Home Christian News A Surge of Evangelicals in Spain, Fueled by Latin Americans

A Surge of Evangelicals in Spain, Fueled by Latin Americans

Albright was so intrigued by this phenomenon that he wrote a Ph.D. thesis about it at the University of Salamanca. He estimated that 20% of the migrants are evangelicals.

The last official census conducted by the Justice Ministry’s Observatory of Religious Pluralism found 1.96% of Spain’s population was Protestant in 2018 — more than 900,000 people. That’s up from 96,000 tallied in 1998.

The steady growth of the Protestant population coincides with a steady drop in the number of churchgoing Catholics. According to the Sociological Research Center, a public institute, 62% of Spaniards define themselves as Catholics, down from 85% in 2000 and 98% in 1975. Only about a third of those Catholics say they’re actively practicing the faith.

It’s a striking development in a country where Catholicism, for centuries, was identified with near-absolute power — from the long, often brutal era of the Spanish Inquisition to the 36-year dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco, who called his regime National-Catholic, in the 20th century.

Of the 23,000 Catholic parishes in Spain at present, more than 6,000 have no full-time priest. Some churches had to close when a priest died or retired, or be grouped together with other churches served by traveling priests who minister to multiple parishes.

The church’s challenges are evident in the province of Zamora, just north of Salamanca, which has lost 16% of its population since 2000. There are 304 parishes and only about 130 priests serving them.

One of the traveling priests, the Rev. Francisco Ortega, manages six parishes — trying to adapt as the number of churchgoers steadily declines. At age 40, he has been active on YouTube since the pandemic began, and is now back on the streets trying to stay up to date with his parishioners.

It’s a hectic agenda, but Ortega recently received some help — Rev. Edgardo Rivera, a 42-year-old missionary from El Salvador, joined him in November. It’s a reversal of the pattern several centuries ago, when hundreds of Catholic missionaries embarked for Latin America from Spain.

“Now it is the other way around,” Rivera said. “I saw the need for priests in Spain and I thought of offering myself. I never liked easy things.”

Overall, about 10% of the Catholic priests now serving in Spain were born elsewhere. The influx is welcome, given that the average age for a priest in Spain today is about 65.

How is it difficult for Rivera? “I am a missionary priest announcing the Gospel in a place that is not my culture,” he said. “I have to learn.”

He and Ortega strive to be good teammates. While Ortega blessed parishioners during one recent celebration, Rivera managed the church’s sound system via Bluetooth and changed the music tracks and volume from his phone.

They’ve both gone dancing with some residents of Morales del Vino, a small town where Ortega is the parish priest, winning praise from one of the revelers, 23-year-old lawyer Juan Manuel Pedrón.

“If the church wants to support us it has to be normal, it has to be with us, with the young people and do what we do,” Pedrón says.

His girlfriend, Tania Rey, 27, was on her first visit to Morales del Vino.

“In my town, the priest circulates with old ladies,” she said. “I am very shocked to see these two priests like this.”

She and Pedrón teased Rivera, saying he dances better than they do.

The next day, after Sunday Mass, Rivera organized a gathering at the community center where he officiated. The official church building, 300 years old, is falling down.

“The walls of the church are giving way inward, the roof is in danger. We need to see what the strategy is for repair,” he says, explaining that gifts from parishioners will be needed to supplement the diocese’s repair budget.

The group then heads to the village bar; Rivera orders a glass of chilled white wine and sits with some of the parishioners.H