Catholic Church in Spain, 21st Century: Cycles, Dimensions and Structures

Abstract

This study synthesizes the state of Catholicism in Spain in the second decade of the twenty-first century, in an evolutionary perspective. To this end, we give an account of the cycle in which its dynamics and model of Church is found, as well as the dimensions and its structure. In short, the Spanish Catholic Church is initiating a profound cultural change in a new cycle promoted from Rome that seeks a new synodal relationship within the Church, and the promotion of the culture of encounter in the relationship with modern institutions. In terms of size, the Catholic community is made up of 55% of Spaniards in 2024 (in 55 years, since 1970, it has lost 40 percentage points). 15% of Spaniards are practicing Catholics and 28% of Spaniards are Catholics who never or almost never participate in the Eucharist. In total, 26.28 million people in Spain. With regard to the structure, we find a tendency to strengthen almost all its parish, social, educational and cultural institutions, with such a number of centres and activity, that it constitutes a singularity in civil society due to its size, capillarity and incidence. The future of religions is uncertain because it depends largely on how they develop the charism, but, despite the reduction of their members, it continues to be not only the greatest reality of Spanish civil society, but it is foreseeable that it will continue to be so throughout the twenty-first century.