Empty confessional boxes across the land
BARCELONA, 09/23, 2009

One of the pillars of Catholicism, audible confession to a priest, is crumbling. 80% of Spanish Catholics no longer bother despite the fact that the second commandment of the Catholic Church requires its members “to confess their mortal sins at least once a year. ”

However, while the confessional box has emptied, the psychiatrist´s surgery has filled, and people are consulting all kinds of alternative ´spiritual´ therapies. The Pope recently told priests: “Never resign yourselves to seeing the confessional box empty. ” In Spain, concrete figures are not easy to come by, possibly because the Catholic Church does not want to admit that the sacrament of penitence has all but disappeared. Some Catholic magazines are less secretive, though, and Misión Abierta carried out a survey which, way back in 1989, already registered a mere 23% adult attendance at confession, and a paltry 15% among the youth. At the time the bishops recognised that they should not hide the crisis away, but confront it.

Since then however, the situation has got even worse. The figure for adult confessions has fallen to 15%, while fewer than 5% of Catholic youngsters "spill the beans" to a priest. And here we are talking about committed Catholics. Among the more nominal, 80% never go to confession. Gianfranco Girotti, a kind of Head Confessor (ie. Confession-Defender) at the Vatican, said “People come to church without confessing...(while) those who do go to confession, don´t seem to have anything to confess. There´s no consciousness of sin. ” The Ten Commandments still exist, but most Catholics happily break several of them, while the notorious seven ´deadly sins´ are no longer seen as vices, but even at times as virtues.

So pride, lust, anger, envy and the rest are just ´slightly naughty´, while a new list of ´deadly sins´ has replaced them in the minds of many: genocide, terrorism, arms or drug trafficking, corruption, tax evasion or environmental crime. What few people realise is that - in Catholic dogma - there are some sins which even though confessed, cannot be forgiven by a mere priest, or even by a bishop. This privilege is reserved for the Pope. There are five specific sins which Rome claims only the Pontiff may forgive: the theft of a consecrated wafer for use in Satanic rituals, the revealing of a confessional secret, pederasty, abortion and attacking or offending the Pope. One wonders what five sins Evangelical ministers would choose if they had the power to forgive them!

Apparently the Vatican department charged with dealing with Catholics who commit these sins struggles to keep up with the workload, as there are so many cases. As Cardinal Rouco put it: “In Madrid, there´s a huge amount of sinning. ” Yet there are almost as many excuses (or reasons) for not going to confession. What a tragedy the Catholic Church doesn´t understand the Bible´s teaching on forgiveness - that it is directly between God and the individual who seeks it on the basis of the work of Jesus on the cross. Jesus is the intermediary, not the priest.

In Medinaceli Basilica, one of the most important Catholic churches in Madrid, there is always at least one priest-confessor on duty. But there is less and less work. The typical profile of the person who goes to confession is that of a woman aged over sixty.

Many Catholics have fled the confessional because of priests who emphasised the fear and punishment of God, who saw sin on all sides and who generated a sensation of guilt among the faithful. All this despite changes at Vatican II which led to priests changing their questions - no longer ´How often and with whom?´ - and even, sometimes, their traditional confessional boxes for more comfortable surroundings. Yet the ´Catholic Tardis´ was not always thus, and swapping it for the ´counsellor´s couch´ not entirely new.

Individual heard confession in a secret box and while kneeling was only brought in during the 12th century, and given specific rules at the Council of Trent in the 16th. In fact, Spanish Catholic Bishops in the 6th century condemned the ´appalling practice´ of private confession. What´s more, frequent confession only became widespread in the 20th century.

So the other day in Santa Bárbara Church in Toledo, there was just one woman confessing her sins in one of the church´s two confessionals. There were 12 people at the Mass, 11 of whom received the wafer. On her way out, Pilar, 54, said, “At our age, we haven't got any sins. We don´t need to go to confession very often. ” One of her friends added: “Most people forget about God and only come (here) when things get tight. ”

How long before a confessional box turns up on Ebay?

Source: Religion Digital / ACPress.net


First Moslem public holiday in Spain
BARCELONA - September, 2009

November 17th, 2010 will be the first time since the defeat of the Moors in 1492 that a Spanish city holds a public holiday for an Islamic festival.

Melilla, one of two populated Spanish enclaves on the North African coast (there are some other military posts), has a large Moslem population. The holiday will also be the first non-Catholic religious holiday in modern Spanish history. The festival is Aid El Kebir, a commemoration of the Moslem version of Abraham´s sacrifice on Mount Moriah. Whereas the Bible clearly states that it was on God´s instructions that Abraham should sacrifice Isaac, and then produced a ram in his place at the last minute, the Islamic version of events introduces a temptation from the devil, and Ishmael instead of Isaac.

Miguel Marín, Councillor for Public Events in the city, met representatives of Moslem organisations to determine on which day the holiday should be. Unfortunately for planners, the festival is calculated according to the lunar calendar and is often not known precisely till near the time. However, Marín argues that since Aid El Kebir lasts three days, November 17th is bound to be one of them.

Source: ReL / ACPress.net

Christ´s ambassador on the football field
MADRID, 09/15, 2009

Whether or not the Spanish capital, and Real Madrid Football Club in particular, realise just who has arrived in their midst, remains to be seen. But Kaká, who recently celebrated his 28th birthday, stays true to his beliefs and principles, sticking close to his family and the leaders of his church.

“I was born in an Evangelical home and I´ve been a member of Renacer Church since the age of twelve. I am very close to them. ” Neither does Kaká shy away from joining public acts of evangelism. He walked at the head of the 16th March for Jesus in Brazil, an event which drew five million people to the streets of Sao Paulo last year. Kaká was, for a few days, the best-paid footballer in the world following his signing by Madrid with a salary estimated to be in the region of 750,000 euros a month. However, that was eclipsed shortly afterwards by Madrid´s capture of Ronaldo from Manchester United.

Kaká says he likes to take care of his own finances, enjoying the buying and selling of shares. “I´ve also got lots of property business with my father. ” Nowadays of course, most of his income comes from football, but there was a time - before turning professional - when he had to pay his own way as he tried to make it in the world of football. Yet Kaká does not live for money. On the one hand he tithes his income to his church in Brazil, following their services on the Internet. He also supports various social action projects, and he has turned down several very lucrative offers because he did not consider them to be God´s will for him.

Kaká has also managed to stay out of the gossip magazines by not joining the party circuit. “In Italy I never went to discos, just the Milan parties, and always with (my wife) Caroline. I go out very little, just to have dinner with her or some friends, and I always go to bed early. My team-mates respect me, because I also respect everyone else, though sometimes they look at me as if I were a bit weird. ” This is not just because of his lack of interest in the wild side of life, but for his other interests, which are not so common among footballers: reading, films, art and the theatre.

Yet Kaká points out that “there are more and more of us Evangelical sportsmen”. It is frequently said that Kaká belongs to Atletas de Cristo, an Evangelical organisation founded in Brazil 20 years ago by Alex Dias Ribeiro, a Formula One Grand Prix driver in the 1970s, “to promote the proclamation of the Gospel through sport. ” However, Kaká is not actually a member of the organisation, although he has participated in some of their events. Atletas de Cristo has more than 10,000 members in Brazil alone, and Ribeiro says more and more sports figures are turning from the nightlife to a better way of living. Carlos Alberto Parreira, ex-manager of the Brazilian national team, says their members do not insult referees and “in general are polite players with a positive attitude. ” That certainly seems to sum up Kaká.

Source: RealMadrid.com, Marca, XLSemanal / ACPress.net

Setting limits to liberty
MADRID - September 2009

Last week this bulletin reported on government plans to reform the 1980 Law of Religious Liberty. Certainly some reform is necessary, not least in the light of special accords signed with Protestants, Muslims and Jews in 1992. Seventeen years on, much of the content of those accords has still to be put into practice.

It is to be welcomed that the government seems serious about creating a level playing-field with the Catholic Church when it comes to opening new places of worship, or to prison, hospital and military chaplaincy access. Then, as reported last week, there is the issue of official State funerals. At the same time, Justice Minister Caamaño said it was necessary to ban religious practices which threatened public order, so control is clearly part of the legislation´s aims as well. While saying that a new law of religious liberty is needed because of the changes in Spanish society over the last thirty years, he added rather ominously: “Religious liberty must be regulated, but so must freedom of speech...(it) cannot be a permanent excuse to flout the law. If there´s no law, there´s no harmonious coexistence. For such to exist, there must be rights and duties that are linked. ”

The most controversial aspect therefore of the impending legislation is the setting of parameters for this ´harmonious coexistence´ to exist. Caamaño went on to give some examples: “Religious education in schools: there is an increasing demand for a much more diverse type of education than is presently offered. ” On hospital chaplains, he said guidelines and standards were necessary, while he recognised the mixing of elements in the Armed Forces, where a supposed apparation of the virgin Mary had been made a ´Captain-General´! He also questioned who should be allowed to enter prisons - accredited pastors, imams, priests...- and on the issue of State funerals seemed to open the door to a greater variety of religious options in future.

Caamaño said the law needed modification and that “it must have the broadest consensus possible so that we can organise our religious co-existence adequately. ” This will not be an easy task for legislators especially if they wish to set limits to the concept of religious tolerance and liberty.

This is part of the government´s plan to extend democracy, individual liberty and social rights, which includes its equality and anti-discrimination law. Prime Minister Zapatero believes this ambitious two-pronged policy will strengthen the lay nature of the Spanish State, and help more disadvantaged families. As far as the legislation on religious liberty goes, the aims are to recognise the rights of non-Catholics, and to remove all religious ritual and symbols from public life.

Some Spanish Evangelicals are enthusiastic about these proposals, perhaps believing them to be in line with a more progressive attitude as seen elsewhere in Europe, but their enthusiasm should be tempered by the fact that something will replace ´religious symbols´, and it will be the government´s own political agenda. There is no such thing as complete State neutrality in such matters.

Source: Colpisa, Religión Digital / ACPress.net

Spain has highest abortion increase in European Union
MADRID - September, 2009

The Family Policy Institute (IPF) says Spain has registered the highest increase in abortions of any European Union country in the last ten years for which records are available. Between 1997 and 2007, the number of abortions in Spain rose by 126%, while at the other end of the scale, in Poland over the same period, they dropped by 89%.

In the European Union in 2007 there were 1.2 million abortions - one every 25 seconds -, and a total of 13 million children in the region since 1997 who were not allowed to live. Yet while abortions are falling in countries like Germany and Italy, they continue to rocket in Spain (up by 62,560 in the ten-year period).
There were 112,138 abortions carried out in Spain in 2007, over 15,000 of which were performed on teenagers.

Every year in Europe, the number of children murdered is equivalent to the total combined population of Luxembourg and Malta, or that of countries like Estonia, Cyprus or Slovenia. One in five pregnancies in Europe end in abortion, and the fact that this includes 176,000 unwanted teenage pregnancies is ample testimony to the fact that national sex education policies are failing miserably.

The IPF says the situation is worse in Spain than in many other EU countries, and that government plans to make abortion even easier will turn Spain into the leading practitioner of abortion on the continent. The huge rise in the number of abortions in Spain bucks the European trend of small rises or, in several nations, a considerable fall in the numbers.

Source: HO, IPF, InfoCatólica / ACPress.net