Easter Gets an Exemption From Spanish Austerity
ALBAIDA DEL ALJARAFE, SPAIN
— Dolorés Gelo Suárez, a 70-year-old retired cleaner, lives alone in a
home filled with religious decorations and relies on a state pension
worth “a few hundred” euros a month.
Still, she recently donated €14,000, or almost $18,000, to make a
gold-laced tunic that will be worn by a statue of the Virgin Mary and
then carried on Sunday by members of her religious brotherhood during
one of Andalusia’s traditional Easter processions.
Meanwhile in Olivares, a neighboring town of 9,500, another brotherhood
was also preparing a Virgin statue for its Easter procession, this one
adorned with a gold crown. The crown was made after melting down
necklaces, rings, ancient coins and other gold objects worth tens of
thousands of euros, after they were donated last year by 300 members of
the brotherhood.
Such fund-raising underlines the clout of the Roman Catholic Church,
whose importance in Spain as a charitable institution has also been
considerably enhanced by the country’s economic crisis and government
spending cuts on social services. The newly elected Pope Francis has suggested the poor will be at the heart of his mission.
But the crisis has also put strains on the church. Its fiscal
privileges have been put under the spotlight. And the splendor of the
Easter celebrations is viewed by some as out of sync with the dire
economic conditions of the time.
“There is a debate about introducing more austerity in the Easter
celebrations, probably fueled both by our economic crisis and the
message of our new Pope,” said María Roca, professor of religious law at
the Complutense University in Madrid, as well as a legal adviser to the Spanish church.
In fact, Miguel Luna, the secretary of the Olivares brotherhood that
collected gold for the Virgin’s crown, said his organization found
itself in “an uncomfortable situation.” On the one hand, it is deeply
attached to its long held traditions — it celebrated its 300th
anniversary last year. But it is also concerned about appearing
ostentatious. Some members of the brotherhood opposed investing in the
crown.
Still, the crown should be understood as “a very emotional transfer
that people want to make to the Virgin,” Mr. Luna said. “It’s certainly
not about trying to exhibit splendor and wealth at a time when the
focus is on charity and austerity.”
The resilience of the donation-based financing model of the religious
brotherhoods contrasts with the difficulties faced by many town halls,
which have been buried in debt since the Spanish property bubble burst
in 2008.
“The crisis hurts everybody, but a brotherhood is self-financed, has
never depended on subsidies and simply spends what it can collect,” said
Gerardo Díaz, a member of another brotherhood, who also handles public
finances as treasurer of the Olivares town hall.
This Easter, for instance, Mr. Díaz’s brotherhood is assuming the cost
of a tow truck to ensure that badly parked cars will not block the
processions. The town normally pays that bill.
In a country with a record jobless rate of 26 percent, the church has
aggressively trumpeted its virtues as an employer. Last year, it began a
recruitment drive for priests, with its television ad campaign arguing
that joining the priesthood was a guarantee of “a permanent job.”
For the brotherhoods, soaring joblessness has helped persuade more idle
house painters, ceramic workers and other craftsmen to lend a hand in
the time leading up to Easter celebrations.
“People have far less regular work, so that at least means more spare
time to devote to our brotherhood,” said Genoveva Rodríguez Sánchez, a
seamstress who has made several embroideries for her brotherhood and has
been setting aside one day a week to help prepare the Easter
festivities.
“I think religious fervor has in any case been rising here every year,
but this is also helping to maintain a long tradition of artistry that
would otherwise go to waste during this crisis,” she added. Among the
3,000 inhabitants of Albaida del Aljarafe, 509 people are registered as
unemployed.
Still, while 73 percent of Spaniards call themselves Catholics, the
proportion who identify themselves as practicing the religion has
declined steadily, down last year to 18 percent, according to Metroscopia,
a polling agency. That compared with 31 percent in 1988 and 48 percent
in 1976, the year after the dictator Francisco Franco died.
Meanwhile, the crisis has also brought more attention to the economic
advantages of the church, particularly its exemption from most property
tax under a 1979 agreement signed between Spain and the Vatican.
The church also benefited from a 1998 legislative act that allowed
dioceses to register as their property churches and other buildings that
they had long used but not officially owned.
Black-and-white television sets are surviving due to thrifty households
The number of licences issued each year has dwindled from 212,000 in 2000. A total of 13,202 monochrome licences were in force at the start of 2013.
A black-and-white TV licence costs £49 a year, a colour licence costs £145.50.
TV Licensing spokesman Stephen Farmer said: "It's remarkable that with the digital switchover complete, 41% of UK households owning HDTVs and Britons leading the world in accessing TV content over the internet, more than 13,000 households still watch their favourite programmes on a black-and-white telly."
Television and radio technology historian John Trenouth said their continued use could largely be explained by low-income households wanting to save money on the licence fee.
But he added: "There will always be a small number of users who prefer monochrome images, don't want to throw away a working piece of technology or collect old TV sets.
"Maybe these will still be around in 10 years from now, when the number of black-and-white licences will have fallen to a few hundred - about the same number of black-and-white sets that were in use on the opening night of BBC television 70 years ago".
