Catholic weddings, which make up the majority of religious ceremonies in Spain, continue to decline. In 2013, one out of every three marriages was performed by the Church. Ten years later, that percentage has decreased significantly. In 2022, only one out of every five unions were solemnized by a priest, although in many communities (such as Catalonia, the Basque Country, and the Balearic Islands) the percentage is even lower: one out of every ten weddings.
According to the activity report of the Church for the year 2023, which can be read here and was presented this morning by the Spanish Episcopal Conference, it is evident that 33,500 religious weddings were celebrated in our country last year, a slight decrease compared to the 34,747 weddings in 2022. It is important to note that in 2022 there was a notable increase, following a decline due to the COVID pandemic.
Religious marriages were more than 152,000 in 2001
In 2020, in the midst of the health crisis, religious weddings did not reach 9,700. A year later, the number of unions continued to hit record lows (24,957). In 2022, there was a rebound effect. However, in 2022, not only did the number of religious weddings increase, but civil ceremonies as well, now accounting for almost 80% of the total. Despite the COVID episode, the downward trend in religious marriages persists.
We are far from the more than 152,000 religious marriages in 2001. The Episcopal Conference glossed over this data and highlighted, on the contrary, the “slight increase” (in the words of José Vera, director of communication for the bishops) recorded in baptisms (159,426) and confirmations (107,300). The Secretary of the Episcopal Conference, Francisco César García Magán, referred to the “challenge” of these statistics.
“It's a still picture of something that is constantly moving,” said García Magán, who is also an auxiliary bishop of Toledo. “The most important thing,” he added, “is that these digits have people behind them; they have life.” Memory allows for an x-ray of the institution's activity, which is nourished by almost 23,000 parishes, of which 11,437 are rural. There are 119 bishops and 15,285 priests.
In addition to them, there are 587 deacons, 957 seminarians, 9,932 missionaries, 7,664 monks and nuns in cloister, 32,531 religious brothers and sisters from other orders, 36,686 religion teachers, 81,080 catechists, and 407,563 lay members of 80 associations and movements linked to the Church. Furthermore, almost one and a half million students study in 2,536 Catholic educational centers, with a staff of 135,311 workers.
More than nine million tax returns supported the social work of the Church
The decline in religious weddings coincides with another fact that shows a certain disaffection among the younger sectors of society with the Church, as acknowledged by the bishops themselves. Most interesting of all is that they extract this data from another globally positive one for the institution they represent: tax declarations in favor of the Catholic Church are increasing, with a historical record set in 2023.
A total of 7,839,984 taxpayers (that is, 30.43% of the total number of returns filed) marked the checkbox in favor of the Church. This resulted in an allocation of 382.4 million euros, a 6.6% increase from the previous year. Including joint returns, there are nine million taxpayer households that trust in the work of the Church, the highest number of supporters since tax records have been kept.
But the bishops themselves insist that we must “reflect” on a detail that remains hidden in this statistical forest. A total of 700,000 new taxpayers who have paid taxes to the Treasury for the first time in their working lives have not marked any box: neither the Church one nor those for other social purposes, implying a decrease of 1.5%. The Church's advertising campaigns have not succeeded in reversing this situation.
This data, according to the Episcopal Conference, “obliges to make a greater effort to explain the checkbox in favor of the Church and its significance, an exercise of freedom for the taxpayer that does not imply paying more or receiving less.” Regarding the profile of those who do mark the checkbox, the top three income brackets, that is, those who earn more than 30,000 euros per year, represent 85% of the money collected.
