Why Spain

The Church is universal and as such, must care pastorally and spiritually for people of all nations and all tongues. People are now more mobile than at any other time in history but that is not to say that they should be further away from the Church and its support.

The reasons for having a seminary in Spain have changed over the four hundred year life of the Royal and Pontifical College of St Alban in Valladolid but they are just as valid now as they have ever been. If the Church is going to service the needs of people in their native language then ought not note to be taken of the statistics below.

Source: Grimes ed. 1996 (updated 1999).

Similar research would tend to indicate that in less than thirty years; ninety percent of the world’s population will speak one or more of the three most popular languages; the considerations and conclusions are obvious! Times change …

The College is the sole survivor of the many English Catholic institutions established in the Iberian Peninsula during penal times. Despite its defined and restricted role as a place for the education and formation of secular clergy, the College has nevertheless played a part in the histories of England and Spain.

At its beginning, Philip II laid down certain conditions in return for the royal patronage, then in the eighteenth century, it was expected to conform to the regalist ideas of an enlightened monarch, Charles III. While the Roman Catholic Church in England was experiencing a nineteenth-century revival, the College was sharing in the tribulations of Spanish Catholics under a series of anti-clerical governments. More recently Valladolid found itself, from the first days of the Civil War, in the heartland of the Franco government, and during the Second World War St Alban’s, in the person of its then Rector Edwin Henson, had the task of trying to wean the Spanish Church away from its pro-German sympathies.

The history of the College is a history of service. From beyond the political borders it has faithfully served both the Church and most specifically the English speaking peoples of England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. It is a living example of the Church’s universal nature. It takes pride in looking to meet the future needs of people who come into contact with the English speaking world.