I\u2019ve just returned from my quasi-annual trip to Spain, and I thought I would bundle together some random observations and comments from this and previous trips.\u00a0 I draw no deep conclusions, but I think that seeing the daily life of the Church in another country is useful for understanding the Church in the US better.<\/p>\n
1)\u00a0 The Church in Spain is on the rocks, with mass attendance reaching catastrophically low levels.\u00a0\u00a0 Superficially, mass attendance looks good, until you stop to think that 90+ percent of the population at least nominally identifies itself as Catholic.<\/p>\n
2)\u00a0 Paradoxically, Spain remains a heavily Catholic country.\u00a0 The day after I left, Sevilla was preparing for the feast of Corpus Christi.\u00a0 This is a major holiday and would be marked with a series of processions and other events.\u00a0 I never really understood how much Catholicism retained a grip on the cultural identity of the country until I was with some colleagues and we ran into a group of American Gideons who had come to campus to pass out bibles.\u00a0 My colleague Guillermo was puzzled and I had to explain who the Gideons were.\u00a0 His response was memorable and said without a trace of irony or sarcasm:\u00a0 \u201cThe Catholic Church is the one true Church and I don\u2019t believe Her, so why should I believe them?\u201d<\/p>\n
3)\u00a0 Music at the parish level is terrible, or more precisely, non-existent. \u00a0 With the exception of one small parish Church in Catalonia, I have never heard any congregational singing.\u00a0 Most of the parish churches I have visited have invested in sound systems that the priest controls with a remote.\u00a0 He turns it on for the entrance, perhaps for communion, and again for the recessional.\u00a0\u00a0 All the older churches have beautiful organs, but except at a Cathedral I have never heard one played.<\/p>\n
4)\u00a0 There is no contact with the celebrant.\u00a0 At the beginning of mass he comes out of the sacristy directly on to the altar, and at the end of mass he proceeds directly back into the sacristy.\u00a0\u00a0 The only close contact I ever had with the celebrant was again in Catalonia, where he processed to the back of Church and shook hands with his parishoners.\u00a0 Also, in Sevilla last Sunday, one of the priests hearing confessions during mass stopped us on the way out to make an announcement about the Feast of Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n
5)\u00a0 Lay lectors and eucharistic ministers are widely used:\u00a0 even in parishes with multiple priests lay people take over these duties. On the other hand, I do not recall seeing altar servers, except perhaps once or twice in Madrid.<\/p>\n
6)\u00a0 Homilies on average are longer than they are in the US.\u00a0 Unfortunately, my Spanish is not good enough for me to comment on their quality.<\/p>\n
7)\u00a0 And finally, I noticed that the Eucharistic prayer says of the cup that it is offered \u201cpor todos los hombres\u201d\u2014\u201cfor all men.\u201d\u00a0 I guess the Spanish have not yet been forced to revise their missal.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve just returned from my quasi-annual trip to Spain, and I thought I would bundle together some random observations and comments from this and previous trips.\u00a0 I draw no deep conclusions, but I think that seeing the daily life of the Church in another country is useful for understanding the Church in the US better. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2931,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[605],"tags":[886],"class_list":["post-22673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-david-cruz-uribe","tag-church-in-spain"],"yoast_head":"\n