Catholics in Spain Comenius

8/7/2019 Catholics in Spain Comenius

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THREE SUGGESTED PATHS RESEARCHS IN THE OPEN DIALOGUE ON RELIGION IN

SPAIN AT PRESENT TIMES

This matherial is prepared by Eliseo Rabadn (Philosophy teacher in Santa Clara High School), forbeing added to the magazine of the Project Between Religions and Ethics. A common ground . The

goal of this matherials is to be placed in the magazine to be shared by any colleagues or students in

the partners schools interested in these items when the meeting at Turkey 19-23 february 2011

LINK TO ANA AND GEMA GROUP OF COMENIUS IN SANTA CLARA

http://iessantaclaracomenius.blogspot.com/

PART ONE

We have in Spain a long Catholic tradition and, despite some people or some political groups,which

are telling us that people in Spain are only sociologically or antrhtropologicaly practicants of the

majoritanian religion , Catholicism, we can show how many times statistical mathematical

methodologies are failling when some relevant items are being manipulated.

We have the data of our questionary made in the school for the project Comenius , and these show

really the fact that most of the students are Catholic.
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El Cristo de Comillas(Cantabria)

Festivities such as Nativity of Jesus Christ have a deep relevance for most people in Spain. ThePassion and Death of Jesus is also so deeply in the Culture of Spanish people, taht we can see all

over the country the Holy Week celebration . We have in our City of Santander the Semana Santa

with its Cofradas making a hole week processional parcours of the main streets and with sacred

ceremonies in main Churches of the City

http://desdesdr.blogspot.com/2010/01/cartel-de-la-semana-santa-de-santander.html

The most famous is in this sense, the Sevilla . But we also have , in each of the thousands villages,
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any amount of people living in them, Sacred Ceremonies and Festivities , concerning the God and

Divinity of Mother Mary , and all Saints in the Catholic Traditions :

Santiago Apostol

Map of Camino de Santiago

the protector os the Spanish Nation. The Sacred Heart of Jesus


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http://www.virgendegarabandal.org/miryam.htm

The Inmaculada Concepcin
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http://www.churchforum.org/como-era-rostro-virgen-maria.htm

or the Virgen del Pilar at Zaragoza City , just to make mention of

some of most known and venerated in our country

Cordoba City, the Cristo de los Faroles

http://www.diariocordoba.com/noticias/noticia.asp?pkid=511087
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Christ of the Great Power

http://sentimientogaditano.blogspot.com/2010/12/hermandad-de-jesus-de-medinaceli-de.html

video of Santiago Walking Way http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEPvXhC4ffA

Sevilla has the Virgen de los Reyes , Madrid la Virgen de la Almudena, Andaluca the Virgin of

Macarena http://www.elalmanaque.com/abril07/5-4-07.htm

and Catalunia has the Montserrat Virgin
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http://www.vallenajerilla.com/berceo/tilander/respendo.htm

We must now make clear the idea that it is not different Virgins( Mother of Jesus Christ, the Son in

the Hipostatic Union of God in Catholic Chistianity), but different ways peoles have to refer thiskey element of our lithurgy and dogma inside Theology) Cantabria, where Santa Clara High School

is at the capital City of Santander, has the Bien Aparecida Virgin.

We have and will make the visit trip to see the Santo Toribio de Libana, about which our teachersAna Nuez and Gema Gutierrez have made the presentation reseaqrch to prepare the visit to this

sacred place very relevant for Christians,not just in Spain but for all Christiandom. A piece of the
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Crhist Cross is conserved in the Church at Santo Toribio

We , the teachers team and our students in Santa Clara, actually are working to make creative

suggestions upon these questions, inorder to show how the main moral and ethical values of

Christianism all over the History , actually have relevant and imprtant contents to the present

political society, and it is not impossible to share them and to enrich the political Laws with these

contents, whcih can however make more rich a society that is able to take them into account as afountain of moral justice principles

PART TWO

Religion, faith and customs in Spain: annotations to the latest survey of CIS.by Francisco Torres Garcahttp://www.arbil.org/(65)torr.htmWhat is the real situation and religious sentiment in Spain? How far we are in a society that is progressivelymoving away from religious belief? How far has advanced the process of conversion and reduced to merereligious social elements supported culturally by the momentum of tradition? A survey of CIS is to introduce us toa society that is predominantly Catholic but stating that while he doubts the existence of God, has moved awayfrom religious practices and only maintains the cultural elements of Catholicism

The twentieth century Western society is virtually a secular society where religious beliefs, mostly Christian, arebeing reduced to private areas of the maintenance of certain attitudes and habits of a cultural nature that hasbeen erased any transcendent reality . The process of secularization, which began in Western Europe in theeighteenth century and pragmatic development began in the nineteenth century, is now in its final stages,although with small but significant pockets of resistance reinforced by Pope John Paul II .

This secularization has become especially acute in Spain. A country that has gone from being an enclave ofCatholicism to the late sixties to a country where Catholicism is on the decline. Spain, within its geopoliticalhinterland, was a specific case within the continuous advancement of the process of secularization in theChristian West. The process went much more slowly on our soil in other places, mainly due to the maintenance ofreligious unity in the bankruptcy of the sixteenth century, the strong influence that the Church kept on society untilwell into the twentieth century andpresence of large nuclei of practicing Catholics with a missionary vocation and

witness that slowed but not stopped, the momentum of public authorities for the sake of secularism. After the civilwar in Spain was the curious case within Western Europe, the partisanship of political power by theimplementation of a process of social re-Christianization. Ambitious project that aimed to stop, permanently, theprocess secularization of our society to strengthen its Catholic roots. Obviously, that political action, stronglysupported and seamless for three decades by the Church, could only delay the final secularization of oursociety. It is in the seventies when it starts, again, to accelerate the process of secularization which had itsmomentum, supported by the government, in the last two decades of the twentieth century.

The current situation of the Faith and religious beliefs in Spain has been debated over several decades,especially the social influence that the Church has had in Spain and is now being eroded. But what is the realsituation of the Faith and religious beliefs in Spain today? Official figures seem staggering. A recent study by theCenter for Sociological Research has addressed the issue in depth and could be held but at the same objectionsthat you want no doubt that mark, without any doubt, the tendency of Spanish society.

The 2443 CIS study of January 2002, published in its Bulletin No. 29 on "Religion and Society", merelyempirically confirm the findings of many commentators and ratify the constant weight loss of religious beliefs insociety Spanish. Although the work refers to any type of religious belief is to emphasize that it is basically areflection on Catholicism in Spain, since only one percent claiming to be believers in another religion while 80%continue to report on religious Catholic. But throughout the study and this review will explain that it is a social orcultural Catholic and not a practicing Catholic faith. Also worth noting that 12% is declared non-believer and thatrespondents had the perception that their parents and the Spain of his parents was mainly Catholic, to an extentexceeding 95%.

The Spanish, under study, still considered predominantly Catholic and willing to maintain a certain socialpractices inherited from the Catholicism in which they were raised.However, there are only nominallyCatholic. Continue to value the Church well, but point out, other institutions like the monarchy or NGOs offer themmore confidence, though behind the Church and religious organizations are, in confidence, the Army, Mass

Communication, Parliament, the courts, unions or banks. It still retains, however, the Church an important abilityto influence, another issue is that the exercises or not. 43% of the Spanish continued to believe that it is very orsomewhat influential, but not forgetting that 73% feel that much less than ten years ago and, after one decade,will be reduced significantly if we continue the current process.
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That the media propaganda and prevailing discourse that advocates the reduction of religion to the realm of thestrictly private with no ability to influence politics and society have taken a toll evidenced by the fact that over70% of estimated Spanish vote when a party should not be taken into account the religious beliefs themselves,which means that the vast majority of those who consider themselves Catholics realize that they, as such,obligations incurred when the address mark of public life in influencing government decisions.

Catholic theorists, cultural Catholics, Catholic religious speech right because the data provided by the rest of the

study did not cease to draw the reality of Catholicism in Spain. Only, only, 42% of the Spanish firmly believe in theexistence of God. The obvious question is, how can Catholics declared 80% of the Spanish if only 42% believe inthe existence of God?. The conclusion is obvious: because they declared themselves still considered sociallycorrect value. There are also those who doubt, and that 31% said: "rather believe in the existence of God." But noless clear that at least 8% of those who declare themselves Catholics doubt the existence of God.

Spain has declared a Catholic society, but most do not meet the common requirements: only 25% attend Massweekly, though 40% admit to attend on occasion. This means that at least 15% of those who declare themselvesCatholics never attend mass. More illuminating is the low participation of those Catholics in other religiousactivities or organizations: 60% never has.

80% of Spanish is considered a Catholic. It does, no doubt, by the weight of tradition, by the inertia of theeducation received and the process of Catholicization that came after the civil war. However, 56% of Spanish

people are considered little or no religion.Importantly, but that becomes more revealing if we enter the ageassessment. What happened with the Spanish born in the last thirty years have been educated in religiousmatters with parameters very different from their parents? The survey is too daunting at this point, 75% of thoseborn after 1970 is considered little or no religion, and that bearing in mind that the vast majority were for ten orfifteen years, religious education in schools and colleges This leads us to wonder about the kind of religiouseducation is taught and the real purpose is. The differences with previous generations are abysmal.Even at therisk of an interpretation that would score about those born around 1940 to 60% today is still considered "very orsomewhat religious", rising to 75% for those born a decade earlier. Perhaps that is why, in that sediment,highlighting the fact that 22% of the Spanish continue to see that religious education should bemandatory. Deductions are these data to the will of the readers.

What is really of Catholicism in Spain? It must be something more than 20% of practicing Catholics who havethese beliefs. Is also the social dregs and willingness to maintain certain cultural and social patterns withCatholic: 64% continued to prefer the Spanish Catholic marriage even when the opposition to divorce is virtuallynil, practically 80% baptize their children and 56% think that the teaching of religion is important for the educationof their children, but only care about religious beliefs, when making important decisions, to 33% of the Spanish.

The final question, of course, no published work raises is whether this situation is now irreversible. The datasuggest that there is still a predominantly Catholic sediment between the Spanish, who made up 38% believethat religious beliefs are becoming more necessary and more than 60% of the Spanish maintain ties with theCatholic, which can be strengthened . Clearly the implementation of a process of re-Christianization, as so oftenhas sued John Paul II, may vary considerably the situation of Catholicism in Spain, but this is impossible ifCatholics do not participate as such in the Spanish public life.

Francisco Torres Garca.

PART THREE

Ethics and religion in present day Spain: Problems and perspectives for the21st century http://gradworks.umi.com/32/86/3286459.htmlby Campos Mariscal, Cruz, Dr, UNIVERSIDAD DE CASTILLA - LA MANCHA, 2007, 0 pages; 3286459

Abstract: There are three different starting positions on the relationship between ethics and religion in the last third of the 20th century. Two authors may banalyzed for each of the main positions: A. Snchez Vzquez and E. Guisn (ethics for laicism), J. L .L. Aranguren and A. Cortina (lay ethics) and G. R. deand M. Vidal (religious ethics). And, to complete the analysis of the situation, the thesis checks diverse ethics that, without being appropriate for Spain, haveimportant influence on the question: ethics of liberation, ethics of the theology of God's death, projects of world ethics and civil ethics. The second part is a

systematic reflection on the possible relationships: (a) rejection or mutual exclusion, (b) incorporation of each one in the other, and (c) mutual recognition anrespect with the possibility of prospering mutually. Four in-depth problems emerge from these possibilities of relation between ethics and religion: ethics andmetaphysics, reason and faith, moral autonomy and immanence and transcendence. The third part develops the conclusions and indicates the problems offor laicism, lay ethics and religious ones. It also proposes the perspectives in which the relationship between ethics and religion must be set out: ethics demautonomy, provides rationality and can achieve a horizon of sense, offerings of happiness, utopias, hope and Christian charity. Between ethics and religion t
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are questions that are particularly sensitive: the reference to metaphysics or not, the necessary overcoming of the concepts of 'nature' and 'natural law', autuniversality and the permanent question of whether values are constructed, invented or discovered. Relationships between ethics and religion cannot be imoutside an area of respect and dialogue. This approach must be continued until its possibilities are exhausted with the commitment to the reality of confrontihuman problems. At the same time, we cannot forget that human dignity is not questionable and that ethics has nothing to say when religion speaks aboutresurrection and eternal life.

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Catholics in Spain Comenius