The appropriations of the Church: from the house of a farmer from Bages to the mosque of Cordoba

Barcelona"We don't know the Church's heritage, but that's not the problem, because the institution can own and inherit assets. The real problem is that it has appropriated public goods by taking advantage of a Francoist privilege that has continued into democracy. It's a great plunder that worsened with the mortgage reform law of 1998", assures Antonio Manuel Rodríguez Ramos, professor of Civil Law at the University of Cordoba. Rodríguez co-authors, along with journalist Aristóteles Moreno Villafaina, the book El expolio de las inmatriculaciones de la iglesia. La mezquita de Córdoba y otros casos de libro (Akal).

The Mortgage Law, promulgated by the Francoist regime in 1946, allowed, according to the authors, "the greatest patrimonial plunder in the history of Spain". "It was a subtle but substantial way of paying for services rendered before, during and after the coup d'état", they add. With this privilege, the Catholic Church registered thousands of properties as if it were a public administration and without providing any documentation, only its word. There are temples but also many other properties, such as football fields, walls, garages and rural properties. "They would go to the registry and say: 'This is mine.' Since the Church and the Francoist Administration were practically the same thing, no edicts were needed nor was anyone informed. It was done with total opacity", insists Rodríguez. The affected parties did not even have the right to protest, while the rest of mortals, to register a property, had to prove ownership convincingly.

The case of Santa Maria del Mar

With the reform that Aznar's government approved in 1998, places of worship were included in this right of private registration. It was a change that the Church took advantage of to register cultural heritage of great historical value in its name, such as the Mosque of Cordoba or the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar, among many others. "The Mosque of Cordoba was conceived as a public building and, therefore, its construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance have been historically funded by public finances since its construction in the Andalusian era (785). The investments made in it amount to millions of euros, both by the State and by the Junta de Andalusia, the City Council, and the Provincial Council. Despite this undeniable popular connection, the temple was registered by the archbishopric in 2006," lament the authors.

In 2020, the Generalitat published an interactive map with all the properties registered in the territoryMoreno recalls that neighboring countries resolved this dilemma very differently. France, with the 1905 secularism law, ruled that the Church would become a private entity, but that all temples built throughout history with the community's effort and money would remain under the ownership and protection of the State. Portugal reached a similar agreement in its 1940 concordat: religious use, but state ownership. "In Spain, on the other hand, no real separation law was made and we looked the other way," he laments.

The list of the Catalan government

Although the law was repealed in 2015, the Church had already carried out thousands of privatizations. The authors are very critical of the fact that nothing was done for so many years. "The real problem arises in 1978, when, as if it were a non-aggression pact, it was decided not to touch this matter. And the problem is that, in order not to touch it, the Catholic Church took advantage of this Francoist privilege," states Rodríguez. Nevertheless, the two authors propose in the book different solutions and alternatives so that many properties return to being public assets and these matriculations are declared null and void.

In 2020, the Generalitat published an interactive map with all the assets matriculated in the territory: a total of 3,772 properties registered between 1946 and 2015, of which 1,518 are land, 349 are civil buildings, and 1,855 are places of worship. The Spanish government also published another list, but with a shorter time frame; a total of 34,961 properties between 1998 and 2015. Of these properties, 20,055 are temples or complementary dependencies, and 14,906 are properties "with other uses" (land, plots, dwellings, premises, etc.).

The judicial victory of Artà

There are examples of struggles against what the authors call a great spoliation in which the Catholic Church has suffered some defeat, such as that of the walls of the Mallorcan town of Artà. Historical documentation attests that it was taxes and the municipality itself that maintained the wall. In the 16th century, even the vicar confirmed that it was the municipal authority who had the obligation to preserve it. However, the Catholic Church registered two properties in the area in 1975 and 2015. In 2017, the Artà City Council filed a lawsuit to request the nullity and cancellation of the registration of the walls and interior courtyards. Justice sided with the council. "It is a very exceptional case," warn the authors.

It is not the only battle. Joan Casajoana is a farmer and owner of a property in Bages, comprising a house, land, the hermitage of Sant Pere de Vallhonestaand a small cemetery (Sant Vicenç de Castellet) that have been part of his family since the 10th century. He was greatly surprised when he discovered that the Church had registered everything in its name. After months of litigation, he managed to recover the house and the land, but the institution did not give up on either the cemetery or the hermitage.

The Navarrese case

On the other hand, the case of Navarra is especially interesting and different; in fact, it represents the most solid and important thread of the entire movement against registrations", affirm the authors. In Navarra there is a law on communal property from 1986. Communal properties are of public domain and are protected by the Spanish Constitution, but they have been lost over time, especially in rural areas, despite being cataloged. "What happened? That many town councils, due to negligence or lack of attention, neglected the matter and the Church registered a large quantity. In Navarra there is a platform of municipalities that has been working on this front for a long time. And now, for the first time in the entire State, the regional government has assigned a civil servant exclusively dedicated to comparing registered properties with communal records. It is a complex and demanding job that has few resources, but which has already made it possible to identify hundreds of communal properties that had been improperly registered", says Moreno.

What the authors regret most is the indifference: "It is a legal, patrimonial, economic, political and citizen scandal, and perhaps what hurts the most is citizen indolence", affirms Rodríguez. "The mosque of Cordoba, Santa Maria del Mar, the Giralda of Seville and the Cerro de los Ángeles belong to everyone and have been privatized in secret, but it's as if no one is hurt by this loss", he adds. Neither have politically bold steps been taken. In 2021, a reform of the historical heritage law was proposed, adding that ecclesiastical real estate could not be transferred to individuals or commercial entities. "It ended up in a drawer", affirm the authors.