Every september for the last 30 years, the annual Theology Congress organized by the John XXIII Association of Male & Female Theologians takes place in Madrid. The Congress is held to study different aspects of our Christian faith in a totally free atmosphere. In the early days of the Congress, a few bishops participated on an individual basis and the Congress used to take place in religious institutes but when the Association refused to accept ecclesiastical control of the Congress, the Spanish Bishops Conference informed all religious institutions in Madrid that the annual Theology Congress was persona non grata. Fortunately, the Trades Union Comisiones Obreras, formed in the nineteen sixties by Communist and Christian clandestine anti-fascist workers organizations, offered their meeting hall (with capacity for about 1,000 people) at a very reasonable rate, and for the last 14 or 15 years, the Theology Congress has always been held there, in a very central part of Madrid, opposite the Prade Museum and in walking distance from the Atocha high-speed train station. Consequently, people come from all over Spain to attend the Congress. The number of participants varies but there are times when the hall is completely full. This year's Congress is about Religious Fundamentalism. See below an English translation of the Programme and the original 2-page broadsheet in the Spanish section.
The Seven Papers for this year's Congress are:
- The Fundamentalist Phenomenon & its principal examples:
- Alternative experiences to Fundamentalisms;
- Neoconservative movements in the Catholic Church;
- Religious Fundamentalisms;
- The Restorationist movement in the Catholic Church & the persecution of male & female theologians;
- Fundamentalisms & Liberation in Latin America and
- Interreligious dialogue, an alternative to fundamentalism.
The programme also includes information about:
- Conflicts in Africa & Fundamentalism;
- Information about Redes Cristianas 3rd Congress (end october)
- The 15M young peoples protest movement
- A light-hearted session of songs & story telling on saturday afternoon
- and, finally, on sunday, an invigorating eucharist organised by Moceop, the Spanish branch of the European Catholic Married Priests Federation, with a solidarity collection