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Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, shown on WMHT at 6 a.m. Sundays, has a story this week on Catholicism in Spain.

For centuries, Spain was a stronghold of fervent Catholicism. Catholic Church leaders created such religious orders as the Jesuits, Dominicans and Opus Dei, while the country's explorers and missionaries spread Christianity across oceans and continents. But today, as in the rest of Western Europe, the Roman Catholic Church in Spain is experiencing both a spiritual and social decline.

Saul Gonzalez explores the reasons for the Church's waning influence in Spanish society and looks at grassroots efforts to renew religion's role in public life. "Without a doubt, there's a culture war going on," observes Father Leopoldo Vivis Soto, a theologian and spokesman for the Catholic Church in Spain. "The Catholic Church and indeed Christian Europe confront a huge and clear cultural challenge ... many people believe that the Church is backward, it's not advanced and against social progress."