“Today we run the risk that our organizations, so dependent on the welfare state ... could be easily confused with a very bureaucratic NGO [nongovernmental organization],” said Archbishop Luis Argüello, president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference. / Credit: Spanish Bishops’ Conference

Madrid, Spain, Apr 1, 2025 / 17:24 pm (CNA).

The president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference (CEE, by its Spanish acronym), Archbishop Luis Argüello, opened the conference’s 127th plenary assembly this week with a deep analysis of Spain’s growing secularization, noting that the time has ended when one could say “I am Catholic because I was born in Spain.”

“The time has passed, settled for centuries, when we said: I’m Catholic because I was born in Spain,” Argüello said, noting that the Church can no longer take for granted that people are converted or initiated in the Catholic faith in today’s society.

During his talk, the archbishop of Valladolid noted the worrying situation that while there are 23,000 baptismal fonts distributed over the country’s 22,921 parishes, many of them “have no water” due to lack of Christian community that can “help the Holy Spirit engender new Christians” and in more populated areas there is “a very weak awareness of the responsibility entailed in having a baptismal font.”

This panorama represents a “large, quantitative and qualitative challenge” that requires discernment, especially considering that in numerous rural parishes it is no longer possible to celebrate the Sunday Eucharist, while in large cities there is a remarkable contrast of schedules and celebrations according to the neighborhoods.

The difficulty of ‘transforming emotion into virtue’

Given the situation, the archbishop of Valladolid added that “it has never been possible to be a Christian alone” and therefore the task of promoting communities “where living the integral formation of the heart” becomes especially important.

In this regard, he emphasized the role of various retreat movements and apostolates such as Emmaus, Ephphatha, Bartimaeus, the Conjugal Love Project, Life in the Spirit, Hakuna, etc. that “make an impact along with the invitation to continue” in the Christian life but that are faced with the difficulty of “transforming an emotional experience into virtue, of finding specific ways to grow that go beyond recreating the the initial impact.” 

Regarding the social and charitable work of Catholic organizations, Argüello warned that “today we run the risk that our organizations, so dependent on the welfare state, its rules, and subsidies for the third sector [nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and nonprofits], might offer in a weak way the novelty of Christian love and could be easily confused with a very bureaucratic NGO.”

“The same thing could happen to us in our educational or communications endeavors,” he added.

A farewell to the apostolic nuncio

At the beginning of his address, Argüello offered words of recognition to Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the outgoing nuncio, thanking him for “the work he has done during these five years in Spain,” emphasizing that “many of us here have received, through his mediation, the episcopal commission that the Holy Father has bestowed upon us.”

These words, along with the expression of best wishes in his new role as nuncio to the European Union, drew the only applause during Argüello’s talk.

Auza expressed his gratitude for the farewell remarks and said during his address that he has shared “the joys and sorrows of Spanish society and the Church” and that, over the course of five and a half years, “with the desire to always know and serve you, in the name of the Holy Father, I have strived to do my best wherever I have been called.” 

Regarding his time in the various Spanish dioceses, “from Covadonga to Granada,” he emphasized that the brotherhoods and confraternities remind him “how Andalusian the Church in the Philippines is, especially during Holy Week.”

Protest over the resignification of the Valley of the Fallen

During Monday’s assembly, a group of about 50 people gathered outside CEE headquarters in Madrid, protesting that the conference is collaborating with plans to “resignify” the Valley of the Fallen, a monumental war memorial built as a final resting place for combatants from both sides of the Spanish Civil War.

The memorial was commissioned by Francisco Franco, Spain’s longtime head of state and leader of the winning Nationalist side in the bloody conflict with leftist Republican forces.

The leftist governing coalition in Spain considers the memorial a monument to Franco and his dictatorship.

The controversy over the monument is colored by the fact that Franco supported the Catholic Church, which was caught in the middle and was severely persecuted by elements of the Republican side.

Some of those present outside CEE headquarters carried banners with the slogan “Cobo Judas,” referring to the archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal José Cobo, who is involved in the resignification process.

Near CEE headquarters, a wall was tagged with graffiti with slogans such as “CEE traitors,” “The valley is not to be touched,” “Bishops, you sell Christ for 30 [pieces of silver],” and “Betrayal of the martyrs.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.