Spain: Freedom at Last

The Spanish State recognizes religious freedom as a right based on the dignity of the human person and ensures the necessary protection so that nobody may be coerced or molested in the legitimate use of this right.

The Spanish Cabinet last week finally approved a historic bill to grant religious freedom to Spain's Protestant, Jewish and Moslem minorities. The measure had been in the works for more than three years, had the backing of both Generalissimo Francisco Franco, 74, and the Vatican. Yet as recently as three weeks ago, it was shelved by Franco after the Cabinet split over whether it gave non-Catholics too much freedom too fast. It was then revised and toned down in some parts to meet with the approval of the Conservatives, who reluctantly began to realize that, in any case, the bill was not only necessary for Spain's image but was quite inevitable as well.

Under the new bill, which is certain to be enacted into law some time after Parliament convenes in the spring, non-Catholics will be allowed to hold public worship services for the first time since Franco took over in 1939. Still, many of the most liberal aspects of the earlier draft were cut out. Non-Catholic faiths will not be allowed to proselytize actively for new members, nor will they be permitted to run cultural, charitable or social associations. The part of the bill that would have guaranteed non-Catholics in the armed forces the right to refuse to participate in Catholic ceremonies also was toned down.

For Spain's Jews and Protestants, the bill is nonetheless an important advance. Not that they have done badly, despite official obstacles. Unwilling to risk living in Morocco after it won independence from France in 1956, some 5,500 Jews emigrated to Spain, live quietly as members of the business and professional class. Spain's Protestants are largely native-born Spaniards of working-class, urban background whose ancestors picked up the faith by way of foreign missionaries allowed in Spain for a few years in the late 19th century. Aggressive and evangelical, Spain's Protestants have increased in numbers from 5,000 in 1945 to 30,000 today; the number of their private worship places has risen from 70 to 425, some of them clandestine. In fact, one of the most challenging problems for Spain's Protestants will be to try and preserve the same fervor in their churches now that the period of official suppression has more or less ended.