Spirituality and social work in Catalonia

Enric Benavent__________________________

Religion and Belief in Professional PracticeWednesday 7 - Thursday 8 September 2011

1- Framework

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.

1.1 Two legal referents

1.2 Directorate-General for Religious Affairs

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

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

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 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: Public Subsidised private organisations Private

2.4- Religious attention in social services

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

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

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!ebenavent@peretarres.org