The Co-Principality and Catholic Privilege in Andorra

Andorra's 1993 constitution grants Catholic Church institutions full legal capacity to act under their own canonical rules, a recognition no other faith practiced in Andorra receives. Andorra's Muslim and Jewish minorities, among others, hold no legal status as religious groups at all under Andorran law, leaving them to rely on rented or informal premises for worship and burial even though the same constitution guarantees individual freedom of religion to every resident.

The gap between individual religious freedom and institutional recognition is clearest in Andorra's schools, where the government funds Catholic religious instruction directly and pays the salaries of the teachers who provide it, a benefit unmatched for any other faith. The arrangement reflects Andorra's origin as a co-principality headed jointly by the Bishop of Urgell: even after the 1993 constitution converted the co-principality into a parliamentary democracy, the bishop's continuing role as co-prince has kept the Catholic Church's institutional standing distinct from, and considerably stronger than, that of any other religious community in the country.