EUROPE/SPAIN - Results of a study on respect for religious freedom in Spain in 2004-2008 notes “tendency to restrict public presence in religious demonstrations”

Madrid (Agenzia Fides) - Spain has definitely experienced a decline in the respect due to religious beliefs, converting believers into second-rate citizens, according to the results of a study made by the Observatory for Religious Freedom and Freedom of Conscience (OLRC) entitled, “100 reasons to be alert.” The document presents an analysis, with declarations from politicians and public entities, regarding religious freedom in Spain in the years 2004-2008.
For Marcial Cuquerella, President of OLRC, “the situation of religious freedom is one of the main indicators of the defence level of a society’s freedom. Respect for this freedom has an influence on whether citizens believe or stop believing in that which they have chosen, and should allow them to make decisions based on those beliefs, expressing them if they so wish, in public.” However, this study “shows that there has been a steady relapse in respect for citizens’ beliefs, with the intent of restricting public presence in religious demonstrations.”
The OLRC has collected 100 public declarations from various different institutions, public figures, and political parties that they consider significant in order to explain and demonstrate this increasing infringement on religious freedom, and that are, for the prestige of their authors and for the nature of their content, a true cause for alarm. Cuquerella points out that, “Both the State and some political agents transmit the idea that those who belong to certain religious groups or hold certain beliefs are second-rate citizens, incapable of offering any real contribution in the form of dialogue nor of having any say in the democratic process of the country.” “As a result, pluralism is exchanged for a more concrete belief that tries to impose itself as a monopoly on the public’s space.” (RG)(Agenzia Fides 21/2/2008 righe 23, parole 285)