The Spanish Episcopal Conference held the presentation of its ¡Bravo! Awards this Monday, the distinction with which it seeks to recognize prominent figures in the worlds of communication, culture, and entertainment. The problem is that several of the most high-profile names used to lend glamour to the ceremony did not even show up.
Neither Rosalía. Nor Alauda Ruiz de Azúa. Nor Javier Cercas.
While the Spanish bishops were championing the “truth,” “human dignity,” and “spiritual depth” of certain cultural works, some of the awardees seemed to have far more urgent priorities than attending the ecclesiastical ceremony to collect their recognition.
Rosalía and the strange attempt to find a “Catholic turn”
The most striking case was probably that of Rosalía, awarded in the Music category for her album Lux. The Catalan artist did not attend the headquarters of the Episcopal Conference in Madrid and, according to Religión Confidencial, the organization is now considering how to deliver the award to her.
The very justification for the award reflects a trend that is becoming increasingly common in certain ecclesiastical circles: the almost desperate need to detect “spirituality,” “transcendence,” or even a supposed “Catholic turn” in contemporary cultural products whose real connection to the faith is, at best, debatable.
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The Episcopal Commission for Social Communications praised Lux for its “spiritual depth” and “artistic sensitivity,” in a reading that fits with that recurring attempt by some sectors of the Church to present themselves aligned with dominant cultural sensibilities.
Neither Alauda Ruiz de Azúa nor Javier Cercas showed up
Director Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, awarded for the film Los Domingos, also did not appear at the event. Her film addresses the vocational process of a young woman who wants to enter a convent, an argument that allowed the Episcopal Conference to claim the film as an example of contemporary spiritual search.
And Javier Cercas, awarded in the Press category, did not attend either.
The final photograph of the gala left a strange impression: a Church handing out recognitions to well-known cultural figures who, in several cases, did not seem particularly interested in receiving them.
A Church obsessed with pleasing the cultural world
The underlying problem may not be the absence of certain awardees. The real problem is the insistence of part of the Episcopal Conference to seek cultural legitimization through media names, although that closeness is more imaginary than real.
For years, certain ecclesiastical bodies seem convinced that the public relevance of the Church depends on its ability to appear close to dominant cultural codes, even if those references maintain an ambiguous—or even nonexistent—relationship with the life of the faith.
The paradox is evident: while many parishes, seminaries, and Catholic communities quietly sustain the real life of the Church in Spain, a large part of the Episcopal communication strategy seems oriented to obtaining a gesture of validation from the progressive cultural world.
Awards that portray an identity crisis
During the gala, Bishop José Manuel Lorca Planes stated that the ¡Bravo! Awards represent “the outstretched hand of the Church to the world of communication.” The phrase perfectly summarizes the spirit of these recognitions.
The question is whether anyone on the other side is really interested in clasping that hand.
When the main awardees do not even appear to collect the award, the image that remains is not that of a Church influential in contemporary culture, but that of an institution that continues to desperately seek recognition in environments that have long ceased to consider the ecclesiastical endorsement relevant.
Perhaps the problem is not that Rosalía, Cercas, or Alauda Ruiz de Azúa did not go to collect the award. Perhaps the problem is that the Episcopal Conference still believes that by awarding them it obtains something more than a few fleeting headlines.