<![CDATA[Ara Balears in English - Religion]]> 10 <![CDATA[Papists]]> I highly doubt there is anyone left on the face of the earth who is not yet aware: in recent days, the visit of Pope Leo XIV to Madrid, Catalonia, and the Canary Islands has monopolized a large part of the media's news diet, both state and national. Any topic has been good to stir the pot: the proportion of Catalan he would use during homilies, the language of the blessing of the Jesus tower, who sang and performed at the shows, who would meet him, who wouldn't...Of all this, however, there has been one aspect that has particularly caught my attention, and I believe few people, perhaps out of shame, their own or others', or rather out of interest (in this case, entirely their own) have commented much on: Prevost's visit and speech to the Congress of Deputies.First of all, it is problematic that politicians of all stripes, and especially progressives, who should defend the non-confessionality (if not the secularism) of the State, have tried to pass off the visit of a religious leader as that of a head of state. That the highest representative of a religion on Earth visits a country is no small matter, and it certainly has its interest, especially for believers of that confession. But giving this gentleman spaces, focus, and microphones that should belong exclusively to the people and their representatives, such as Congress, should make us question whether everything has been done very well.Would anyone think of inviting Donald Trump to defend the legalization of weapons under the watchful eye of President Armengol? Who would find it normal for leaders like Putin and Netanyahu to go and harangue Spaniards to participate in their wars under Tejero's bullet holes? Would the deputies of practically all political parties applaud after hearing a fierce apology for the death penalty against realities such as homosexuality, transsexuality, or "adultery"?This, more or less, is what the Government of Pedro Sánchez and the upper house of the State have allowed: to give a voice in a place that should be primarily for the representatives of the citizens to a person who has gone to defend theses that attack not only current laws in our State, such as equal marriage, voluntary interruption of pregnancy, or euthanasia, but also some basic principles also enshrined in the Constitution (alas!).I ask myself if this would have happened fifteen years ago, during Zapatero's government. I ask myself if José María Aznar, or Felipe González, would have dared. Surely we will never know and we will have to settle for this image: a religious leader lecturing the people's representatives on topics that we have already resolved, that we are clear about, on which we should not have asked for the opinion of a man who will neither marry nor ever get pregnant, to mention only the topics that concern us. We can rest assured, however: in the end, all the politicians knew how to find a way to emphasize that the speech had favored them. They have become papists.

]]> <![CDATA[Believe and practice]]> The CIS figures say that the percentage of people who attend mass in Spain as a whole does not even reach twenty percent of the total population. In Catalonia, the percentage drops to less than half. The number of believers is higher, as we know, than those who actually practice. If we are talking about Roman Catholicism, this must oblige us to do something; the simple rhetorical manifestation of faith should not be enough. Almost half of the population defines themselves as atheist, agnostic, or indifferent. And perhaps the most noteworthy thing would be to know if it is more in the common good's interest for us to be Christians or not, or if things would collectively go better for us if there were an agreement, of Christian roots, among all of us. The visit of Pope Leo XIV to our country serves to make us ask many questions, especially seeing once again the fervor that a Holy Father arouses, far above what a pop star or any other civilian figure can motivate. All this passion has a point of stridency and comedy, even ugliness and posturing, and it forces us to ask ourselves why, while seemingly so devout and good people, we live in a society so unequal, unnecessarily violent, selfish, intolerant, and dismissive of differences. And it reminds us that the Church has been a den of criminals and pedophiles, protected by the curia, still an authority that seeks more to protect than to collaborate with justice and side with the victims. It is absolutely abominable. Because faith and morality must be one thing, and deeds another, and sympathizing with a pedophilia mafia (and art collecting and real estate speculation) must be yet another. I tried to listen to the pope's speech to politicians, but the first thing I thought was that it should not have happened, or not in the seat of popular sovereignty. A religious leader should not give political speeches in a parliamentary chamber, because we are not in an Islamic regime but in a liberal democracy that has separated the state from the Church. Obviously, he did politics there, or expressed his ideas in defense of 'human life', understood as a criticism of abortion and euthanasia. But nevertheless, not even the pope himself must believe what he preaches; he is well aware that neither here nor anywhere else will abortion be prohibited again, and the right to die with dignity is being implemented everywhere, because our life is ours, and not God's or the vicar's. All in all, it gives a rather pathetic whiff of intellectual and political decadence, or of a faith that is not authentic, but rather a faith in faith itself, or a belief in when beliefs used to work. Meaning is the longing for meaning. Even the Pope knows that God is dead and that deep down he lives on nostalgia. Paolo Sorrentino, with his series about popes, has understood all of this in an admirable way: everything is sustained by aestheticism and the will to believe that belief still has a strength that can no longer be drawn from anywhere, because we all know that it only has the entity of comedy or guilty hypocrisy. 

]]> <![CDATA[The Catholic incoherence]]> The President of the Government, Marga Prohens, lamented in the last Parliament session having been once again “attacked for displaying a religious symbol”. And then she paraphrased the pope in Spanish: “Raise your eyes”, she demanded. The fact is that Prohens demonstrated that she does not understand the background of this situation.

]]> <![CDATA[Normal things that are actually rare]]>

If we take a certain distance from the activities we usually do, someone will come to the conclusion that there are some very strange ones. It often happens to me. Suddenly, I think I'm in a completely surreal situation and I feel strange, because I'm not comfortable if everything doesn't make sense. In fact, being rational to the point of irrationality could be the first normal thing that is actually strange.

]]> <![CDATA[The TSJIB annuls part of the Primary curriculum on Religion]]>

The High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJIB) has annulled part of the decree regulating the curriculum for Primary Education and orders the Government to modify the regulation of the subject of Religion. Specifically, the sentence renders Article 8 of the norm ineffective.

]]> <![CDATA[To die when you want]]>

The obsession with death that exists from certain interpretations of religious creeds and now from the so-called ultra-agenda – more or less stale conservatism – is indeed worrying and revealing. According to Christian religion, we would be told that our life does not belong to us, and therefore it is not right to want to die or end it when we sensibly wish. Life is a kind of divine gift, of which we are only custodians, like a wonderful book that is not ours and which we must return more or less intact to the Librarian Above. This may be so, or it could be, but the truth is that we have no certainty that things respond to these parameters. In the end, God does not manifest himself, but priests do. 

]]> <![CDATA[Religion is sinking in public schools, but teachers are resisting: "The square is theirs."]]>

The subject of Religion in the Balearic Islands This reinforces a downward trend among public school students.While enrollment in state-subsidized private schools has increased, the total number of students enrolled in state-subsidized private schools has fallen from 63,148 in the 2022-2023 academic year to 59,561 in 2025-2026, a reduction of approximately 3,600 students (-5.68%). This decline is particularly significant in the state school system, which has dropped from 24,518 students to 19,552 in recent years, a decrease of 4,966 students, or 20%. This decline has notably affected the presence of Religion as a subject in state schools, where there are fewer and fewer interested students. Conversely, state-subsidized private schools are experiencing the opposite trend: enrollment has increased from 38,630 to 40,009 students, a rise of 1,379 students, or 3.5%.

]]> <![CDATA[The best horror movie of the year]]>

After the surprising double victory of the correct ones The 47 and The infiltratorThe 40th edition of the Goya Awards will take place without any mystery. Sundays It will prevail over the rest because it is the best film among the nominees. Director Alauda Ruiz de Azúa uses teenager Ainara's announcement of becoming a cloistered nun to dissect the underlying family dynamics that trigger her decision. The father is a widower more concerned with upholding the conventions of marriage than with meeting his daughters' emotional needs. He faces opposition from his sister, convinced that her niece is wasting her life.

]]> <![CDATA[The irresponsibility of fueling Islamophobia]]> The far right is playing with fire. It does so deliberately when it singles out a segment of the population—in this case, the Muslim population—as a source of conflict, a cultural threat, and supposed social degradation. Fueling Islamophobia is an exercise in colossal political irresponsibility, because the consequences of this discourse are not merely rhetorical: they directly impact coexistence, cohesion, and social peace in the Balearic Islands.

]]> <![CDATA[Of pious women, Pharisees, and heretics]]> Secularism is one of the most important achievements of Western democracies. Separating the state and laws from religious beliefs is a fundamental step forward in guaranteeing civil liberties (including freedom of worship) and ensuring internal cohesion and the pluralistic and convivial nature of democratic societies. Governance mixed with religion tends to generate authoritarian or outright totalitarian policies, which amounts to criminal governments. A theocratic state like Iran massacres its population under the direct orders of its clerics, who do not hesitate to label citizens as terrorists deserving of execution. A democracy like Israel, led by ultra-religious and far-right leaders, becomes a corrupt power machine, capable of perpetrating the countless crimes of the Gaza genocide (which, incidentally, continues, even though the media has shifted its focus). The current aspiring global dictator, the delusional Trump, and his shadowy lieutenants (Rubio, Vance, Sedgeth) often invoke God and declare themselves divinely called to a transcendent mission, to justify what are nothing more than abuses of power committed by a gang of thieves who, unfortunately, have access. One of their first victims, another dictator, Maduro, acted similarly, but on a domestic Venezuelan level.

]]> <![CDATA[The course of the controversy: The Government endorses a sex education course coordinated by a deacon]]>

The decision by the Ministry of Education to promote a teacher training course entitled The role of religion in sexual and affective education: new perspectives This has ignited a debate about the possible introduction of religious moral ideology into education, especially in public schools. Despite being an official course, the initiative is generating concern among teachers' unions and associations, who denounce the risk of conditioning students' perspectives on relationships and sexuality based on a specific confessional and moral viewpoint. They consider this incompatible with the principles of neutrality and pluralism that govern the education system and are extensively established by current legislation—the LOM (Organic Law on Sexual and Reproductive Health) refers to "affectivity and sexuality" eight times. The Regional Ministry of Education, through the Ibiza Teacher Training Center (CEP), has scheduled the course from March 3 to 31, 2026. It is aimed at secondary and high school religion teachers, primary school teachers, and secondary and high school teachers in general. Coordination is being handled by Pedro Miguel Ramírez Sánchez, permanent deacon of Ibiza and advisor on Catholic Religion at the CEP. A figure who combines weighty religious and institutional responsibilities.

]]> <![CDATA[Mystical Readings (II): The Primordial Animal Spirit]]> We cross, on the back of words, our sea-cemetery and an ocean with plastic banks, to the American continent, where the Uruguayan poet Marosa di Giorgio says mass. On one of her usual walks of observation through the countryside, a god in the form of a deer announces to her that her only destiny is to write poems. In the essay Mystics (WunderKammer, 2025), Begoña Méndez writes that "God, like music, is something that is not understood and only felt." Non-human nature has always spoken to us; when we listened to it, we interpreted it as a divinity, or a previous existence of the soul. Méndez recounts the stories of poets and thinkers who accepted this call, and describes feminine mysticism as "a heretical and dissident practice that restored the sacred dimension to the flesh." The body, the object that contains us, whose physical element we struggle to separate ourselves from when transcending space-time, takes on the function of a medium between life on Earth and the afterlife.

]]> <![CDATA[The religious figure accused of recruiting young people for jihad in Mallorca says the evidence is false.]]>

The Salafist preacher accused of recruiting and indoctrinating young people for jihad around a mosque in Inca, Tarik C., told the court that the police manipulated evidence against him and planted a fake video promoting terrorism on his computer while he was in prison. The cleric, whom Moroccan authorities banned from preaching in 2013 due to his radicalism, has been on trial since Monday at the National Court along with an alleged collaborator, Hussein FL, and four of his followers, who were supposedly recruited in Mallorca. The prosecution is seeking eight years in prison for Tarik C. and his alleged assistant for recruitment and terrorist indoctrination, and five years for the other defendants for self-indoctrination. The defense, for its part, requested acquittal.

]]> <![CDATA[12 centers, 727 students and 5 teachers: the subject of Islamic religion, in figures]]>

In the 2025-2026 academic year, twelve schools across the Balearic Islands will teach Islamic Religion, with a total of five teachers and 727 students enrolled. It should be noted that this subject is not offered automatically, but requires a minimum demand: public schools require at least ten families to apply, while private schools may be denied if it contradicts their specific ideology. The teaching of Islamic Religion in classrooms in the Balearic Islands is regulated by an agreement with the Islamic Commission of Spain, which expired in 2023. Since then, the Ministry of Education has been working with the parties involved to reach a new agreement.

]]> <![CDATA[Educació will comply with the ruling requiring a school in Palma to offer Islamic teaching.]]>

The Minister of Education and Universities, Antoni Vera, assured that his department will abide by the ruling of the High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJIB), which recognizes the right of a doll to receive Islamic instruction in a school in Palma. He announced that the text is being studied and that the resolution's relevance is being sought. Vera expressed his respect for the high court's ruling while also announcing that the agreement with the Islamic Commission on this matter is under review. The ruling opens the door for Islamic instruction, which is already offered in some schools in the Balearic Islands, to also be extended to Palma.

]]> <![CDATA[Calvià City Council sends schools a text against Islam]]>

The Calvià City Council sent a Vox motion against Islamic teaching to the municipality's schools. The text was approved in the plenary session with votes from the People's Party (PP). According to ARA Baleares, through various sources, this was not an ordinary email. On July 1, the minutes of the plenary session in which the City Council approved the text were sent through the municipal electronic office. Schools that wanted to read them had to identify themselves and generate a reading notice. But many did not open them. Others read them and deleted them automatically. In any case, no city council has jurisdiction over what is taught in the area's schools. Municipal functions focus on ensuring their maintenance and paying for their utilities.

]]> <![CDATA["There's a lot of marketing surrounding Saint Catherine Thomas."]]>

Fasting, sacrificing, walking with a cross on one's back, or wearing a crown of thorns. These are some of the paths that various mystical figures have used to reach what is known as the state of ecstasy, the connection with divinity. Religious figures such as Elisabet Cifre de Colonya, Joana Oliver Andreu, and Sister Anna Maria del Santísimo Sacramento, among many others, are some of the figures that writer Rosa Planas (Palma, 1957) includes in her book Majorcan mystics (Leonard Muntaner), a volume that aims to bring these women and their significance closer to the present day, give visibility to forgotten figures, and reveal a previously unknown dimension of Mallorcan religious culture. "There's a whole element of symbolism that seems abandoned today and that needs to be recovered," Planas claims.

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