- Since 2018, the Catholic Church has received 3,490 million euros from the public health budget, but has received more money before: The first pact between Osakidetza and the dioceses of San Sebastian, Vitoria and Bilbao took place in 1987. The convention they signed this year is for four years.
This year the Catholic Church will receive EUR 581,616,85, and what it will receive in the next three years is not specified in the convention, but if different, it will be similar (from 2018 until the end of the current convention, the Church will receive EUR 5,234 million from Osakidetza). From the age of four, the partnership document provides for the possibility of renewing the agreement. It was signed in June and has now come to light at the request of Rebeka Ubera, EH Bildu, in the Basque Parliament.
In return, the Church is asked to provide religious care, sacraments, spiritual support to the sick and family members, among others. If the patient and/or their relatives want to act with other religions or churches, the dioceses are also asked to mediate.
In the document, the Catholic Church is committed to ensuring a stable presence of priests and to performing localized care; and Osakidetza assumes the obligation to ensure spaces of religious attention in public health centers.