In February 2021, the Government of Spain sent to the Courts a list of properties unregistered by the Catholic Church, a list of which the Church stole and named it. According to this, between 1998 and 2015, the Church registered at least 34,961 properties in the Spanish state, with the support of government authorities.

Of these, 1,027 were "inadequately" registered, according to a government report of 2022. The Government recorded 2,575 errors made by the Catholic authorities in the theft and registration procedures associated with the 949 award. Of the unregistered assets, therefore, thousands and thousands are not officially collected as property of the Church, as a result of the errors noted.

Specifically in Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, the Church allegedly stole 88 assets during that time, as received by the portal elDiario.es in 2021. Ecclesiastical authorities stole properties in Ayala (Álava), Vitoria-Gasteiz (Araba), Campezo (Álava), Bergara (Gipuzkoa), Donostia (Gipuzkoa), Mutriku (Gipuzkoa), Tolosa (Gipuzkoa), Lezama (Bizkaia), Bizkaia

However, this report offers a rather limited view of the number of properties stolen by the Catholic Church in recent years. According to data from the Basque Government in 2016, between 1978 and 2015, the Church stole 530 goods and put them on its behalf, 387 in Gipuzkoa, 84 in Bizkaia and 69 in Álava. Among the stolen properties are, in addition to the buildings, the top of Mount Oiz in Bizkaia, several sections of the Camino de Santiago and some parking spaces, among others.

The number of robberies in Gipuzkoa stands out. According to the data collected at the time in the Basque Government, the Church registered the property in 61 of the country’s 88 municipalities. Most of the robberies occurred between 1979 and 2000, with José María Setien as bishop.

Registration by Franco and descendants

The Church, in 1946, began the registration of goods during Franco by order of the dictator. Through what is known as mortgage reform, Francisco Franco tried to solve what happened in the process of Mendizabal's disamortization, since, since 1822, various properties of the Church were nationalized. To find a way out, Franco wanted to reward the Catholic authorities and organizations even more, allowing the theft of property.

Since then, the Church has named it thousands and thousands of properties, an option that the Spanish Government supported in 1998, under the presidency of José María Aznar. Thus, until 2015, the Catholic authorities stole thousands of other goods. That year, however, the government legally rejected this possibility of registration. Mariano Rajoy was the president at the time.

Another year, protest in Navarra

However, the thousands and thousands of robberies that the Church has made for decades remain in place: there are very few assets that it has left out of its property and that it has "returned". In Navarra, the Platform for the Defense of the Patrimony of Navarra has been protesting for more than a decade: at the end of the year he is mobilizing in Pamplona (Navarra) to point out the bishopric of Pamplona. This year he has also made a demonstration on the streets of the capital, translating the stolen heritage. The people under the motto.

The Gaztetxe of Zestoa, at risk of defeat

In Zestoa (Gipuzkoa), the Gazte Asanblada removed the Elizondo building almost a year ago to turn it into Gaztetxe. The building is owned by the church and the bishopric of Gipuzkoa filed a complaint against the Gaztetxe. Faced with Gazte Asanblada’s refusal to seek a solution and the decision to continue the proceedings against the Gaztetxe, two young people will be tried on 24 January, for whom they claim enormous compensation and fines linked to the opening of the Gaztetxe.

The Young Assembly of Zestoa, in collaboration with the Community of Defense of the Spaces of Labor Control, has a campaign underway: they collectively call the "Church of Trafficking and Money" to wager. In Zestoa, for example, information posts have been installed on several occasions to facilitate and help people wager.