born in Spain,” meaning that the Roman Church could no longer take for granted that people were brought up or into the Catholic faith in today’s Spanish society. This was highlighted, he said by the shortage of usable fonts: there are 23,000 baptismal fonts distributed over the country’s 22,921 parishes, but many of them “have no water” due to lack of use.
This situation, he said, represents a “large, quantitative and qualitative challenge” that requires discernment, especially among the numerous rural parishes where it is no longer possible to celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday.
His view is supported by figures recently released by the Pew Research Center, which showed that Spain topped the list of European countries where adults are leaving their childhood religion. The research, entitled, “Around the World, Many People Are Leaving Their Childhood Religions”, was published on 26 March and looks at the extent to which people from countries across East Asia, Europe and the Americas are giving up on the religion they were born into. In top place is South Korea with a massive 50%, followed by Spain with 40%. In fact, within the top 10 places, 6 are taken by European countries, the UK among them with 36%.
Read the Catholic Herald article here. Read the Pew Research Center report, here.
Pictured above Spanish Bishops’ Conference 127th plenary assembly.