Pastor, Eugenia Relaño --- "Religion and secular values in Spain: a long path to a real religious pluralism" [2012] ELECD 1285; in Cumper, Peter; Lewis, Tom (eds), "Religion, Rights and Secular Society" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012) 102

Book Title: Religion, Rights and Secular Society

Editor(s): Cumper, Peter; Lewis, Tom

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849803670

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: Religion and secular values in Spain: a long path to a real religious pluralism

Author(s): Pastor, Eugenia Relaño

Number of pages: 24

Abstract/Description:

The demise of Franco’s dictatorship heralded a new period in Spanish history, one that paved the way for a transition to democracy. The old systems were overturned, including the powerful role the Roman Catholic Church had played for more than 30 years in Spanish politics. Spain, quite suddenly and profoundly, had ceased to be a Catholic state. Yet in the period leading up to the establishment of the new Spanish Constitution in 1978, calls by secularist groups for a strict separation between Church and State were not successful. The new Constitution enshrined the principle of State neutrality and incorporated the principle of religious freedom according to international human rights norms. But it also explicitly declared that the State did not have an official religion, and stated that public authorities ‘should take into account the religious beliefs of Spanish society and shall maintain appropriate cooperative relations with the Catholic Church and other confessions’.