Health and religion

Respect for the law on religious freedom in the hospital sector in Spain is recognised in and regulated by various legal texts: the Law on Religious Freedom of 1980, the Agreements between the Holy See and the Spanish State of 1979 and lastly the Agreements between the various dioceses and regional governments on the one hand and the 1992 Cooperation Agreements between the Spanish State and the Jewish, Protestant and Muslim communities on the other hand.

The Fundacion Pluralismo y Convivencia has for its part written a guide recommending how to manage religious diversity in hospitals (see the “official documents” on the website).

Nevertheless, the matter is not a topic of discussion at political level and the practices strongly related to the Catholic past of these institutions are still visible today. The religious service offered is structured around various religious traditions and there do not exist, as in other countries, any religious services of a multi-religious or multi-faith character.