Catholic Church in Spain creates department for relations with Islam

The standing committee of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference (CEE, by its Spanish acronym) has approved the creation of a department for relations with Islam, intended to address the growth of the country’s Muslim population.

This new body is part of the Bishops’ Subcommittee for Interconfessional Relations and Interreligious Dialogue, chaired by the auxiliary bishop of Seville, Ramón Darío Valdivia.

The spokesperson for the CEE, Bishop Francisco César García Magán, stated to the media that the mission of the new department is “to respond to the pastoral challenges posed by the growing presence of Muslim faithful in Spain.”

Among these challenges are supporting spouses in mixed marriages and training priests, seminarians, and laypeople for pertinent dialogue. García noted that the bishops are “aware of the need for trained personnel in this area” and that priests have been trained for this purpose at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies in Rome.

The department for dialogue with the Muslim world will also develop catechetical materials for converts to Christianity from Islam and will seek to foster “the strengthening of institutional relations with Islamic groups.”

This type of organization is not new in Europe. As Magán noted, the bishops’ conferences of France and Italy also have such structures and have produced a significant body of doctrinal work.

2.5 million Muslims in Spain

The Union of Islamic Communities of Spain (UCIDE, by its Spanish acronym) estimates in its 2024 annual report that approximately 2.5 million Muslims live in the country, representing about 5% of the population.

According to the same source, the majority of Muslims are Spanish citizens, either by birth or naturalization (approximately 600,000 naturalized in 56 years), followed by Moroccans, Pakistanis, Senegalese, and Algerians. The municipalities with the largest Muslim populations are Barcelona, ​​Ceuta, Madrid, and Melilla, followed by El Ejido (Almería) and Murcia. Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish autonomous cities on the Moroccan coast in North Africa.

This presence has also resulted in an increasing number of students studying the Islamic religion each year, exceeding 390,000 since the curriculum for the subject was published in 1996. This program has over 300 teachers, more than a third of whom are based in Andalusia, the southernmost area of peninsular Spain.

Spanish schools are required by law to offer courses in religion, although it is optional for the student to take the class.

The country’s Islamic community also includes a military imam (akin to a chaplain) who ministers to inmates at the military prison in Madrid; five imams who provide assistance in hospitals and detention centers for foreigners and minors; and 11 prison imams serving in prisons in Catalonia, Madrid and Valencia, the Canary Islands, Ceuta, Melilla, and the Basque Country.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.