Religion in Spain

The main religion is Catholic but are more and more people changing religion and if so why?

That question is very difficult to answer...

People is not changing their religion, they are simply abandoning it, but not for another religion.

Fernando

Fernando is right. If you mean religious conversions. Most of the people here are Catholics but in the last decades the tendency is towards agnosticism.

i can't speak for Spain, but i know here in the US the younger genertation isn't overly concerned of their religion, they're busy doing other things than attending church, and trying to understand a God in a world where there are so many doubters. I think the family is a lot to blame, families are more concerned with their own personal lives then with family and family values. I see it happening everywhere, and hopefully something will change it.

Is this true in Spain as well?

To tell you the truth Worriedaboutspain, I can only speak from my own experience, but I found people to be a lot more religious in the US than in Spain. I'm not a religious person and most people of my age didn't go to church, but when I went there I did have to go with my host family and most of my high school friends attended the services every week too.

I agree with JasMadrid. Here in the U.S., millions of people have strong ties to their churches. In my country church is a one-hour, once a week thing at the most. People in the U.S. have more active churches that are attended by probably more than 50% percent of Americans (that's a lot of people!). Some people spend a lot of time in church groups and tend to network through church activities. In my personal view religion is a big big thing in the U.S.

I, found that spaniards really don't go to church. Even though they have beautiful churches in sevilla and other parts. This might have to do with history. The church in general was used as a political tool.Example, spanish civil war. Inquisition. Many people in spain still believe in some of the principles of the bible. Social welfare etc. It is something that has become part of the eu constitution. In france church attendance is low and less people are going into the priesthood. Now the french are recruiting priests from former french colonies to go to france and serve as priests.

We haven't change our religion; most of the people are still catholic, but they don't want to know anything about Chuch cause the conservative movements inside this institution.

Religion is just a private thing.

This is a really difficult question to answer, specially being such a personal thing. But I would like to share my opinion.

My parents were Catholics, then they converted to Baptist and later went on to explore another religion.

I have a steady relationship with my girlfriend which is catholic, and all my friends are the same.

Due to my families ability to switch religion so easily I've always been very curious in religious matters and try to study the different religions to learn a little about each of them.

From what I've seen in the past years is that more and more people in spain are leaving the catholic church and are converting to different religions.

I've spoken with different religious organizations like the Mormons, the evangelists and Jehovah's witnesses here in spain, and all of them have increased in number in the past years, where as the catholic church is losing members rapidly.

Everyone has their own reason to quit believing in god, or to convert to another religions, but what the catholic church does not want to admit is that they are losing their fellow members.

The catholic church has it very easy to add members to their board, all you have to do is baptize your new born son (without his consent of course) and you have another catholic member. When this boy grows up, he has no choice but to be a catholic, more by tradition than by belief.

Not all Spaniards that quit going to mass, quit being catholic, they have their opinions on why they don't go to mass, but would never reject to being catholic.

The reason why, depends on who you ask. Other religious organizations state that it's because more and more people see the world around us and they are not happy with what they see. They have sprout doubts in their current faith, doubts that the catholic church cannot or does not want to answer, so therefore, they turn to look for answers else where.

From what I've seen in mass with my girlfriend, the reason why people leave the catholic church is because they don't have real faith in god, or didn't cultivate correctly the fruits of the spirit while attending church. At church, most doubts are answered with comments like you have to have faith, or letting it rest in god's hands, or it was god's wish.

So who ever is not eased with those answers, just didn't have god in his heart.

Like I said at the beginning, this is my reply to your question, under my opinion and personal experience. I do not wish to harm others with my comments and no mean intentions are meant with my words.

Peace to all,

Any increase in religious conversions in Spain to: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, etc. ?

All I can add to this thread is that nearly all of my friends in Madrid - most of which are younger than me - it seems that religion is absent in their lives. This is only an observation and not a judgement. Most were no doubt raised as catholics but none of them, as far as I know, attend church.

From what I've heard, the Catholic churches (at least those in the cities) are becoming populated with Latinamericans which, it seems, follow more closely to the catholic religion in Spain than the Spaniards do.

Saludos, MadridMan