Hi everyone! My name is Julie and I am a junior studying abroad in Madrid, Spain. I thought opening our Newman Center blog to GW Catholic students studying abroad would be a great way to keep in touch with them while also learning more about how other Catholics live in other countries! I am keeping a separate blog for my family and friends to read up on all of my travels in detail, so if you are new to the Newman Center and are interested just let me know. I have been in Madrid for about a week and a half. When I first got here, I went to orientation for a few days in a hotel before I met my home stay mom, Patricia, who is also a practicing Catholic. Patricia lives alone in a small apartment in a nice part of the city 2 blocks from the metro. She is 46 and works for an insurance company in HR but has been considering a career change to becoming a teacher. She has 8 siblings and her aunt, who is also housing a girl from GW and lives nearby, has 11 siblings! Patricia speaks English almost fluently which is helpful when I have difficulty saying things or when she repeats something multiple times and I still don’t understand. My study abroad program is through GW and so all 20 students are from our university. Some have chosen to take classes directly with Spanish students at the Spanish university we go to, but the rest of us are taking separate classes taught by GW professors at the university designed specifically for the program. Right now I am one week into our three week language and culture intensive course but in February I will start my real classes: flamenco dancing, European history since the 20th century, more Spanish, and an art history course at the Prado and Reina Sofia (the two famous art museums in Madrid). Since I’ve gotten here, our group has taken a day trip outside the city to El Escorial and Toledo in addition to exploring the city itself.
Catholicism is completely intertwined with Spanish history and culture. For example, we have off from class at the university tomorrow because it is the celebration of the patron saint of students in Spain. Who knew? The academic calendar at the university shows there are other days off for religious days even though the university is public. Patricia explained that there are about 12 national holidays during the year, and most but not all are religiously based (for example, people get off of work for the Assumption, the Immaculate Conception, Feast of St. James/Santiago who is the Patron Saint of Spain). When we went on a field trip to visit the famous works of art in the Prado, at least 3/4ths of the works I saw were inspired by Catholicism. Our director was explaining the significance and symbolism in the paintings and it’s so much easier for me to understand everything- I’m starting to feel bad for the Muslim and Jewish students in my program because they are so confused! There are churches everything in the city, ranging from small ones that look more like apartment buildings to beautiful cathedrals. Patricia and I had a discussion about Catholicism in Spain and she said like the United States, less and less people are practicing which I found interesting.
Last weekend I went to my first mass in Spain on Saturday evening at a church a few blocks away from the hotel I was in for orientation. I got directions from the concierge and it was only 4 blocks away. Almost everyone in the parish was over 50. The church didn’t look like a church at all (it was brown and nondescript) and so I walked right by it at first. I was a little disappointed that there was no music because I was excited to hear what songs they would sing. I found great comfort in being at mass so far away from home, but at the same time it is very isolating because I don’t know the responses in Spanish and have a lot of difficulty understanding the readings and homily. My new goal is to memorize the Creed and Our Father and to read the readings before mass. Communion was a little bizarre because instead of going row by row orderly, people just wandered down all at the same time.
Today when I visited the city of Toledo I visited the famous cathedral there, Santa Iglesia Catedral Primada. It was absolutely breathtaking! I also toured a lot of other smaller churches, one of which contained El Greco’s most famous painting “The Burial of the Count of Orgaz” which was beautiful. Tonight I was going to go to mass at the little church Patricia goes to only four blocks away from our house, but since I was running late I popped into Madrid’s cathedral, Almudena, for mass. It is right next to the royal palace. They had a great organ and choir and the high ceilings make everything sound very ethereal. I would like to go back during the daytime to see the stained glass at its best but I think I prefer a more intimate setting for mass since many tourists visit. Again, during communion people randomly wandered up. I didn’t go up because no one in my section moved, thinking that the Eucharistic Ministers would move over to ours afterwards since the cathedral is big. That didn’t happen and I was pretty confused because many people never even went up at all. I asked Patricia about it at dinner and she explained that people who need to go to confession, are in mortal sin, ate before mas, etc. can’t receive and I told her I knew that, but almost everyone in the US at mass receives the Eucharist despite following the same guidelines. I can’t figure out if the Spaniards take Catholicism more or less seriously? Patricia and I also had an interesting conversation about Judaism in Spain because many Jews emigrated here during WWII when Franco admitted those fleeing from Hitler. Patricia said many Spanish Catholics have Jewish roots because it was necessary for them to learn the language to work and live in the country, which is so intertwined with Spain’s Catholicism.
I’ve definitely seen more churches in one week here in Spain than I have in my entire life! It is exciting to be studying in a country where religion has been such a large part of the culture for so long.
