Religious Education in the Spanish School System

Abstract

The debate regarding teaching religious values in the educational setting has always been highly complex. In Spain, however, when politicians push for legislation on religion as a subject in public schools, the social controversy once again returns to the fore. This controversy continues to be unresolved, due to a historical inertia in which the Catholic Church still plays a highly important social role. Religious educational reform has once again come to the foreground of the educational field. With the recent approval of the Organic Act 10/2002, on 23 December, pertaining to Educational Quality (henceforth referred to as LOCE), denominational religion as a study subject has been incorporated into the educational system, though in a different manner from its previous regulation under the past socialist government, presided over by Felipe Gonzalez (1982 1996). Some sectors of the society consider the new measure favorable to the Catholic Church, while others view it as a complement to a fundamental right, compatible with the Constitution of 1978. Nevertheless, and on the margin of the confrontation between supporters of a secular educational model and those supporting a