World, Devil and Flesh. The process of secularization, feminization of religion and catholic sociability in the diocese of Tarragona (1932)

Abstract

The process of feminizing Catholicism in Spain acquired greater importance in the second and third decade of the 20th century in a context of mass politics, the configuration of women as political subjects and the drive by the Church towards re-Christianization. In this study, the analysis of statistics from the diocese of Tarragona drawn up when Francesc Vidal i Barraquer was archbishop (1922-1943) confirms the sexual dimorphism or increasing differentiation of religious behavior between men and women that has been discussed by sociology. The evidence shows that women engaged more than men in prescribed worship and pious actions. Likewise, women were a majority in Church groups, essentially after the increase in tertiary orders and female congregations, whether these were contemplative or actively concerned with caring (the ill, the young and the poor). Women were involved in centres of Catholic sociability, which underwent a process of increasing politicization during the 2nd Republic.

Keywords

• secularización
• laicismo
• feminización de la religión
• relaciones de género
• sociabilidad católica