Holy Week ceremonies in Spain are famous worldwide for their beauty and splendor. Every year, magnificent floats with figures from the Passion are carried through the streets of Spain, accompanied by music, prayer and a love of tradition.
The modern secular world has always had a problem with this display of popular piety that attracts so much attention. Secularists can’t understand what leads people to such enthusiasm for things they dismiss as superstition and folklore.
Attacking Tradition
However, these secular authorities are now attacking the Brotherhood in charge of these ceremonies in the eastern Mediterranean port of Segunto. For centuries, the men of this town of this cofradia have carried the extremely heavy floats. The government is demanding that the Brotherhood change its rules and admit women.
The Brotherhood of the Holy Week in Sagunto has long felt pressure to abandon its longstanding male-only tradition. Other brotherhoods have given in. Modern secularists claim the time has come for democracy, not tradition, to decide the issue.
Voting on the Issue
Since 1999, the Brotherhood has had two votes on admitting women. Both led to the rejection of the measure.
This year, the pressure again built up, especially after Spain’s Constitutional Court declared a similar, all-male brotherhood in the town of La Laguna unconstitutional in 2024. The ruling said that the Brotherhood had discriminated against and denied free association to women who wanted to join.
Feminists leading the campaign in Sagunto had great hopes that the Brotherhood would finally break down and worship at the altar of equality.
Majority Rules
A vote, the third, was held in anticipation of this year’s Holy Week ceremonies. The brothers talked it over and delivered a verdict of 114 in favor of changing the rules. Those opposed numbered 267, a well over two-to-one advantage. Only the brothers will carry the float this year.
Meanwhile, the never-to-be sisters are incredulous. “It’s unbelievable that we are in 2026 and this door to equality remains closed,” says local activist Blanca Ribelles in an article published by The Irish Times.
“It’s like bashing your head against a wall. We are disappointed because we missed a historical chance to change things from the inside.”
Calling on the Socialist Government
The sisters are now looking to the outside, calling in government officials to take action against this supposed outrage, which was a product of democracy!
“Holy Week must be egalitarian!” declared Ana Redondo, the socialist government’s minister of equality. “We will act.”
This is a case where freedom is sacrificed to equality. Freedom allows people to choose what they want—except when it is not what liberals want. In this case, the brothers want to carry the float. They want the freedom to manage the affairs of their religion, which the Spanish Constitution supposedly respects.
Secular Officials Interfere
Such actions represent tyranny, not choice. Secularists have no business interfering in religious affairs. Determining the content and structure of religious acts contradicts the secular claims of freedom for all. They are declaring themselves to be atheistic theologians who can decide on the hierarchical nature of the Church.
Indeed, the activists will likely insist that the Brotherhood vote again in the future until it gets the vote “right” by allowing women.
Government officials can now threaten to strip the Holy Week ceremonies in Sagunto of their official designation as a Fiesta of National Tourist Interest. This status gives the city access to government monies and subsidies.
Indeed, for the secular government, such ceremonies are folkloric nonsense that are only useful to attract tourists, not pious devotees, to come and spend money. Such officials do not understand the true nature of these acts of devotion.
Meanwhile, the members of the Brotherhood are concentrating on carrying their magnificent floats, as they have for centuries, in a spirit of penance, piety and prayer. They have seen governments come and go. They have endured ridicule and triumph. If they put their faith in God and stay rooted in their tradition, they will overcome these modern barbarians who understand nothing. God alone matters.
Photo Credit: © Luisi Reina – Photo Openspace, CC BY-SA 4.0. (Picture from Alicante)