LA MUERTE DE LA FE
An ethnography of the Catholic Church in Spain.
Essay/Project for “Ethnography”, Prof. Michael Leube, January-May 2023.
Collaboration with Stefanie Laredo and Juan Pastor. 
INTRODUCTION
 The Catholic Church is arguably one of the most famous religious institutions, commanding more than 1.3 billion believers worldwide. It has had a profound impact on Spanish history and heritage, which is reflected in the Spanish way of life and cultural expressions. As 3 students living in Segovia, it was evident that there was a Catholic influence on the country. However, one main observation that we had throughout the 2 years we had lived here is that the levels of participation of young people in church activities are very low. In this ethnography, we will be looking at the heritage of Catholicism in Spain, analyze the different reasons why Catholic Church attendance is in decline among young people, and attempt to propose a design solution that would help the Church gain a base and foothold among young people who have no attachment to the faith. 

DESCRIPTION











































SECULARIZATION

















DISENCHANTMENT














TOURISM
 Catholics in Spain constitute the largest single demographic group in Spain, with more than 53.8% of the population describing themselves as having some relationship with the Catholic Church (35% identified as Catholic and practicing, 18.8% as Catholic non-practicing) (Avance de resultados del Estudio 3403 barómetro de abril 2023 2023). Spain has the 4th largest number of Catholics in Europe, following Italy, Poland, and France, and ranks in the top 10 population-wise worldwide. Catholicism has had a profound influence and impact on Spanish history, from the religion-driven campaigns of the Reconquista that drove out the Islamic kingdoms of Al-Andalus in the early part of the 2nd millennium, to the Spanish missionary system that aimed to spread Christianity in the parts of the Americas controlled by the Spanish colonial empire. 

The impact was equally as profound in Spanish culture itself; many aspects of the Spanish heritage revolve around building a Catholic-centered culture and lifestyle, with many religious orders and monasteries springing around the country that survive to this day. There are many religious monuments that are considered to be an integral part of Spanish heritage such as Cathedrals (e.g Segovia, Burgos, Sevilla, Cordoba, Toledo, Santiago de Compostela, all of which have been declared as World Heritage Sites by the UNESCO (Lujan 2023)), churches, and buildings along ways of pilgrimage, the most famous of which is the Camino de Santiago, which attracts millions of visitors every year across Northern Spain. Furthermore, religious holidays form an essential part of Spanish traditions, such as celebrations of patron saints of cities, towns, professions, etc. These festivals are numerous across the country; Fiestas de San Isidro in Madrid, Fiestas del Pilar in Zaragoza, Falles of Valencia, Sanfermines of Pamplona, but the most famous of these holidays, and arguably the most important as well, is the Holy Week celebration, also known as la Semana Santa, which is marked by massive processions across Spain, the most grandiose of which take place in Andalucia, in the southern part of the country, a part that is known for its religious traditions.

As aforementioned, the contribution of the Catholic Church to the Spanish cultural heritage is inextricable and has influenced generations of Spaniards in the way their lives play out. However, Catholicism does face quite a few issues in keeping its pre-eminent position as the major religion of the country, namely secularization, disenchantment, and tourism. (Solsten 1990)



Catholics, as mentioned earlier, still constitute the majority of the population at 53%, however, this majority has seen a historical trend of decline since the mid-20th century. Before the Spanish transition to democracy in 1978, a supermajority of the Spanish population identified as Catholic, with no more than 300 thousand out of a population of 39 million being non-catholic (the majority of which was other Christian denominations), and the Catholic Church enjoyed a special position with the state. In 1978, the new Spanish constitution disestablished Catholicism as the state religion and guaranteed religious freedom, effectively separating church from state affairs. This move, coupled with the improvements in the Spanish economic sector and the increasing movement from rural areas to urban centers, weakened the church’s position. As a result, fewer people started to consider themselves to be “religious” or even “practicing” Catholics, and the religious practice shifted away to observance of important rituals such as baptism and marriage. In the latter case, it was a continuation of the previous phenomenon during the Estado Español era in which all marriages had to be religiously solemnized, which continued even if the participants didn’t consider themselves to be particularly religious. 

A consequence of the improving socioeconomic conditions in Spain after the transition to democracy was better access to education, which led to increasing disenchantment with the moral doctrine of the Catholic Church, which, up til the adoption of the new constitution, was considered to be law of the land. The main example of where the Spanish population breaks with the church’s teachings is regarding same-sex marriage and the attitudes towards it; Despite the Catholic Church condemning same-sex relationships, they were legalized in Spain in 1979, and in 2005, a historic law was introduced allowing same-sex couples to marry, making Spain the third country in the world to allow it. Catholic authorities were vehemently opposed to the law and tried to have it revoked on multiple occasions, but the general public had a much more positive reaction (at 66% support of the new law), and LGBT rights in Spain are regarded to be one of the most progressive in the world in a quick shift in both popular and official recognition of acts unsupported by the Catholic Church. 

As mentioned earlier, many Spanish monuments were/are dedicated to religious purposes; cathedrals in most major Spanish cities, many of which are recognized as World Heritage sites, as well as religious festivals. These constitute a substantial share of Spanish tourism, and due to the growing number of tourists arriving in Spain (one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world), many of these attractions have shifted away from being mainly known as centers of worship and religious festivities to becoming more tourism-oriented monuments (such as organized visits to the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba) or celebrations of the Catholic-infused Spanish culture, such as the Holy Week celebrations in Andalucía. This shift has eroded the religious function that these places and events carry for the local population, as tourism is seen as more economically incentivizing than keeping them for the exclusive use and enjoyment of the Catholic population of Spain, especially considering the dwindling number of practicing Catholics in the country.
METHODS OF STUDY




SEGOVIA: INTERVIEWS + PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION


CAPILLA DEL SANTISÍMO, CATEDRAL DE SEGOVIA











































INTERVIEWS


FRANCO ALBA













YAIZA ESTEBAN



 In this section, we will be discussing the research techniques used in our ethnography, and the findings that we were able to get through them. The techniques used will be presented in the chronological order of the research conducted, rather than grouping the findings by technique, which we feel is more appropriate and true to the flow of the process.

In Segovia, where the team is based, we conducted two different types of research, namely individual interviews with university students who were either active in the Catholic Church activities or considered themselves to be “non-practicing”, as well as participating in local church service at Cathedral of Segovia. 

We attended mass as participants and observers on three different occasions at the Cathedral of Segovia, which offers daily mass at 10 am and an additional service on Sundays and during religious holidays. The last occasion coincided with the celebration of Ash Wednesday (Miercoles de Ceniza), which marks the beginning of Lent (Cuaresma), the precursor to the Holy Week celebrations in April. 

For the team, attending mass had two different approaches, namely passive and moderate participation, due to the differing backgrounds of the members. One member of the team (Stefanie) was brought up Mexican Catholic in a Latin American context between different Central American countries, so she had an understanding of the rituals and process of mass but did not consider herself to be religious or practicing. The other member attending mass (Alex), grew up as a non-practicing Alawite Muslim in Syria, and while he had an understanding of Catholic religious “lore” (for the lack of a better word), he had a very limited understanding of the process of mass and what to expect. 

Attendance was very low on the first two visits; in the Capilla del Santisímo, where mass service took place, there were barely 15 people present, all of which (except for the aforementioned team members) were in the 50-80 age range, and seemed to know one another and form a tight-knit community. One of the attendees was an old disabled woman who used an electric wheelchair, and was present for all three occasions we attended mass. Stefanie notes that the rite used is very similar to that used in Latin America, probably due to the Spanish overwhelming influence on Latin American Christianity that they brought during their conquests, but that almost all attendees knew the rite and order by heart, and were able to chant with the priest with ease, probably due to their extensive knowledge of the Bible. 

Alex noted that his passive participation made him stand out a lot more, especially when trying to follow what the other attendees were saying or doing but without understanding the context behind it, and felt singled out by sitting close to the “pasillo” during communion, which he didn’t participate in.

“When everyone went up to the altar to get their communion, I felt the urge to go up with them, but I think that it was the pressure of being judged by the old ladies next to us, rather than the voice of God.” -Alex, remarking on communion

Our third visit took place -as mentioned earlier- on Ash Wednesday, and turnout was significantly higher; while the chapel still had many empty pews, the congregation filled up around 70% of the hall, which we estimate to be around 70-80 people. A plurality of the “new” attendees was remarkably younger, with even a few people in the 18-25 age range noted to be present. On this occasion, Alex, who had not participated in the activities, took communion and received the customary ash cross. 

We also conducted some interviews with students at IE University who were either active in attending local church or considered themselves to be Spanish Catholic.

Franco is a Catholic student from the Philippines who goes to IE University. In our interview with him, he explained his upbringing and his views on Catholicism: He considers himself to be a practicing Catholic and grew up attending church every week with his family. He never questioned the reasons behind it, and he kept attending church when he moved abroad, as a sort of ritual. When asked about attending with people and finding a community, he said that he doesn’t look for company to do it with or help him find the motivation to do it, and that going to church on his spiritual connection. 

“My whole life, going to church is a family thing, but now that I’m in Spain, it became a personal thing.”

He also noted that on multiple occasions, he would be the only person in attendance and that the general trend is that there are very few people who attend out of their own volition. 


Yaiza was brought up by Spanish parents in Madrid until she was 12, followed by 4 years in Peru and 2 in Panama. She also considers herself to be Catholic, albeit non-practicing. Her family had a different approach to religion; after an incident where Yaiza, after attending a first communion retreat, was traumatized by monks taunting her with how bad of a person she would be had she committed any sins, and went back to her parents berating them about being sinners. Her parents then sat her down and explained that there are different ways to interpret and practice religion.

“Mis padres me explicaron, Dios no te va a matar por no ir a la misa todos los domingos, que no tienes que ser super exigente, Dios tambien te entiende, y te quiere de otra manera.”

“My parents explained to me, God is not going to kill you for not going to mass every Sunday, that you don’t have to be super strict, God also understands you and loves you in different ways.”

When her family moved abroad, the church became more about the community they were able to find; they attended church weekly in Panama because they were fond of the pastor and his way of giving mass service, and they didn’t find that before in other countries, so they were not that motivated to attend service as regularly.
ANDALUCÍA: PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION + INTERVIEWS










CORDOBA: CAPIROTES & CARDS


























































































SEVILLA: UNLIKELY ENCOUNTERS IN THE MADRUGÁ


























































VALLADOLID, MADRID, JAÉN: INTERVIEWS




JUAN PASTOR DOMINGUEZ













MARÍA DEL CONSEJO
 Following our research in Segovia, we saw an opportunity to gain a much deeper insight into the Spanish Catholic tradition and cultural relations, which was the Semana Santa celebrations taking place over the first 10 days of April, coinciding with university holidays. Alex spent a week in Andalucía to attend processions to understand the religious and communal context behind Semana Santa, and to potentially interview people who might give useful insights on the reason why young people do not participate as much in church activities, which was noted in the previous research conducted in Segovia. 

The week was divided as follows; 2 days, 1 night in Cordoba, 3 days, 2 nights in Sevilla (including the Madrugá, the overnight processions considered to be the most important processions), followed by 3 days, 2 nights in Granada (originally 3 nights, but due to exhaustion and a health problem, was cut short). 

Semana Santa in Cordoba was a full immersion as a passive participant; Alex had no cultural context of the Semana Santa before arriving in Andalucía and found himself thrust into the cultural realm of the processions right away. The main two observations were regarding participation in the festivities:

“I was so surprised to find that people of all ages participated in the processions; Toddlers dressed up as princes and princesses being pushed in strollers, young women wearing mantillas*, and people of all ages in the marching band following the main convoy. My biggest surprise, however, was that the people wearing capirotes, the pointy hats popularized as an appropriated symbol of the KKK, were children! Most of them were between 10 and 16 years old. I expected to see just old men wearing them, not solely children!”



As Alex explains, the whole community is involved in the Semana Santa processions, and not just a very small group of people associated with the church. 

“There were a lot of young kids watching the processions and trying to talk to the people wearing capirotes. I noticed that the nazarenos (as the capirote-wearers are called) were passing out cards to children who were asking for them very eagerly. I tried to get closer to see what the cards were, but considering that I am a 20-year-old guy, it would look way too creepy if I asked a 9-year-old in the middle of the crowd anything.”

The cards in reference, as we discovered later on, were a set of collection cards named “Holycards”, which are themed around the different ‘hermandades’ participating in the processions, with a total of 540 cards to collect, as a sort of Semana Santa collectible for children, which they would trade with each other and try to fill up their collection. A few cities have this system in place, including Sevilla.




Participant observation played a big role in helping our understanding of the processions; Alex was not seeing them in a video or still pictures, but rather experiencing it live in full action, as he points out:

“I had seen pictures of the nazarenos before, but I had entirely underestimated the size of the processions, and honestly, my heart was racing when I first saw the capirotes right in front of me on a random street corner.”

Another observation is the sheer size of the attendance; entire streets were completely blocked until the late hours of the night when the processions pass, with entire families or friend groups attending and sitting down altogether in cafes, restaurants, or even just on the sidewalk to watch. Balconies were also very crowded in the streets overlooking the processions, as entire families come together in reunions to watch them pass by. 


This flood of people resulted in Alex, who had no experience in the city as it was his first visit, becoming stuck and going around the center of Cordoba three times to make it back to the hotel, walking a total of 41k steps in a single day, or 30 kilometers. 

Sevilla has some of the largest processions in the entirety of Spain, and the Madrugá, short for Madrugada, the part of the night between midnight and sunrise, is the pinnacle of these processions. 

The main research done was observing the processions more closely as well as conducting informal interviews. For the first part, more planning was taken to ensure that multiple processions are covered; Alex had the advantage of staying in a hostel adjacent to a main plaza where processions passed and had access to the rooftop, where the processions could be watched from. The main observations were more about the extensive knowledge of attendees, who for the most part were locals, who paid close attention to the schedules and routes followed by the processions and planned their day accordingly. As Francisco, an Argentinian who worked at the hostel for 3 years said: “Catholicism controls the year’s calendar here. That includes planning holidays and day-to-day activities”. Not only did they know the calendar pretty well, but they also knew the customs of the processions and the appropriate rituals by heart.

“Everyone in a 3-meter radius shushed a friend I met at the hostel when he was attempting to leave the crowd of the Procesión del Silencio, during which one has to be completely silent along the whole street where the convoy passes.”
Alex also noted the very tight-knit community that forms around an hermandad, which is open to anyone to participate in, although the grand majority of the people there are locals who live in the neighborhood around the church where it is based. For example, Alex was able to witness an ‘entrada’, the entrance of a procession to the church of the Hermandad, where the participants and their families then attend an exclusive mass service. 

During the Madrugá, Alex talked to a group of young people outside a bar who were hanging out after watching the aforementioned Silencio Procession. The group, 3 young men and a woman all native to the city/province of Sevilla and studying in the city were attending a procession where the brother of one person of the group was playing in the marching band.

Alvaro and his brother Alonso grew up in Triana, on the outskirts of Sevilla, but attended school in another part of the city where their mother worked, for convenience. As a result, they did not have many friends in their neighborhood, until Alonso wanted to join the Hermandad of the local church when he turned 12 years old, to play the drums in the marching band. Alvaro mentioned that he made friends with his older brother’s friends, as well as with other children that the parents bring to rehearsals, etc. 

“Era como un fiestón, yo pasé a ser amigos con los hermanos de los amigos de mi hermano”

“It was like a big gathering, I became friends with my brother’s friends’ siblings myself.”

For him, it was one of the only ways he could have friends at his age until he moved schools and came back to Triana, but he still talks to his hermandad friends to this day and they hang out often. Salva, another person in the group, mentioned that most people tend to leave the hermandad by the time they are 17, but that those who don’t, stay in it for a very long time, some of them even for life. 

“La verdad, es que casí todos los niños que participan en las cofradías no quedan, porque a ellos no les importa la religión, sino la comunidad y los amigos. Yo te diría que Alonso quería ser parte porque quiere tocar la percusión, no porque ama a Jesús"

“The truth is, most children who participate in the brotherhoods do not stay because they don’t care about religion but about community and friends. I would even tell you that Alonso wanted to become part because he wants to play the drums, not because he loves Jesus.”
-Alvaro, about why people leave the hermandades

In the end, they all agreed that the Semana Santa was more about bringing the whole city together, rather than the religious aspect of the holiday, with many people traveling back to the city for massive family reunions and to see one another.

For the last part, we decided to interview older people who have seen the decline of the status of the Catholic Church in Spain, to see their opinions regarding the “fall from grace” and how it affected society. Juan, who was brought up Spanish Catholic with origins from Jaen and Valladolid, asked his grandparents, who lived during the Estado Español, and the Spanish transition to democracy. 

In Brahojos del Medina, a village of no more than 200 inhabitants in the countryside of Valladolid, lives Juan Pastor Dominguez, 91.  He described himself as a Catholic, but he believes that everyone pretends to be so; they believe in religion to have meaning in their lives, as a form of hope for the existence of an afterlife. Dominguez noticed the general downward trend of attendance in the church, as well as belief in the religion generally; not as many young people are seen at church anymore, and he believes this to be because of better access to education, as well as the advent of television, which allowed people to be informed quicker of what happens outside of their villages.

“More intelligent people start to question the church and what it says, and see the lies.”

Nowadays, his only relation with religion is going to the church to interact with other people, rather than just staying at home doing nothing.


Maria del Consejo stopped being a believer from a young age when her parents tried to force religion onto her and she did not like it nor enjoy it. However, she continued to go to church as a cultural aspect until her kids were old enough to decide for themselves if they wanted to go. Church was not a part of her life, similar to how it is with many people nowadays. She notes that people have stopped going to church, young people even more so. She reasons that starting in the 60s people had more possibilities to study and become smarter, therefore they had the chance to compare and dispute the established beliefs and realize the reality of the church. She doesn’t think young people could be brought back to the church, not in its’ current form, at least. 

“Take for example, Opus Dei, they try to make people join but their ways are obsolete, and they were very traditional, and it didn’t work for them.”


MAKING SENSE OF FINDINGS




COMMUNITY (FRANCO ALBA, YAIZA ESTEBAN, 4 SEVILLANOS, JUAN PASTOR DOMINGUEZ, MISA, SEMANA SANTA)


















CULTURE (4 SEVILLANOS, MARIA DEL CONSEJO, SEMANA SANTA)















EDUCATION (MARIA DEL CONSEJO, JUAN PASTOR DOMINGUEZ)





DISILLUSIONMENT (JUAN PASTOR DOMINGUEZ, MARIA DEL CONSEJO, STEFANIE LAREDO, YAIZA ESTEBAN)







 Most of our data was analyzed through a form of content analysis, and it came back with some interesting results regarding the connections between the different interviews and findings we got to. We identified 3 or 4 common themes that appeared throughout, namely: Community, Culture, Education, and Disillusion. 

Many of the interviewees mentioned that the church has become more of a community-building place; Yaiza Esteban’s family found the community centered around the priest of their church in Panama, Alvaro, and Alonso were able to make friends in their town only through the Hermandad, a community centered around the church, and Juan Pastor Dominguez still goes to the church despite not being much of a believer for the lack of a better thing to do in his daily life. We saw a similar trend in the religious events that we attended; the old lady confined to a wheelchair was present for all the masses we attended at the Cathedral of Segovia, perhaps, similarly to Dominguez, because she incorporates it into her daily routine keeps in touch with the community of old people that she grew up with or lived with.

Similarly, the Semana Santa celebrations in Andalucia were marked by massive family reunions; people from different parts of the country all come back to visit their hometowns (usually taking place at the grandparents’ house, who hadn’t left the hometown). People, despite not necessarily being religious, use the activities of the church to meet other like-minded people, and they can find someone they can become friends with. 

One theory regarding why young people do not attend church regularly anymore is because they do not need the church to build their community; the church used to be the focal point of the village or town, but as the world’s connectivity grew and people got closer, it was not necessary anymore to confine oneself into the small world of the place where they live, especially if they cannot find like-minded people to socialize with.

Similar to the community-building aspect, many people participate in religious activities because of how embedded they are in Spanish culture, rather than for the religious value behind it. Alonso, Alvaro’s brother who is in an hermandad, did not want to join the ranks of the brotherhood because he was a believer at 12, but rather because he enjoyed the cultural expression of the Semana Santa and the procession and wanted to be part of that, despite not understanding fully the religious context behind it. Maria del Consejo goes in a completely different direction; while she does not believe in the church’s values, she still took her kids to mass and religious events for their cultural and communal values, until they were old enough to decide on their own. Even during the Semana Santa processions, it was clear that the young children who are looking eagerly to receive Holycards are not interested in the religion itself, for they are too young to understand and grasp it fully, but they enjoy the cultural experience of a big event happening in their city or town. Overall, Spanish culture is hard to separate from Catholic tradition, and people still do want to be able to enjoy their culture without having to carry the weight of Catholic belief and practice, so this detachment of religion as a cultural expression vs religion as a spiritual medium could be seen as a sort of compromise.


Education was one of the main reasons defining the fall of the Catholic Church; Juan Pastor Dominguez says that the advent of TV resulted in people being able to see everything that happens outside their little world, and Maria del Consejo notes that the transformation began in the 60s of the 20th century; more people could afford to go to university, and more people had access to non-religious education, and they were able to make the judgment for themselves regarding the church and what they believe in, instead of relying on blind faith. 


As a result of better access to education, people were able to break out of the blind faith that the church used to control the people. Juan Pastor Dominguez believes that most Catholic people, even within the clergy, do not believe in everything that the Catholic Church professes, but for the lack of an alternative that will answer their existential questions, they choose to continue to have the hope that Catholicism is the right way. Yaiza Esteban, Maria del Consejo, and Stefanie Laredo, a team member, echoed a sentiment regarding growing disillusioned with the forceful religious education; Maria del Consejo, growing up during the 20th century, personally did not believe in the Catholic Church as it had been forced on her instead of giving her the choice to believe and follow the Catholic tradition but had no option of getting out of it, as it was the expectation in mid-2oth century Spain to receive a religious education of sorts. Yaiza Esteban mentions how the religious education she received as a young girl leading up to her first communion (at around 10 years old) left her traumatized by the concept of sin, but her parents were able to introduce her to a different way of thinking regarding church teachings. Stefanie experienced something similar when she was taught religious concepts at a very young age in Catholic classes at school, growing disillusioned with not only the way the Church teaches its beliefs but the whole belief system as a consequence. In a way, the way that the Church forced itself on young people in terms of education about religion led to the growing disbelief in what it stands for and led people to seek alternative communities and beliefs that gave them the options and freedom to do what they wish for. 

DESIGN SOLUTION



HONESTY V EDUCATION













COMMUNITY

















CONCLUSION
 After having looked at the Catholic Church and the way it integrates itself into daily life, we identified two problems, and a two-faceted solution: Honesty and Community. 


The Catholic Church has an issue with not allowing the practitioners to see the negative aspects of the church, in a form of denial that leads people to doubt that the church is actually a good institution when negativity is covered up and not talked about. Right now in Spain, the only available forms of religious education are either biased Catholic school teachings or taking a class on Religious Beliefs in ESO (Educacion Secundaria Obligatoria, the equivalent to high school) that is not comprehensive (from a Catholic perspective). One design proposal is redesigning the religious education system to: 1. Focus less on the religious aspects in the early stages of growing up, and more emphasis on the cultural manifestation of religion, especially considering how integrated Catholicism is in Spanish culture and heritage, and 2. Focus more on presenting an unbiased perspective on the Church’s belief system towards the later stages of adolescence (15-20 years old), when adolescents are more likely to be able to not only compare and contrast both sides of the religion but also make the free decision of associating with the Catholic Church or not.

Throughout most of our research, we had considered that the communal aspect of religion was missing, which was entirely due to our confirmation bias of looking for churchgoers on a Wednesday morning in a city of 50k inhabitants, but traveling to Andalucia revealed that the community that is built around the church is alive and well. However, similarly to the demographic trends of the Spanish population, the majority of people that the church is bringing together are either Catholics by name or non-religious, to begin with, but they choose to associate themselves with the Catholic culture regardless of their own clashing views. The second aspect for our proposal would be redesigning the processes of religion-centered activities to be less about celebrating Catholicism and more about celebrating the community that was built around it. This does not entail stripping significant religious significance from a holiday or festival that is inherently Catholic, but rather creating space for non-practicing Catholics and non-religious people to enjoy the community coming together and celebrating, perhaps by creating parallel events that do not have a religious aspect to them that could still be included under the umbrella of the religious event taking place. These types of events should be more about celebrating the way Catholicism and culture meet and interact, rather than just pure religion that is devoid of any semblance of cultural expression. 


In the end, after spending a semester learning about the Catholic Church in Spain, it is possible to say that it still has a long way ahead to convince young people to rejoin the Church’s ranks, especially after such a massive shift in the public perception and adherence to its’ doctrine that occurred after the liberalization of religious freedom and education in Spain in the latter half of the 20th century; the general public already has a form of distrust towards the Church and the way its teachings are disseminated, as well as the freedom of choice brought on by the advent of technology. However, Catholicism still forms an important part of Spanish heritage, as is the case where religion has a high level of importance in the past, and to be able to reclaim that culture and that form of expression, the Church needs to be aware of the changing times and realize that the old methods they used to bring people to faith may not work anymore and that they have to redesign their approach, or risk the death of faith entirely.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
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EFE. (2004, June 22).   SEGÚN LA ÚLTIMA ENCUESTA DEL CIS Más de la mitad de los españoles afirma estar de acuerdo con el matrimonio entre homosexuales. Más de la Mitad de los espaoles Afirma Estar de Acuerdo Con el matrimonio Entre Homosexuales. https://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2004/07/22/sociedad/1090498770.html 

Lujan, A. (2023, April 2). Las únicas Catedrales de España declaradas patrimonio de la humanidad. viajes.nationalgeographic.com.es. https://viajes.nationalgeographic.com.es/a/las-unicas-catedrales-de-espana-declaradas-patrimonio-de-la-humanidad_18929 

Solsten, E., Meditz, S. W. & Library Of Congress. Federal Research Division. (1990) Spain: A Country Study. Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/90006127/