La enseñanza de la religión católica en España: algunos aspectos de sus regulaciones tras la Constitución de 1978

Abstract

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Firstly, article 27.3 of the Constitution of Spain, 1978, is studied, in order to examine the reach and nature of the law it guarantees (that of parents to choose religious and moral education for their children in agreement with their convictions). Therefore some doctrinal stances are reviewed, fundamentally those particularly significant ones which were stated in the debates of the constituent Spanish Parliament. Secondly, we describe the models which, after the 1978 Constitution, have followed in the regulation of the teaching of Catholicism in public centers of education in Spain. The first of these models was that of the centrist governments, based, fundamentally, on choice between Religious Education or Ethics classes (although this choice was not available at all levels and stages of education). The Socialist governments tried out a first system in which the alternative to Religious education class was proctored study of the basic subjects on the school curriculum. This system was found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in several legal sentences which are also analyzed. Therefore, a second system was tested in which the alternative was other activities which did not include study of the basic subjects. The third model has not been put into practice, because of the political ups and downs which occurred after the March 2004 elections. This model is stated in the regulation for development of the 2002 Ley Orgánica de Calidad de la Enseñanza (Organic Law on the Quality of Education), in which the most relevant change, which we consider correct, was that of withdrawal of the system of teaching alternative subjects, and the establishing of a choice between denominational or non-denominational religious studies.