Abstract
This article studies the cultural impacts of social movements targeting non-state institutions. Using printed primary sources, bibliography and press clippings, the case of the feminist protest within the Catholic Church in Spain after 1975 is analysed from a comparative perspective. This research shows that cultural products (books, articles and other published texts) constitute a principal cultural outcome of the aforementioned protest. Some characteristics of the targeted institution, such as the intransigency of the Church hierarchy to feminist demands, made policy consequences impossible. Yet activists managed to produce cultural outputs and disseminate them to their movement constituency thanks to allies’ support; the use of the Spanish language as a vehicle for mobilisation; and the utilisation of activists’ locations within the Church and in society as sites from which to spread their world-views and demands.
Introduction
What cultural consequences can social movements achieve? 1 What factors facilitate or hamper movements’ efforts to change culture? The case of the feminist protest within the Spanish Catholic Church after 1975 (hereafter also ‘the Church’) shows that cultural products are important cultural outcomes attained by movements. Examples of these outcomes are feminist theology pieces and women-friendly materials for religious reflection and practice. Both cultural products were especially crafted by Spanish Catholic feminists for their constituency (Catholic women) and not only (or not mainly) for activists and leaders themselves.
As the Spanish Catholic Church is a non-state institution, the study of the aforementioned cultural outcomes implies an examination of the targeted institution, including the intransigence displayed by the Spanish Church hierarchy; the help from allies to the feminist protest movement; and the positions occupied by Catholic feminists in the Church (for example, as catechists in parishes, who teach the basics of Catholic doctrines mainly to children and adolescents). However, characteristics of the society at large where the non-state institution exists also facilitated the production and diffusion of cultural impacts, including the possibility of using the Spanish language as a vehicle of mobilisation and the fact that Catholicism is a mandatory subject in the school curriculum (although optional for students).
This article is organised into four parts. The first section reviews the extant literature on the cultural consequences of social movements and poses two main research questions. The second section presents the case under analysis here together with the data and methods. The third section shows the findings of the empirical study and the fourth section discusses these findings. This article is not a history of the feminist protest within the Spanish Catholic Church after 1975, but a study of the cultural consequences achieved by this mobilisation.
Cultural Impacts of Social Movements
Social movements are collective efforts by individuals, groups and organisations (bounded by a shared collective identity) to foster (or impede) social change. Movements have impacts of various types, including political consequences, when policies and laws change due to movement efforts (Amenta and Polleta, 2019).
Movements also have cultural consequences. Definitions of culture abound. This article follows Edwin Amenta and Francesca Polletta (2019) when affirming that culture is the symbolic (or meaning-making) dimension of all policies and practices. More concretely, ‘new identities, categories, criteria of moral worth, and forms of knowledge all count as cultural’ impacts of social movements (ibid., p. 281). For example, in England, the abolitionist movement managed to convince broad sectors of public opinion that slavery and the slave trade were morally wrong (d’Anjou and van Male, 1998). In the United States, the second wave of the women’s movement, active since the late 1960s, contributed to changing public conceptions of women from second-class individuals to citizens deserving of equal rights and treatment (Banaszak and Ondercin, 2016).
It is hard to overestimate the importance of cultural transformation. As noted by Antonio Gramsci (1971) in the inter-war years, cultural hegemony happens when a dominant group succeeds in imposing its world views (explanations, beliefs and values, among others) on the dominated groups. As a result, the dominated groups assume that the status quo is natural, inevitable and impossible to change. Only by successfully challenging this cultural hegemony (via the elaboration of an alternative world view) can dominated groups build a new social order (ibid.).
When thinking about the consequences of social movements, it is important to distinguish between internal and external outcomes. Internal outcomes affect members, activists and leaders of the movement. In contrast, external outcomes influence individuals outside the movement, be they the constituency of the movement (the movement’s intended beneficiaries) or the general public (Earl, 2004). This article studies the cultural consequences of movements for their constituencies.
Research on the impact of social movements has focused preponderantly on their political consequences. In contrast, the cultural consequences of social movements have been analysed to a lesser extent (Earl, 2004; Amenta and Polletta, 2019; Van Dyke and Taylor, 2019). Existing studies on the cultural impacts of movements have described and classified the main consequences. Although many typologies of cultural impacts exist, a useful typology is elaborated by Nella Van Dyke and Verta Taylor (2019). They defend that cultural impacts are basically of three types: performances (for example, protest events), ideations (for instance, values, beliefs and ideologies) and artefacts or products (such as music, art or texts). Ideations are the type of cultural impact most studied. Performances and artefacts or products are considerably less analysed (ibid.).
Scholarship on cultural consequences has also attempted to explain why movements produce (or fail to produce) cultural change. This scholarship (and studies of social movements in general) has identified many factors facilitating or impeding cultural transformation. Some of these explanatory factors are movement-dimensions, such as the resources that movements have, including, but not limited to, material resources (money, properties, equipment or supplies), human resources (labour, expertise or leadership) and social-organisational resources (such as the groups and organisations that form a movement) (Edwards, McCarthy and Mataic, 2019). Another movement-dimension of importance is the capacity of movements to frame their demands in ways that appeal to their targeted audiences and even to broad sectors of public opinion (d’Anjou and van Male, 1998; Snow, Vliegenthart and Ketelaars, 2019).
Non-movement-dimensions have also been identified by scholars as factors influencing the capacity of social movements to achieve cultural change. These factors include, among others, the media. The media affect the visibility of movements beyond their membership, and the type of reaction (supportive or not) to movements’ messages by other actors. The media help movements obtain cultural outputs when the media give voice to movement leaders and spread movement frames (Gamson, 1990 [1975]).
In Western countries, most movements target mainly the state; these movements are the most studied by scholars. However, other movements target principally non-state institutions, including corporations (Ingram, Yue and Rao, 2010), churches (Katzenstein, 1998; Valiente, 2020), education (Binder, 2002), organised sport (Boykoff, 2014) and science (Epstein, 1996). Moreover, even movements whose principal actions are directed to the state also attempt to target non-state actors such as private employers or the general public (Van Dyke and Taylor, 2019).
Social movement scholarship amply uses the ‘contentious politics’ approach, which analyses mobilisations where governments are targets, initiators or third parties (Tilly and Tarrow, 2015). The contentious politics approach has been expanded and applied to the dynamics within the movement and activisms that target the state and beyond (Tarrow, 2022 [1998]). Nonetheless, such an approach tends to ignore cultural products and their impacts.
Non-state institutions differ from states in key regards. For example, democratic states are accountable to the public through elections and the intense scrutiny of policy makers by the mass media. Non-state institutions are not accountable to the same extent. Given this lack of accountability, in order to have an impact on non-state institutions, activists need internal allies to a greater extent than activists targeting states (Amenta and Polletta, 2019). In her analysis of the feminist protest within the US Catholic Church, Mary Katzenstein (1998) shows that sympathetic allies within the Church were key for Catholic feminists to raise and maintain a public (and critical) conversation on the role of women in the Church. This conversation was expressed in periodic meetings, conferences and publications, which, to the extent that they have enduring effects, can be conceptualised as cultural outcomes (Earl, 2004).
In brief, this review of existing literature shows three gaps in knowledge: cultural impacts of movements (in comparison with political impacts); performances, artefacts or products (in comparison with ideations); and movements targeting non-state institutions (in comparison with movements targeting states). In order to contribute to the literature on the consequences of movements, this article analyses what is less known about movements’ impacts: the cultural consequences of movements targeting non-state institutions. This article continues to ask two main questions guiding extant research: what are the cultural outcomes produced by movements? And what factors help or impede these movements in their attainment of cultural outcomes?
Selection of the Empirical Case, Data and Methods
The feminist protest within the Catholic Church in Spain is the empirical case selected to analyse the cultural consequences of social movements. Reviewing extant scholarship on the cultural impacts of social movements, Amenta and Poletta (2019, p. 291) state that ‘[m]ost of our knowledge has come from case studies of movements in the United States’. Thus, research on other societies is badly needed, and in relation to the cultural outputs of protest movements, Spain is an important case. This study covers post-authoritarian Spain, that is, from 1975 onwards. Four and a half decades is a time span long enough for movements to produce cultural impacts. Between the mid-1930s and 1975, Spain was governed by a right-wing authoritarian regime headed by General Francisco Franco. This research does not cover the dictatorship. At that time, basic rights and freedoms were severely curtailed and therefore social movements encountered a political and social context completely different before and after 1975.
The Spanish Catholic Church is a non-state institution (Linz, 1993). The Spanish Constitution establishes the (imperfect) separation of the state and the Church. According to Article 16, Spain is a non-denominational state based on religious freedom. However, this Article also maintains that public authorities will keep in mind the beliefs of Spanish society (mainly Catholic ones) and will cooperate with the Catholic Church and other denominations (see below).
The feminist protest within the Spanish Catholic Church is formed by groups, organisations and individuals who believe that women occupy a subordinate position within the Church and that this situation is unfair and should be changed (through collective action). This protest comprises mainly three types of actors. First, academically oriented organisations are active in this protest, for instance the Association of Spanish Women Theologians (Asociación de Teólogas Españolas, ATE). It was established in 1992, its members are women theologians and its purpose is to promote feminist theology in academia and beyond (Navarro, 2018). The ATE has around seventy-five members (Martínez, 2018).
Second, non-academically oriented groups are also part of this protest, such as the groups named ‘Women and Theology’ (Mujeres y Teología). From 1986 onwards in various Spanish cities, ‘Women and Theology’ groups have been established to demand an improvement in the position of women within the Church and participate in women-friendly religious practices (de Miguel, 2002; López, 2020). Similar objectives are pursued by the Col·lectiu de Dones en l’Església (Collective of Women in Church), which was founded in 1986 too and is active mainly in the Northeastern region of Catalonia (Amell, Ripollès and Tomàs, 2011). The same goals were also embraced by the Forum of Studies on Women (Forum de Estudios sobre la Mujer), which existed between 1986 and 2008. It was founded by Pilar Bellosillo, a Spanish Catholic feminist with an impressive record of having occupied the most important international positions available to Catholic women, such as President of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (1961–1974) and Auditor at the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). The Forum was initially composed of seven women and Bellosillo. Although the Forum included a few more women afterwards, it continued to be a small group (Salas, 1993, 1996; Bautista, 2015).
Third, the protest is also undertaken by individual women who are well-known on their own and not because of their links (if any) to the aforementioned two types of organisations and groups, including (but not limited to) Catholic nun Teresa Forcades (also known for her support of Catalan nationalism) (Forcades, 2011 [2007]). And, as is the case with other women’s movements around the world, some individual women are not formal members of organisations but collaborate closely with them (Aleixandre, 2021).
Although the three aforementioned actors have distinctive characteristics and engage in their own activities, they collaborate in common actions. Furthermore, some women belong to more than one group (Bautista, 2015; López, 2020).
The three types of actors studied in this article have been chosen because these are the most visible at the central-state level. These actors have attained this visibility because they have attracted the attention of newspapers, and/or have published their works and/or have been the object of study by scholarly works. Because of this visibility, these groups are known outside the movement, that is, by their constituency (Catholic women). The three actors do not constitute the whole universe of Catholic feminist actors in Spain. The exact contours of this universe are unknown. Spain is a mid-size European country with 47 million inhabitants. Catholic feminist groups also exist at the local level but are not known to most people outside their localities.
Academic studies on the feminist protest within the Catholic Church in Spain after 1975 are very few and are mainly descriptive. Thus, although these studies provided valuable insights and data for this research, academic studies could not be the main source for this research. This research is therefore principally based on printed primary data. In a year-long process, in my analysis I consulted all printed publications and materials produced by the aforementioned three actors under study here. This research also consulted press clippings on the protest. El País is the general information newspaper with the widest circulation in Spain. Reading its daily edition (on paper), I have collected articles on Catholic feminism since the mid-1980s.
Archival sources have not been used in this study because the organisations and groups under analysis do not have archives that are catalogued and stored in places where researchers can consult them (digitally or in person). Here, the word ‘archives’ means comprehensive collections of internal documents with which to study the inner workings and daily functioning of organisations. Let me develop this point regarding the organisations and groups analysed. With respect to the ATE, it produced documents on paper mainly up to 2014, and digital documents principally afterwards. Digital material can be requested from the secretariat of the ATE via email. Documents on paper are stored in boxes, passed from president to president and stored privately by each president during her term. 2 A publicly available catalogue of ATE documents does not exist. Thus, researchers cannot access them. As for the ‘Women and Theology’ groups, their material vestiges are stored (if at all) in the private homes of members. 3 Regarding the Forum of Studies on Women, in 2009 and for previous publications (Valiente, 2015a, 2015b, 2017), I interviewed relatives and close friends of the Forum’s founder Pilar Bellosillo (1913–2003) and its last leader María Salas (1922–2008). In these interviews, the archive of the Forum was never mentioned, and I was unable to locate it afterwards. Regarding the Collective of Women in Church, it donated some of its materials to Ca la Dona. 4 Ca la Dona are premises in the city of Barcelona granted by the Barcelona local council to the feminist movement. On 27 July 2022, a digital search in the catalogue of the documentation centre of Ca la Dona with the key word ‘Dones en l’Església’ found eighty items, most of which are publications by the collective that can be obtained in libraries.
Most sources used for this article are published in Spanish, which is my native tongue. I am also fully proficient in reading Catalan, the language of the remaining sources. In the three types of sources (bibliography, printed primary documents and press clippings), this research tried to find evidence that identifies the cultural impacts of the protest and the factors facilitating or impeding such cultural consequences. The search for evidence in the sources was deduced from the literature on the cultural consequences of social movements reviewed above. The analysis of the sources did not require the use of coding or a qualitative research software programme. This study made every effort to find evidence from at least two unrelated sources.
Spanish Catholic Feminism: Cultural Impacts but Absence of Policy Outcomes
The feminist protest within the Catholic Church in post-authoritarian Spain has produced principally cultural impacts. As shown next, the main cultural impacts have been: (i) scholarship on feminist theology, and (ii) women-friendly materials for religious reflection and practice.
As for scholarship on feminist theology, it is the output that is elaborated mainly (but not exclusively) by the more academically oriented groups such as the ATE. Historically in Spain, theology departments and colleges were managed by the Catholic Church and not by secular universities or the state. Theology studies were designed to provide men with training to become priests. As only men can be ordained as priests, men formed the totality of the student body and the faculty (Salas, 1993; de Miguel, 2002). The first Spanish women who wanted to study theology had to study abroad, mainly in other European countries (Salas, 1996).
In the 1970s, (very few) women started to study theology in Spain (Bautista, 2015). These female pioneers were taught a Catholic doctrine centred on male experiences, including priesthood. When women were referred to—if at all—they were portrayed in negative ways, such as carriers of a superficial, emotional and ritualistic type of religiosity, if not simply as sinners and individuals who foster men’s concupiscence. When studying the Bible, the emphasis was placed on male religious characters. In the few stances when female characters were analysed, such as the Virgin Mary (Jesus’s mother), professors emphasised virtues such as obedience, submission and modesty.
Some of the first Spanish women who studied theology (and subsequent cohorts of feminist women theologians) developed another type of theology, centred on women’s historical and current religious experiences. When studying the Bible, they studied in depth women religious figures, who constitute a minority of Bible characters but are not an irrelevant group (Navarro and Bernabé, 1995). An example was the Magdalene. As co-founder and former president of the ATE Carmen Bernabé (in Navarro and Bernabé, 1995, p. 121) explained: ‘Across centuries, [the Magdalene] … had almost become the epitome of the female sinner (prostitute) […] It became urgent to read the Gospel with new eyes to recover the Magdalene’s image of a disciple of Jesus from the beginning, the first witness of His resurrection and … the voice for the voiceless’. 5
In addition to women in the Bible, Spanish Catholic feminist theologians paid attention to religious women throughout the history of Christianity. For instance, for centuries in Europe, communities of religious women were founded. Officially, these communities were supervised by the Catholic hierarchy. But in practice in some cases, their women leaders managed to govern the daily life of their communities autonomously. These religious women elaborated a rich religious literature based on their mystical experiences (Arana, 1992; Navarro and Bernabé, 1995).
Spanish feminist women theologians have tried to write a collective history of women’s Catholicism by explicitly linking the aforementioned female characters in the Bible and religious women of the past to the current mobilisation by Catholic feminists (Amell, Ripollès and Tomàs, 2011; López, 2020). As a member of the Forum of Studies on Women, María José Arana (1992, p. 22) stated, ‘we, women, link ourselves with our elderly sisters (our predecessors) and our women successors to build a common historical path based in solidarity’. The project of elaborating this collective history of women’s Catholicism was defined as peremptory. Member of the ATE Pilar de Miguel (2002, p. 14) made the following affirmation about current women’s groups: ‘the absence of their history … contributes to their invisibility, which is the mother of all evils’.
Feminist theology produced by Spanish Catholic feminists is also characterised by its attempts to use jargon-free language. Only a tiny minority of Spanish Catholic feminist theologians became scholars hired by theology departments (Navarro, 2018; see below). Thus, the audience that feminist women theologians had in mind when writing texts was not only or mainly a scholarly community, but Catholic women without formal training in theology who were interested in theology or Catholicism in general.
The need to study Catholicism in depth was experienced not only by the most academically oriented activists, but also by other types of Catholic feminists. At the beginning of the mobilisation, Catholic feminists knew very little about theology. They had been told since childhood that women’s subordination within the Church was mandated by God, predicated in the Bible as a literal truth and subsequently impossible to change (Aleixandre, 2021). But Catholic feminists suspected that women’s inferior status within the Church was a social situation created in the past by a misogynist Church hierarchy, was not inherent to Catholicism and consequently was able to be changed. Thus, Catholic feminists needed theological knowledge to analyse the true causes of women’s inferior status within their Church (Amell, Ripollès and Tomàs, 2011).
Turning now to the second cultural impact, women-friendly materials for religious reflection and practice: as praying is an important Catholic practice, the ATE created prayer books for Catholic women. These prayer books were written putting women’s experiences at the centre of religious practice. For instance, their authors reflected on the personal relationships that they had forged as daughters, female friends, female co-workers, wives or mothers (Gómez-Acebo, 2001).
On the other hand, the Forum of Studies on Women elaborated a set of nine booklets for Catholic women’s (small) groups. In these groups, women work together to obtain a deeper knowledge of the Bible or the Catholic doctrine, reflect on how they live their religiosity or pray. One of the aims of these nine booklets is to raise awareness of women’s inequality within the Church. These booklets also contain practical tips on how to establish a Catholic women’s small group, and how to keep this group active and vibrant over time (Arana, 1995). In addition, the Forum of Studies on Women strongly supported ecumenism (the belief that the different Christian denominations should work together) and interfaith dialogue (cooperative relations among people of different religious traditions). Subsequently, the Forum of Studies on Women prepared another set of nine booklets targeted to women’s groups who wanted to engage in ecumenical and interfaith encounters (Arana, 1999).
Replicating the topics of feminist theology research described above, women-friendly materials make reference to female characters in the Bible and the history of Christianity. These materials portray these female characters (and current women) as active individuals confronting complex situations and dilemmas, and acting autonomously. In contrast, in mainstream materials, women are nearly always invisible. When they are explicitly mentioned (if at all), complexity is not a trope, and submissiveness, passivity, modesty and obedience are predicated as virtues relentlessly (Gómez-Acebo, 2001; Aleixandre, 2021).
Before explaining how Spanish Catholic feminists have managed to produce and disseminate the cultural outputs described above, it is important to note that Spanish Catholic feminists have not achieved any policy goals at all. Policy goals are objectives whose achievement necessarily requires decisions made by the Church hierarchy. The general aim pursued by Spanish Catholic feminists was an improvement of women’s position within the Church. Different Spanish Catholic feminists have different ideas of what this improvement means. For some Catholic feminists, women’s position within the Church needs to be upgraded but should not necessarily be the same as that of men. More concretely, some Spanish Catholic feminists have demanded that within the parameters permitted by Canon law (the law that regulates the Catholic Church internally), women are given the maximum possible voice and responsibility within parishes, dioceses and the organs that govern the Spanish Catholic Church. Other Catholic feminists have advanced further claims. In the Roman Catholic Church, the key to all decision-making positions is priesthood and only men can be ordained priests (Katzenstein, 1998), so these Catholic feminists have also demanded women’s ordination (Bautista, 2015).
Even excluding the most stringent demand advanced by some Catholic feminists (women’s ordination), an examination of women’s general position within the Spanish Catholic Church in recent decades leads to the conclusion that Catholic feminists have not achieved any policy goals (whether formally or informally, at the level of the praxis in specific parishes). As Mercedes Navarro (2018, p. 162), co-founder and former president of the ATE, synthesised, regarding the policy goal of improving women’s position within the Church, ‘I have neither seen any significant advance, nor do I expect any advance in the short and medium term’.
Catholic Feminists Achieving Cultural Impacts: An Interpretation
This section argues that the production and diffusion of cultural outputs by Spanish Catholic feminists after 1975 has taken place in spite of the uncompromising attitude of the Church hierarchy towards feminist demands, mainly thanks to the support of allies within the Church. Additionally, Spanish Catholic feminists have skilfully used the language of Spanish as a vehicle to formulate and spread their views in Spain and beyond (specifically in Latin America). Further, to disseminate their cultural outputs, Spanish Catholic feminists have utilised their positions within the Church (as catechists in parishes) and also their positions in society (as instructors of Catholicism in the pre-university education system).
The Uncompromising Attitude of the Church Hierarchy
Approximately from the second Vatican Council onwards, in countries other than Spain such as the United States and Canada, Catholic feminists managed to start a public conversation about the subordinate role of women within the Church. At least some members of the Church hierarchy participated in this public conversation, and a small proportion of them even showed a non-belligerent attitude towards some demands advanced by Catholic feminists (Salas, 1993; Katzenstein, 1998). In Germany, after the 2018 report on sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy, in 2019, the Catholic Church established an assembly of lay citizens and the clergy to discuss the scandal and other topics, including the role of women within the Church. In a context of high mobilisation of German Catholic feminists and with the support of a part (though only a part) of the German Catholic hierarchy, this assembly is expected to finish its deliberations likely making radical recommendations such as the end of obligatory celibacy for priests, blessings for same-sex marriages or women’s ordination (The Economist, 2022).
Conversely, the Church hierarchy in Spain has always displayed a contemptuous approach towards feminism, which has consisted of ignoring all feminist claims, including those made by Catholic feminist groups. Mercedes López (2020, pp. 7, 8), founding member of ‘Women and Theology’ groups and active member for more than three decades, referred to the ‘Church hierarchy’s ignorance and indifference towards our groups in Spain’, and the Church hierarchy’s absolute lack of interest to know ‘anything about “Women and Theology” at annual or bi-annual meetings’. In 2011, reflecting on the twenty-five years of existence of the Catalonia-based Collective of Women in Church, its co-founder and former president Sefa Amell stated:
It has been a difficult journey. We have not received any help from the Church hierarchy. We have only (and rarely) received nice words from some priests who were our friends, together with direct or indirect prohibitions from bishops, for instance, to participate in activities that had already been prepared. We have also even been expelled from premises where our presence had been established […] The Church hierarchy has always put us in a position of inferiority, where we have suffered from misunderstandings, scorn and ridicule. (Amell, 2011, p. 29)
The opposition of the Spanish Church hierarchy to feminism was anticipated by Catholic feminists since the beginning of their mobilisation. Writing about Catholic feminists of that time, María Salas (1993, p. 169), member of the Forum of Studies on Women, explained that ‘they had fought to obtain spaces of liberty and decision-making within the Church. They had equipped themselves with plenty of patience as they had envisaged that the fight would be extremely long’. Various groups and organisations of Catholic feminists opted to be civil associations rather than church groups, including, among others, the Catalonia-based Collective of Women in Church (Amell, Ripollès and Tomàs, 2011), the ATE, 6 ‘Women and Theology’ groups (López, 2020) and the Forum of Studies on Women (Salas, 1996). Being recognised by the state as civil associations allowed Catholic feminist groups to enjoy more autonomy from the Church hierarchy and also permitted them to apply for state subsidies.
Facing the Church hierarchy’s unalterable antipathy towards feminism, Catholic feminists have taken additional precautions. For example, feminist women theologians have been very careful crafting their research within the Catholic orthodoxy, in order to avoid the punishment that non-orthodox theologians receive, ranging from reprimands to excommunication. Remaining within the Catholic orthodoxy implies avoiding controversial issues such as the voluntary termination of pregnancy. Generally speaking, Spanish Catholic feminists studied in this research have remained silent on the topic of abortion in their mobilisation.
Inevitably, the hierarchy’s disapproval of feminist claims made some activists leave the mobilisation, while some others abandoned the Church altogether (Salas, 1996). Others remained but, understandably, experienced fatigue. Mercedes Navarro (2018, p. 162), co-founder and former president of the ATE, confessed: ‘so many of us show signs of long-term exhaustion after having suffered censorship, accusations, denunciations and ecclesiastic processes inquiring about what we do, publish, think and envision […] The Catholic Church has not stopped being patriarchal and sexist’.
Allies’ Support
Allies’ support of Catholic feminist activism has been key for the attainment of cultural impacts. First, some publishing houses facilitated the publication of feminist theology and women-friendly materials for religious reflection and practice (Martínez, 2018). Connections between founding members of the ATE and publishing house Desclée de Brouwer helped establish the now-extinct series of books on feminist theology titled ‘En Clave de Mujer’ (‘From a Woman’s Perspective’). It comprises twenty-six books published between 1997 and 2009. Another series of feminist theology books is titled ‘Aletheia’. It is the result of the collaboration between the ATE and the publishing house Verbo Divino (Divine Word). This ongoing series also comprises translations into Spanish of feminist theology elaborated abroad, and works by feminist theologians invited by the ATE to its periodic conferences. Verbo Divino is owned by the Congregación del Verbo Divino (Society of the Divine Word), which is a Catholic missionary religious congregation (for men). A third series of feminist theology books, ‘Débora’, is published by Claret Publications and is also ongoing. Claret Publications is owned by the Claretians, a religious congregation (for men) of the Catholic Church. These three publishing houses have published most of the works used as sources for this article. In addition, editors of journals on religious issues (and other topics) targeting a general audience have agreed to publish articles by Catholic feminists. An example of this type of journal is the theology journal Concilium (de Miguel, 2002; Aleixandre, 2021), which is also published by Divine Word publishing house. Without the support of these publishing houses and journal editors, views by Catholic feminists would have remained unknown beyond their circles. The support of these key allies was necessary for disseminating Catholic feminists’ views and proposals among their constituency (Catholic women).
Second, some religious orders and congregations (of women and men) and other organisations have provided Catholic feminists with premises to hold large meetings (Navarro, 2018). For instance, the informal groups named ‘Women and Theology’ have regularly held annual or bi-annual general meetings in some cities of Spain such as Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Santiago de Compostela, Seville and Valencia, among others. ‘Women and Theology’ members have attended plenary speeches by feminist theologians, participated in small workshops and prayed together (López, 2020). Without the help of these allies, these large meetings would not have taken place, as the Catholic feminist groups studied do not have any large premises of their own.
Third, in theology departments and colleges, some scholars in key positions decided to hire a very limited number of feminist theologians. The Comillas Pontifical University was a pioneer institution in this regard (Martínez, 2018). Although feminist theologians working as scholars are very few and work only in some places, such as the aforementioned Comillas Pontifical University or the University of Deusto, they have jobs which in part consist of elaborating theology (including, if they choose to, feminist theology). With a lot of precautions, they have attempted—as faculty members—to pass their knowledge of feminist theology onto their students and other faculty members (Bautista, 2015; Aleixandre, 2021). Both Comillas and Deusto are private Catholic universities run by the Jesuits, a religious order of the Catholic Church (for men).
Spanish as a Vehicle for Mobilisation
In relation to Spanish language itself, the main cultural outputs of Spanish Catholic feminists (feminist theology and religious materials) are texts. The fact that these texts are in Spanish has fostered the cultural influence of Spanish Catholic feminists among their constituency and beyond (specifically in Latin America). 7 Feminist theology elaborated by Spanish Catholic feminists serves to illustrate this point. In Spain, linguistically speaking, the Catholic feminists’ constituency of Catholic women is a captive audience for cultural outputs produced by the mobilisation studied here, as only a minority of the population masters foreign languages. In 2010 in Spain, only 20 per cent of the adult population affirmed that they spoke English well enough to have a conversation. 8 Globally, the main centres of feminist theology production are located principally, among other places, in North America and continental Europe. Subsequently, main feminist theological works are published in languages other than Spanish, such as English, German or French. Some of these works have been translated into Spanish (de Miguel, 2002). Notwithstanding these translations, if Spanish Catholic feminists had not published their works, Spanish-speaking Catholics interested in feminist theology but not fluent in foreign languages would have had access to only a very limited number of pieces.
What is more, Spanish has been the vehicle that has permitted Spanish Catholic feminist theologians to spread their cultural outputs to Latin America. Publications on Spanish feminist theology have been exported to Latin America and have been read there (de Miguel, 2002). This is not surprising since in the Spanish publishing sector as a whole (and not exclusively publications on feminist theology), in 2021, exports (¤389 million) outnumbered imports (¤106 million). Latin America is the main destination of exports from the Spanish publishing sector (¤181 million in 2021; Federación de Gremios de Editores de España, 2022).
The shared language of Spanish has also facilitated the fact that Latin American feminist theology has influenced Spanish feminist theology since its origins, as Spanish feminist theologians have regularly read works by Latin American feminist theologians (Martínez, 2018). Spanish and Latin American feminist theology share central characteristics, including the focus on women’s lives and experiences and the attempt to elaborate a history of women’s religious experiences (Aquino, 1998; Gebara, 2008; Martínez, 2018). However, in comparison with Spanish feminist theology, Latin American feminist theology is more concerned with income inequality (Gebara, 2008), as Latin American societies are among the most unequal in the world. Additionally, Latin American feminist theology reflected earlier (and more) than Spanish feminist theology on colonialism and race (Aquino, 1998), as most Latin American countries were colonies of Spain.
Shared language also facilitated the development of face-to-face (and increasingly online) links between Spanish and Latin American Catholic feminist theologians (and Catholic feminists in general). For example, when grassroots and decentralised ‘Women and Theology’ groups gathered together in their general meetings periodically (every year or every two years), at times they invited Latin American Catholic feminist theologians to deliver keynote talks, for example Geraldina Céspedes (in 2008) or Ivone Gebara (in 2010 and 2018) (López, 2020). This denotes close ties based on a shared linguistic basis. 9
Granted, Spanish Catholic feminist theologians have tried to connect their cultural outputs with what is being done by feminist theologians in countries outside Latin America. A minority of Spanish Catholic theologians have participated regularly in international conferences where they have presented their works and have been exposed themselves to research conducted abroad. Examples of these academic conferences are those organised by the European Society of Women in Theological Research (de Miguel, 2002), which Spanish Catholic feminist theologians such as Carmen Bernabé, Teresa Forcades, Silvia Martínez and Mercedes Navarro have attended.
Mobilising from Activists’ Positions within the Church and Society
Regarding the locations used by Catholic feminists to disseminate their cultural outputs, it is important to stress that these activists are still contained within the Church. They are insiders, although situated at the margins (de Miguel, 2002). From their peripheral positions within the Church, Catholic feminists have spread their views. For example, some of the Spanish Catholic feminists under study here have been (or are) catechists (Amell, Ripollès and Tomàs, 2011). Catechists are teachers of the basics of Catholic doctrines. Catechism is offered mainly to children, adolescents and young adults in Catholic parishes across Spain, for instance before taken sacraments such as (first) communion or confirmation. In fact, the majority of Catholic catechists are women (Salas, 1996). From their positions as catechists, Spanish Catholic feminists have been able to spread their conception of Catholicism, and have used their cultural outputs as complementary texts in their catechism. Spanish Catholic feminists have also contributed with their writings to the elaboration of materials for catechism (Salas, 1996) and the magazine entitled Catequistas (Catechists), which is a magazine for the training of these Catholic practitioners (Aleixandre, 2021).
To disseminate their cultural outputs, Spanish Catholic feminists have also used their positions in society, for instance as instructors of Catholicism in the pre-university education system. In Spain, Catholicism is offered as a subject to students of pre-primary, primary and mandatory secondary schooling and Baccalaureate, although the subject is optional for students. The majority of students of primary and mandatory secondary schooling are enrolled in Catholicism (63 per cent and 60 per cent respectively), as are over a third (36 per cent) of Baccalaureate students (from data from the academic year 2018–2019; Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional, 2021). People interested in the religion have found jobs as instructors of Catholicism. Some instructors of the subject are members of Catholic feminist groups (Bautista, 2015). In some of their classes, sources and texts elaborated by Catholic feminists have been used as complementary materials, and Spanish Catholic feminists have disseminated women-friendly interpretations of Catholicism.
However, the influence of instructors of Catholicism on pupils’ minds should not be over-emphasised, as students, especially those above primary school, consider this subject (rightly) to be one that is not strictly evaluated, as well as in relation to the accelerated process of secularisation that has taken place in Spanish society from approximately the 1960s (Pérez-Agote, 2010). As a result, in June 2022, only 18 per cent of adult Spaniards considered themselves practising Catholics, while 39 per cent considered themselves non-practising Catholics (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 2022).
Conclusion
The two main cultural outcomes attained by the feminist protest within the Spanish Catholic Church after 1975 have been feminist theology and women-friendly materials for religious reflection and practice. Following Van Dyke and Taylor’s (2019) typology of the cultural consequences of social movements, these two cultural outputs can be classified as artefacts and products, since this category includes, among others, music, art or texts. Thinking of their broader intended audience, Spanish Catholic feminists produced texts that were jargon-free and easier to read and use than if they had been thinking merely about academic audiences or audiences formed by women like them, that is, women with a previous long practice of working in women’s groups for religious reflection and practice. The case analysed in this article shows that by consciously crafting their cultural products in ways accessible to the average person, activists have some room to produce cultural products.
The uncompromising attitude towards feminism held by the Spanish Catholic Church hierarchy made impossible the extraction of any policy output from the Church hierarchy. In contrast, Spanish Catholic feminists have managed to produce and diffuse cultural outputs. Studies of social movements in general have consistently shown that allies are important for movements to achieve their goals. This point has also been stressed by the literature on movements targeting non-state institutions in particular, such as the case of Spanish Catholic feminists after 1975, demonstrated here. In comparison with the Spanish Church hierarchy, the allies of Catholic feminists occupy more peripheral positions within the Church, as they come mainly from religious congregations and orders. Nonetheless, their help and direct support (through publishing houses, meeting venues and job opportunities) made a difference to Catholic feminist activism. Subsequently, movements trying to reach impacts for their constituencies should look for the support of different types of potential allies occupying numerous positions.
Additionally, Spanish Catholic feminists used their (peripheral) positions within the Church (for example, as catechists in parishes) and in society (for instance, as instructors of Catholicism within the pre-university education system) to disseminate their cultural outputs. These were crafted in Spanish, the main (and only) language for the majority of Spaniards. The level of proficiency in foreign languages by the population at large and the inclusion of Catholicism in the school curriculum are two characteristics of Spanish society. This case study shows that for movements targeting non-state institutions, the relevant context for analysis comprises not only the non-state institutions themselves, but also the society at large where the non-state institutions exist. Context is not everything, but it may form an important facilitator or hindrance for cultural consequences of activism.
The cultural impacts of social movements have been the object of study (or the dependent variable) in this article. In contrast, future studies may treat cultural consequences as an independent variable that could, for example, foster movement continuity across time. In post-authoritarian Spain, Catholic feminists have kept their protest alive for decades. Often, the same women were activists and leaders from their youth or middle age to their death. An example serves to illustrate this point. In 2011, a publication celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Catalonia-based Collective of Women in Church had an obituary section in remembrance of activists who had passed away (Amell, Ripollès and Tomàs, 2011). An attentive reading of this section shows that former activists often participated in the protest for a long time span or their entire adult lives. Despite being unable to achieve any tangible policy impact, the production of cultural outputs may have provided activists with a sense of efficacy. Until this type of study is more fully undertaken, this article has identified in this case study of Spanish Catholic feminists certain cultural consequences of social movements and the factors helping and impeding their attainment.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
For invaluable comments on earlier versions, I owe thanks to Rosemary Barberet, Xavier Coller, Roberto Garvía, Carmen González, Rodolfo Gutiérrez, Leonid Peisakhin, Juan Carlos Rodríguez, Esther Ruiz and the anonymous reviewers. This article is dedicated to my daughter Clara, the joy and inspiration of my life.
Funding
The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Grants number PGC2018-097232-B-C21 and PGC2018-099909-B-I00).
1
In this article, the terms ‘impacts’, ‘consequences’ and ‘outputs’ are used interchangeably.
2
Personal email communication with Silvia Martínez Cano, president of the ATE, dated 25 July 2022.
3
Personal email communication with Mercedes López, a year-long member of the Seville group, dated 26 July 2022.
4
Personal email communication with Puà Perpiñá Salvatella, secretariat of the Collective, dated 27 July 2022.
5
All translations from Spanish (and Catalan) into English are mine.
6
7
In addition, beyond the Spanish language, the Catalonia-based Collective of Women in Church has published in Catalan books on gender and religion, proceedings of summer and autumn courses on theology and a quarterly magazine titled Paraules i Fets de Dones (Women’s Words and Facts) (Amell, Ripollès and Tomàs, 2011).
8
Interpretation provided by Professor Juan C. Rodríguez Pérez, based on his data analysis from Eurobarometer 73.3 (European Commission, 2010).
9
A minority of Latin-American feminist theologians are from Brazil and speak Portuguese. Some of these theologians also speak Spanish, including Ivone Gebara. Some of their works have been translated into Spanish (see, for example, Gebara, 2000; Gebara and Bingemer, 1988; Tepedino, 1994). In addition, Portuguese and Spanish are very close languages.
Author Biography
Celia Valiente is Professor of Sociology at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain. Her main research interests are the women’s movement and gender-equality policies in Spain from a comparative perspective. She can be contacted at: