I. Historical Background
With the Third Council of Toledo in 859 Catholicism became the official religion of Spain. The Reformation had barely had any influence in Spain, but the Spanish Catholic monarch knew how to benefit from it. He gained more and more control over the Catholic Church in his territories and used the Catholic religion as an instrument of social control. The Constitution of 1931 was the first break of this close relationship. Article 3 of this Constitution established that Spain has no official religion. This aspect was one of the reasons that led to the coup d’état followed by a bloody civil war between 1936 and 1939. The political regime arising after the civil war achieved the identification of the Nation with the Church. Catholicism became the official State religion and in 1953 a Concordat was signed including all kinds of privileges. With the death of Franco in 1975 the situation changed in a fundamental way. In 1976 a new concordat replaced the concordat of 1953. The Constitution of 1978 guaranteed full religious freedom. A number of agreements with the Holy See replaced the Concordat and series of reforms led to an enormous change.
II. Social Facts
Due to Article 16 of the Spanish Constitution, stipulating that “nobody may be compelled to make statements regarding his religion, belief or ideology”, there does not exist any register containing such information. The only possibilities to get figures are surveys. After one of those surveys 80.3 % of the population are members of the Catholic Church, 1.9 % are other religious believers. 10.6 % declare themselves as non-believers, 5.2 % as atheists and 2.1 % did not give an answer. The survey clearly shows that the only religion that is strongly present in Spain is Catholicism, but in the context of a more and more secular society.
III. Basic categories of the System
The Spanish system is neither a denominational model nor a separatist model in the strict sense. It can be characterised by two ideas: the idea of some recognition of religious groups by the state and secondly the idea of religious freedom.
The treatment of religious groups can be described as a pyramidal structure. At the first level there is the Catholic Church which receives maximum rights with the help of Concordats. The second level consists of minority religious communities having signed agreements. At the third level there are registered minority religious communities and finally those having no specific legal status.
IV. Cultural and social exercise of functions
In Spain there exists the freedom to set up private centres. This gives religious groups the possibility to have privately funded educational centres. The centres can be self-financing or publicly funded and they can have a certain ideological orientation.
In every educational centre which is publicly funded the teaching of the Catholic religion is offered on an optional basis. The Episcopal Conference has the right to select the teachers whereas the State pays them.
In Spain there are no Theological Faculties in the State Universities. But you can find four Universities of the Catholic Church (Salamanca, Navarre, Deusto and Comillas) having a specific status regulated by the Agreement of 5 April 1962. Other religious groups can establish universities in the same way as any other body or individual.
Every religious group has the right to set up television stations, radio or press.
V. Legal foundations
The articles of the Constitution describing the relationship of State and Church are mainly Articles 16, which guarantees the freedom of religion and worship, 14 (2) and 27.
Spain has signed a number of concordats with the Holy See (four agreements in 1979 and one of 1962). The Act of Religious Freedom passed in 1980 specifies Article 16 of the Constitution. Other agreements were signed in 1992 with the Protestant Churches, the Jewish Community and the Islamic Community.
The Catholic Church is in contrast to all other religious groups financed directly by the State. All religious communities having signed an agreement are treated as non-profit organisations. Due to this regulation they profit from certain tax advantages.
In Spain we can find only one class of matrimony: the civil matrimony. But there are certain different forms such as the civil, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Islamic form.