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Spirituality and social
work in Catalonia
Enric Benavent
__________________________
Religion and Belief in Professional Practice
Wednesday 7 - Thursday 8 September 2011
1- Framework
1.1 Two legal referents
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The Spanish Constitution
The Catalan Statute of Autonomy specifies
the special traits of the Catalan nation,
especially regarding the social services, which it
is responsible for providing. The Catalan
government is able to legislate, for instance, in
education, social, health and prison services.
1.2 Directorate-General for
Religious Affairs
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Created in 2006 by de Catalan Government to
provide governmental control over the growing
religious plurality in Catalan society.
1.3 A highly secularised society
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Religious practice among young people is
around 4%,
Up to 48% of young people between the ages
of 15 and 24 say they are agnostics, atheists or
indifferent to religion.
2. Dealing with religious needs
2.1- Religious attention in public hospitals
2.2- Religious attention in prisons
2.3- Religious education at schools
2.4- Religious attention in social services
2.1- Religious attention in public
hospitals
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Exclusive financial system for the Catholic
Church, which allows it to provide religious
attention in public hospitals.
Since 1992 Evangelical, Muslim and Jewish
have the right to attend to the religious needs of
their members in public hospitals but the costs
of these services are paid by the corresponding
religious community.
2.2- Religious attention in prisons

Most centres in Catalonia provide both
individual attention and religious meetings for
the majority religions (Catholics, Evangelics,
Muslims, Orthodox Christians, and Jehovah’s
Witnesses), and it can be said that 20% or 30%
of the inmate population regularly benefits from
these activities in a direct way.
2.3- Religious education at schools
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The situation of religious education in schools is
a controversial subject in Spanish society.
In public schools: Religion is a subject which
must be offered to pupils in schools and
accepted voluntarily by families
State-funded Catholic schools: some Catholic
schools have chosen to do Religious Culture
rather than the Catholic religion in the
classroom
2.4- Religious attention in social
services

Social work institutions in Catalonia basically
follow the following management models:
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Public
Subsidised private organisations
Private
2.4- Religious attention in social
services
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A large number of Catalan organisations in the
Third Social Sector have a religious origin or
identity, mainly related to the Catholic Church
The Catholic social institutions have mostly
chosen to adopt a performance model based on
attending the person’s needs and leaving aside
everything that can be interpreted as
proselytism
2.4- Religious attention in social
services
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Dealing with spiritual needs is usually a hard
and complex task for professionals. It is hardly
ever dealt with and then only if the worker is a
sensitive person or has prior training on the
matter.
Most professionals are not prepared to work
these issues.
3. Future challenges
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Spirituality is being recognized as an important
dimension of the human being
Some books, documents and manifestos are
beginning to discuss spirituality in relation to the
social professions
Thank you!
[email protected]