Why are most Spanish people Catholic?

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Streetlights

Most of europe was dominated by the Catholic Church until the protestant reformation excluding england which was anglocian due to henry XIII not being on good terms with the pope. (He wanted a divorce from Katherine of aragorn and the Church forbid it.) Spain was loyal to the Catholic Church which was based in Rome. To this day most people in Spain are adamant Catholics.

Edit: The idiots below me don't realize you're talking about SPAIN not LATIN AMERICA...

Alejandro B

Alex and Gary must be idiot, they don't know the Spanish people are talking about are people from Spain, in Europe, no latin-Americans or Hispanics, who speak Spanish language but are not Spanish people.
That's dumb (are Americans English people? LoL)
The Spaniards (Spanish people) were who conquered central and southern America and not vice versa.

The answer to your question is: for historical reasons.

Ok, I explain you:
All Europeans were Catholic for centuries until a German monk named Martin Luther made the Protestant Reformation in 1516 and founded the rest of Christian Churches.

But that reform only succeed in central and northern Europe, so in places like Portugal, Spain, France, Italy or Austria and a part of southern-Germany people went on being Catholic until nowadays.
British people were Catholic too but had another reform made by the king Henry IV.

In fact, Catholic European countries and Protestant European countries were in war for decades.

Southern and Central American people (who are not Spaniards or Spanish people, but the speak Spanish language) are Catholic too because Spaniards (Spanish people) conquered them in 1492 and they forced them to become Catholics.

Dismayed

Cos they didn't have Henry V111 and the Reformation. We were nearly all Catholic in Europe.

guiri

I think that fact and fiction are being mixed here.

The following are FACTS.

Roman Catholicism reached Spain in the time of the Romans.
Perhaps it was not called that but Christianity was established in Spain during Roman times.

The Spainsh also conquered North America. That's why LA is called Los Angeles.

The Moors invaded Spain but did not stop people from being Christians.

After the reconquest, Spain had the inquisition which basically made it illegal not to be a Roman Catholic.

Just befor the Civil War only about 15% of people were practising Roman Catholics. In fact the President of the parliament said that Spain was no longer a Roman Catholic country.

Today most people are officially Catholic and it is dificult to be counted officially as a protestant. Most Spaniards are baptised,and have a first communion but fewer people percentage wise attend church regularly than in England.

So Spain is officially Roman Catholic but most people do not attend church.

Ok I may have generalised but the book follows!

rtorto

"What happened to make them Catholic??"

Well, you can blame it on Saint James the Apostle and many missionaries and priests that spreaded christianism when Hispania was a province of the Roman Empire.

Look, basically, Roman Catholicism was the original faith, the one and only branch of Christianism until the XI century. Afterwards, many heresies were successful and separated from the Church; first the orthodox, and much later (XVI century onwards) the luterans, calvinists, puritans, mormons, etc... while other heretics were crushed, like the catars, hussites, etc...

The spanish people just remained loyal to Rome.

Xabier

The Romans were Catholic... Spain was inhabited by Romans... they converted us from our Pegan ways...

that is why the religion is called ROMAN CATHOLIC

tomadetierratres

tras la reconquista de la espaÃ±a musulmana se autoproclamo espaÃ±a catolica con la union de todos los reinos

Jane S

Cause for 500 years, until 1975, it was ILLEGAL to NOT be Catholic, so most people over the age of 35 or so were RAISED Catholic, and that's what they believe.

Try doing a tiny bit of research...it isn't hard to find that information...All you have to do is look up the names of the kings and queens to figure that one out.

Just to straighten out the people who don't get Roman numerals...The British reformer was King Henry the VIII, not the 13, not the 4th!

And, from the reconquest of Granada, in 1492, and the expulsion of all people of other religions (there were thriving Jewish and Moorish communities all over Spain until that year) until 1975, when Franco died, and King Juan Carlos I made it legal to choose, with only a few breaks in the law (in the mid 1800s for about 5 years, and from 1930 -1936) it was illegal to NOT be Catholic...at least officially, as mentioned above.

And, yeah...lot of people talking about why there is a lot of Catholic influence in South America...not answering the question, but true!

cristasphoto

Conquistador/Brainwashing in the 1500s....

Gary B

When South America and Central American were conquered in the 1500s they were conquered by Roman Catholic Spaniards. Thus forcing all the native people to become Catholics and christians. Look up Cortez.

Alex L

Hernan Cortez conquered the Aztecs, or something like that. The America's, concentrating on central and southern america, were discovered by spain and like regions of europe that converted them to catholics.

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