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During the 1936–39 [[Spanish Civil War]], the Catholic hierarchy supported [[Francisco Franco]]'s rebel [[Spanish State|Nationalist]] forces against the [[Popular Front (Spain)|Popular Front]] government.<ref name="payne">{{cite book |title= Franco and Hitler: Spain, Germany and World War II. |last=Payne |first=Stanley G|year=2008 |publisher=Yale University Press| isbn=0300122829|page=13}}</ref>
During the 1936–39 [[Spanish Civil War]], the Catholic hierarchy supported [[Francisco Franco]]'s rebel [[Spanish State|Nationalist]] forces against the [[Popular Front (Spain)|Popular Front]] government.<ref name="payne">{{cite book |title= Franco and Hitler: Spain, Germany and World War II. |last=Payne |first=Stanley G|year=2008 |publisher=Yale University Press| isbn=0300122829|page=13}}</ref> "The Church was to become the most important source of legitimation for the rebellious generals, justifying the rising as a [[crusade]] against godlessness, anarchy and communism. Although such a close identification with the Nationalist cause was not to be fully elaborated until the Sapnish hierarchy's joint pastoral letter of July 1937, there was no doubt that the Church would line up with the rebels against the Republic. Nor , at local level, was there any hesitancy. The Jesuit priests of the city of [[Salamanca]] were among the first volunteers to present themselves to the military authorities. The only sizeable group of Catholics to remain loyal to the republic were the [[Basques]]. <ref> Vincent, catholicism in the SEcond Spanish Republic, p.248, Frances Lannon, Privilege, Persecution, and Prophecy, ch 8 </ref>


The Church had been an active element in the polarising politics of the years preceding the Civil War and the defeat of the [[CEDA]]-Traditionalist alliance when Spain had gone to the polls in February 1936 had seen the CEDA haemorrhage members towards the [[Falange]]. The JAP, the CEDA youth wing went over ''en masse'' to the fascist party. "This rapid radicalization of the CEDA youth movement effectively meant that all attempts to save parliamentary Catholicism were doomed to failure.<ref> Mary Vincent, Catholicism in the Second Spanish Republic ISBN 0-19-820613-5 p.240, andsee Chapters 10 and 11 in general </ref>
The Church had been an active element in the polarising politics of the years preceding the Civil War and the defeat of the [[CEDA]]-Traditionalist alliance when Spain had gone to the polls in February 1936 had seen the CEDA haemorrhage members towards the [[Falange]]. The JAP, the CEDA youth wing went over ''en masse'' to the fascist party. "This rapid radicalization of the CEDA youth movement effectively meant that all attempts to save parliamentary Catholicism were doomed to failure.<ref> Mary Vincent, Catholicism in the Second Spanish Republic ISBN 0-19-820613-5 p.240, andsee Chapters 10 and 11 in general </ref>

Revision as of 10:09, 5 September 2010

During the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War, the Catholic hierarchy supported Francisco Franco's rebel Nationalist forces against the Popular Front government.[1] "The Church was to become the most important source of legitimation for the rebellious generals, justifying the rising as a crusade against godlessness, anarchy and communism. Although such a close identification with the Nationalist cause was not to be fully elaborated until the Sapnish hierarchy's joint pastoral letter of July 1937, there was no doubt that the Church would line up with the rebels against the Republic. Nor , at local level, was there any hesitancy. The Jesuit priests of the city of Salamanca were among the first volunteers to present themselves to the military authorities. The only sizeable group of Catholics to remain loyal to the republic were the Basques. [2]

The Church had been an active element in the polarising politics of the years preceding the Civil War and the defeat of the CEDA-Traditionalist alliance when Spain had gone to the polls in February 1936 had seen the CEDA haemorrhage members towards the Falange. The JAP, the CEDA youth wing went over en masse to the fascist party. "This rapid radicalization of the CEDA youth movement effectively meant that all attempts to save parliamentary Catholicism were doomed to failure.[3]

As early as 11 May 1931 when an outburst of mob violence against the Republics perceived enemies had led to the burning of churches, convents and religious schools in Madrid, anticlerical sentiment and sometimes ill-conceived and intrusive anticlerical legislation , had meant that moderate Catholicism became increasingly displaced. "The tragedy of the Second Spanish Republic was that it abetted its own destruction; the tragedy of the Church was that it became so closely allied with its self-styled defenders that its own sphere of action was severely compromised. The Church, grateful for the championship offered first by JOsé María Gil-Robles y Quiñones and then by Franco, entered into a political alliance which would prevent it carrying out the pastoral task it had itself identified." [4]

Pope Pius XI referred to Mexico, Spain and Soviet Union as a "Terrible Triangle" and the failure to protest in Europe and the United States as a Conspiracy of Silence.


Nationalists murdered Catholic clerics. In one particular incident, following the capture of Bilbao, hundreds of people, including 16 priests who had served as chaplains for the Republican forces, were taken to the countryside or to graveyards to be murdered.[5]}


"Execution" of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Communist militiamen atCerro de los Ángeles near Madrid, on 7 August 1936, was the most infamous of the widespread desecration of religious property.[6] The photograph in the London Daily Mail had the caption the "Spanish Reds' war on religion."[7]

An estimated 55,000 civilians died in Republican-held territories. The Republican government was anticlerical and supporters attacked and murdered Roman Catholic clergy in reaction to news of the military revolt. In Republican held territories, Roman Catholic churches, convents, monasteries, and cemeteries were desecrated. Through the war, nearly all segments of the Republicans, Basques being a notable exception took part in semi-organized anti-Roman Catholic, anticlerical killing of 6,832 members of the Catholic clergy and religious orders.[8][9] By the end of the war 20% percent of the nation's clergy had been killed.[10]


The Red Terror

Main article: Red Terror (Spain)
Further information: Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War

The Republican government which came to power in Spain in 1931 was strongly anti-clerical, secularising education, prohibiting religious education in the schools, and expelling the Jesuits from the country. On Pentecost 1932, Pope Pius XI protested against these measures and demanded restitution. He asked the Catholics of Spain to fight with all legal means against the injustices. June 3, 1933 he issued the encyclical Dilectissima Nobis, in which he described the expropriation of all Church buildings, episcopal residences, parish houses, seminaries and monasteries.

By law, they were now property of the Spanish State, to which the Church had to pay rent and taxes in order to continuously use these properties. "Thus the Catholic Church is compelled to pay taxes on what was violently taken from her"[11] Religious vestments, liturgical instruments, statues, pictures, vases, gems and similar objects necessary for worship were expropriated as well.[12]

The Civil War in Spain started in 1936, during which thousands of churches were destroyed, thirteen bishops and some 7,000 clergy and religious Spaniards were assassinated.[13] After that, Catholics largely supported Franco and the Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 – 1939.

Martyrs

Main article: Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War

Anti-clerical assaults during what has been termed Spain's Red Terror included sacking and burning monasteries and churches and killing 6,832 priests,[14] including 13 bishops, 4,184 diocesan priests, 2,365 members of male religious orders, among them 259 Claretians, 226 Franciscans, 204 Piarists, 176 Brothers of Mary, 165 Christian Brothers, 155 Augustinians, 132 Dominicans, and 114 Jesuits.

13 bishops were killed from the dioceses of Sigüenza, Lleida, Cuenca, Barbastro Segorbe,Jaén, Ciudad Real, Almería, Guadix, Barcelona, Teruel and the auxiliary of Tarragona.[15] Aware of the dangers, they all decided to remain in their cities. I cannot go, only here is my responsibility, whatever may happen, said the Bishop of Cuenca[15] In addition 4,172 diocesan priests, 2,364 monks and friars, among them 259  Clarentians, 226 Franciscans, 204 Piarists, 176 Brothers of Mary, 165 Christian Brothers, 155 Augustinians, 132 Dominicans, and 114 Jesuits were killed.[16] In some dioceses, a number of secular priests were killed:

  • In Barbastro 123 of 140 priests were killed.[15] about 88 percent of the secular clergy were murdered, 66 percent
  • In Lleida, 270 of 410 priests were killed.[15] about 62 percent
  • In Tortosa, 44 percent of the secular priests were killed.[14]
  • In Toledo 286 of 600 priests priests were killed.[15]
  • In the dioceses of Málaga, Minorca and Segorbe, about half of the priests were killed"[14][15]
  • In Madrid 4,000 priests priests were murdered.

One source records that 283 nuns were killed, some of whom were badly tortured.[15]. There are accounts of Catholic faithful being forced to swallow rosary beads, thrown down mine shafts and priests being forced to dig their own graves before being buried alive.[16] The Catholic Church has canonized several martyrs of the Spanish Civil War and beatified hundreds more.


During the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, and especially in the early months of the conflict, individual clergymen and entire religious communities [citation needed] were executed with a death toll of 13 bishops, 4,172 diocesan priests and seminarists, 2,364 monks and friars and 283 nuns, for a total of 6,832 victims, as part of what is referred to as Spain's Red Terror. [17].

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II beatified a total of about 500 martyrs in the years 1987, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997 and March 11, 2001. Some 233 executed clergy were beatified by Pope John Paul II on the 11th of March 2001[18]. Regarding the selection of Candidates, Archbishop Edward Novack from theCongregation of Saints explained in an interview with L'Osservatore Romano : "Ideologies such as Nazism or Communism serve as a context of martyrdom, but in the foreground the person stands out with his conduct, and, case by case, it is important that the people among whom the person lived should affirm and recognize his fame as a martyr and then pray to him, obtaining graces. It is not so much ideologies that concern us, as the sense of faith of the People of God, who judge the person's behaviour[19]

Pope Benedict XVI

See Also: 498 Spanish Martyrs

Benedict XVI beatified 498 more Spanish martyrs in October 2007[20], in what has become the largest beatification ceremony in the history of the Catholic Church [21]. In this group of people, the Vatican has not included all Spanish martyrs, nor any of the 16 priests who were executed by the nationalist side in the first years of the war. This decision has caused numerous criticisms from surviving family members and several political organisations in Spain.[22]

The beatification process recognized the extraordinary fate and often brutal death of the persons involved. Some have criticized the beatifications as dishonoring non-clergy who were also killed in the war, and as being an attempt to draw attention away from the church's support of Franco (some quarters of the Church called the Nationalist cause a "crusade").[23] Within Spain, the Civil War still raises high emotions. The act of beatification has also coincided in time with the debate on the Law of Historical Memory (about the treatment of the victims of the war and its aftermath) promoted by the Spanish Government.

Responding to the criticism, the Vatican has described the October 2007 beatifications as relating to personal virtues and holiness, not ideology. They are not about "resentment but... reconciliation". The Spanish government has supported the beatifications, sending Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos to attend the ceremony.[24] Among the present was Juan Andrés Torres Mora, a relative of one of the martyrs and the Spanish MP who had debated the memory law for PSOE [25].

The October 2007 beatifications have brought the number of martyred persons beatified by the Church to 977, eleven of whom have already been canonized as Saints.[21] Because of the extent of the persecution, many more cases could be proposed; as many as 10,000 according to Catholic Church sources. The process for beatification has already been initiated for about 2,000 people.[21].

References

  1. ^ Payne, Stanley G (2008). Franco and Hitler: Spain, Germany and World War II. Yale University Press. p. 13. ISBN 0300122829.
  2. ^ Vincent, catholicism in the SEcond Spanish Republic, p.248, Frances Lannon, Privilege, Persecution, and Prophecy, ch 8
  3. ^ Mary Vincent, Catholicism in the Second Spanish Republic ISBN 0-19-820613-5 p.240, andsee Chapters 10 and 11 in general
  4. ^ Vincent, p.258
  5. ^ An Enduring Legacy: A History of Basques in Idaho.
  6. ^ Ealham, Chris and Michael Richards, The Splintering of Spain, p. 80, 168, Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-521-82178-9, 9780521821780
  7. ^ "Shots of War: Photojournalism During the Spanish Civil War". Orpheus.ucsd.edu. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
  8. ^ "Religious Persecution, Anticlerical Tradition and Revolution: On Atrocities against the Clergy during the Spanish Civil War" Journal of Contemporary History 33.3 (July 1998): 355.
  9. ^ Payne, Stanley G., A History of Spain and Portugal, Vol. 2, Ch. 26, (Print Edition: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973) (LIBRARY OF IBERIAN RESOURCES ONLINE p. 649.
  10. ^ Bowen, Wayne H., Spain During World War II, p. 222, University of Missouri Press 2006
  11. ^ Dilectissima Nobis, 9-10
  12. ^ Dilectissima Nobis, 12
  13. ^ Franzen 397
  14. ^ a b c de la Cueva 1998, p. 355
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Jedin 617
  16. ^ a b Beevor, Antony The Battle for Spain (Penguin 2006).
  17. ^ Julio de la Cueva, "Religious Persecution, Anticlerical Tradition and Revolution: On Atrocities against the Clergy during the Spanish Civil War" Journal of Contemporary History 33.3 (July 1998): 355.
  18. ^ New Evangelization with the Saints, L'Osservatore Romano 28 November 2001, page 3 (Weekly English Edition)
  19. ^ martyr.http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/NWEVNGST.HTM
  20. ^ Tucson priests one step away from sainthood[dead link] Arizona Star 06.12.2007
  21. ^ a b c 500 Spanish martyrs to be beatified[dead link]Independent Catholic News 10 October 2007
  22. ^ "Familiares de los curas vascos fusilados por Franco claman contra el olvido"[1] On-line edition of El País27/10/2007(in Spanish)
  23. ^ "Vatican's Plan to Beatify Spanish Clergy Divisive" by Jerome Socolovsky. Morning Edition, National Public Radio, 13 July 2007.
  24. ^ Reijers-Martin, LauraVatican honours Spanish war dead BBC October 28, 2007
  25. ^ Mártires.- Unas 400 personas celebran la beatificación en la Embajada de España ante la Santa Sede, Europa Press, 28 October 2007.
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