Catholic spiritual retreats are booming in Spain and many other countries. The directors of the spirituality houses know this well, who speak of a 50% increase in reservationsand this is confirmed by those responsible for different groups and parishes, who recognize that it is increasingly becoming harder to find retirement homes available, which forces them to often resort to hotels and rural lodges. Added to this increase in demand is a decrease in the supply of establishments, since numerous religious congregations have been forced to close or sell numerous spirituality houses due to the shortage of vocations.
Throughout this year 2025, around 90,000 people In our country they will do a retreat, or spiritual exercises, or get togethers, or weekend prayer experiences. He explained it Patricia Serranocreator, together with her husband, Santiago Torrasfrom the website deretiro.es, the most important free aggregator on the Internet in Spain, where it brings together all the information on spiritual activities of groups, from different dioceses, parishes and movements within the Catholic Church.
“We have realized that there are a revolution in the church. Everything is growing in a way incredible. It is a resurgence; “What is happening is very beautiful,” says Serrano, who invites “everyone to do these retreats, because it really is they change life». According to their calculations, taking into account the number of rounds held throughout Spain and the average number of attendees, they dare to venture the figure of the 90,000 total attendees.
More than 1,200 batches
Even though Retirement It is the number one search engine in our country and the most complete, with about 1,200 batchesTorras confesses that “I have the feeling that there are still many that do not reach us.” It is precisely the parish priests or promoters of these courses who inform the Retirement of the call for them, so that more people can inform themselves and sign up.
In recent years, the format that has the most demand is Emmaus retreats. «There are about 130 a year throughout Spain,” explains Serrano. But there are many more: from the classic and always current Ignatian exercises to Christianity Cursillos, Bartimaeus, Effetá either Conjugal Love Project. «Bartimaeus is Emmaus but for teenagers in their first and second year of high school. It’s growing an outrage. Two years ago there were only eight in Spain and now there are 40, but new ones are going to open. In no time they are going to triplebecause it is an explosion,” Serrano highlights.
