Religion and Reconciliation:
The
Gene
Fox
Perhaps no
other European society has been more tightly bound to Roman Catholicism than
The Spanish
religious consciousness was known for its visceral expression of dogma, which
emphasizing the Passion of Christ, not as a paean to suffering and violence,
but as homage to courage and principle. These characteristics strengthened the
resolve of the faithful, especially when confronting the heresy of Islam, the
heterodoxy of new-world paganism, or the apostasy of Protestant reformers.
These qualities of righteous temperament and historical imperative would find
further fulfillment in the cultural and religious national catastrophe of the
Spanish Civil War.
The Spanish
Civil War was a revolutionary, counter-revolutionary conflict that pitted
progressive forces against religious traditionalists. Early twentieth century
Catholic Spain looked askance at democratic institutions and market driven
economic reforms, rightly believing the Church’s reactionary
prerogatives of power, privilege and orthodoxy were under assault by the
contemporary forces of secularism, materialism and anticlericalism. A long
history of Church repression led Spanish Republicans away from reconciliation
and set them on a collision course of confrontation and catastrophe. It was the
left’s ultimate failure to accommodate the Church that in large part
contributed to the Nationalists victory, and the restoration of the Church
Militant of traditional Catholic Spain.
The reality
of orthodox Spanish Catholicism was more than religious – it sought to impose a
way of life and remain a ubiquitous presence that shaded all aspects of
society. Working contrary to these dynamics, moderate elements within the Roman
Curia wished to support the popular desire for modernity while at the same time
protecting the spiritual primacy of the Church from the political excesses of
both liberal and conservative factions by conflating the religious ambitions of
the urban, progressive and capitalist sectors with the pious aspirations of the
rural, reactionary and agrarian elements.
By the
early twentieth century, the Church began to take on more and more the
characteristics of a cult. The tradition bound bloc of the Spanish hierarchy
and political elite, feeling that their position of preeminence was under siege
redoubled their efforts to assure their continued dominance on civil society. Their
crusade to impose the doctrine of triumphalism was frustrated by the inevitable
and popular surge of modern secular economic and cultural forces. For many, the tension proved too great for
the political system to contain and was responsible for a rise in
anti–Catholicism that engendered an emotional intensity that soon turned to
anticlerical rage.
The Church exerted strong control over
civil society, especially in the area of public education, and for their
efforts received annual government subsidies amounting to 50 million gold
pesetas.[1] The line between Canon law and state
regulation was blurred and often interchangeable. So pervasive was the hold of
the Church that the Catechism was taught in all public elementary schools;
secondary schools were administered and staffed by members of the clergy and
Tridentine theology set the standard for national ethics. Canon Law was deeply
rooted in the national mindset, so much so that the Catechism was taught in all
elementary schools. In addition, religious orders were administered in all
secondary schools, and Tridentine theology had set the nation’s ethical
standards. The Spanish philosopher and poet Miguel de Unamuno commented: “Here
in
The
orthodoxy of Spanish metaphysics was nothing if not rigid. This highly
stratified belief system led to mindless formalism and ignorant humility while
stressing temporal sacrifice and suffering with the promise of spiritual
fulfillment in the heavenly afterlife (tempus
fugit, memento mori – time flies, remember death). Obedience and deference
to clerical authority was demanded; clerical chastity was more pleasing to God
than parenthood; devotion and mystical contemplation was more worthy than
workplace productivity and scholarship. This myopic view led to a clerical
monopoly on “truth”. Error and tolerance had no place in this stultifying
environment. The Church became the putative guardian of authenticity, the self
appointed and final arbiter of correctness and order. Error and tolerance had
no place in this stultifying environment. The Church had become the putative
guardian of authenticity and was the self appointed final arbiter of
correctness and order. This posture
was hardly amenable in a society where many were desperate to break with a
medieval past and evolve towards a modern nation state. This combustible
concoction of Catholic triumphalism and doctrinaire clericalism would have
disastrous effects as its ethos would lead to a catastrophic class war from
which
One
conventional view of the Church’s role in the civil war was that official
“As
Republicans or Monarchists you can justly dissent over what form of government
is best for
The
Cardinal’s polemical fervor had the effect of both bracing the beliefs of
devoted Catholics and monarchists and inflaming the zeal of ardent Republicans
and secularists. The Republican Minister of Justice, Fernando de los Rios
reacted by stating: “The government cannot but help to recognize the gravity of
this document. It is a frank assertion indicating the hostility of the Church
to the Republican regime.”[4] In response, the Republican Minister
of Instruction, Marcelino Domingo reacted by abolishing compulsory religious
education in public schools.
The
Upon the
collapse of the monarchy and without Vatican acquiescence
“If
we remain quiet and idle, if we allow ourselves to surrender to apathy and
timidity, to those who would destroy religion…we shall have no right to lament
when reality reveals that we had victory in our hands, but knew not how to use
it.”[5]
The new Republic,
under the stress of incendiary Iberian politics and understanding the dangerous
example being set by Cardinal Segura’s inflammatory polemics expelled him from
the country. The
The
Church’s policy under Pius XI to deal with the phenomena of secular statism was
to recognize that national republican forms of government were a permanent
feature of the political landscape and the best way to protect the Church’s
interests under such conditions was to encourage the development of Catholic
oriented political parties and labor unions. Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the Papal Secretary of State and future
Pius XII, advised all Spanish prelates that because, in the
Another telling incident involving the
irrepressible Cardinal Segura and concerned the Monarchist wedding of King
Alfonso’s daughter the Infanta Beatrix to Italian Prince Torlonia. Segura,
officiating at the ceremony advised the couple and their aristocratic guests,
on royal prerogative, Spanish patriotism and the virtues of ‘Throne and Altar’,
to the detriment of the Vatican’s official policy of rapprochement with the
Spanish civil government. This incident and others only served to widen the
fissure between the
In 1933, as a further sign of progress the new
parliamentary majority of Accion Popular was able to pass legislation that
provided recompense in the amount of sixteen million pesetas to the Church.
These state subsidized funds covered losses suffered under the previous leftist
government’s expropriation of Church assets.
This positive development emphasized the efficacy of the
The
exigencies of 1920 and 1930’s realpolitik required actively engaged
papal leadership, diligent in the pursuit of interactive diplomacy to ensure
the protection of the Church’s spiritual mission. Arguably, Pius XI was
qualified to meet those demands. Born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti he was a
first rank intellectual acquiring three doctorates Canon Law, Theology, and
Philosophy and as a recognized specialist is paleography was charged with the
prestigious position as head of the Vatican Library.
His
predecessor, Benedict XV assigned Monsignor Ratti as Papal Nuncio to the
important diplomatic post of
Pius XI, always the pragmatist had a clear
understanding of the hostile social and political forces at work during his
pontificate and the Church’s responsibility to the spiritual and temporal needs
of the faithful. He would sign concordats with any government or regime to
provide for the protection of the Church’s interests. In his encyclical
Delectissima Nobis, which focused on the Spanish Republican government’s
oppression of the Church (secularization of education, banishment of the
Jesuits and confiscation of Church property) he clearly states that the Church
is not bound to: “…one form of government more than to another, provided the
Devine Rights of God and Christian consciences are safe” and specifically
referred to “…various civil institutions be they monarchic or republican,
aristocratic or democratic.”[6]
As we know, the murderous excesses of
the anarcho-syndicalists and other radical leftist elements aligned with the
Republican government drove the
While it
seems that the Church would find a naturally sympathetic ally in the Francoist
regime with its fusion of caudillo style leadership and intense nationalism,
the reality was more nuanced. Moderate churchmen and politicians alike sought
some degree of accommodation but more radical elements wished to oversee the
elimination and destruction of each.
The Church
synthesized her position in an article published in Osservatore Romano, titled “The Two Wars” it states:
“It
is quite erroneous to suppose, as do many people today in
It was not
so much that the Church enthusiastically embraced the Nationalist cause but
rather the Republican government’s inability to control the excesses of its
followers forced both the Catholic clergy and laity into the Francoist camp as
a matter of survival. Republican activities in the
Even more
extreme was the determined Republican slaughter of the clergy. Although
statistics vary, perhaps up to 7,000 were executed often in unusually cruel and
humiliating ways that are peculiar to civil wars. The Nationalists too had
their killing squads who hunted down with efficiency and ardor those connected
to the Popular Front parties, free masons and trade unionists. The figures are
inexact but perhaps number up to 500,000 died at the hands of both the
Nationalists and Republicans
Nonetheless,
it was these secular, free thinking politicians that the
Even after
his overwhelming victory Franco had reason to seek the approbation from the
Church on state affairs. His regime was not immune from condemnation as when
criticism was leveled at his totalitarian educational curriculum and the
introduction of “unequivocally anti-Christian” racial laws. The peerless Cardinal Segura although still
tethered by
The
Republican government and the Spanish body politic had no history of
participatory democracy, but rather came from a tradition of ancient royal
absolutism saturated with authoritarian Roman Catholicism. It was not until the
mid-nineteenth century that the humanist philosophies of the Enlightenment and
the new market driven economics of industrialization crossed the
The Spanish Civil War left a legacy of suffering and loss that the
Spanish population still confronts; some 500,000 killed, another million
displaced, and an economy that did not begin to fully recover until 1999 with
integration into the European Union. Politically, Francoism and the Falange
movement are discredited and enjoy little more than fringe status. Two recent
legislative developments passed under the current socialist government ban
celebrations of the Franco regime at his tomb in ‘The Valley of the Fallen’ and
provide Spanish citizenship for the grandchildren of those forced into exile
during the dictatorship. Further, the government banned all public references
to the Franco regime including statues, street names and symbols associated
with the regime. Those churches which display commemorative plaques honoring
Franco and the victims of his Republican opponents risk losing state aid if
they refuse to remove them.[8] So
much for reconciliation!
The Church,
after almost seventy years again finds itself at odds with much of contemporary
Spanish society and its socialist government. Central to the controversy was
the recent beatification by Benedict XVI of 498 victims of religious
persecution during the civil war. Since 1980 the Church has elevated nearly
1,000 wartime martyrs to “blessed” status. Critics claim that the action was taken
to bolster the waning influence of the Church in civil affairs and as a
condemnation of a liberal legislative agenda that is clearly contrary to Church
doctrine and includes divorce on demand, legalization of gay marriage, abortion
rights and an end obligatory religious instruction in the public school system.
After a
suitably long interval the memory of the Spanish Civil War will become
historical phenomena to be studied from a dispassionate distance for lessons
learned and perhaps as a map to a better understanding of some future crisis in
another turbulent time.
[1] Time,
[2] Margaret
T. Rudd, The Lone Heretic,
[3] Time,
[4] Ibid,
[6] http://www.seattlecatholic.com/a050615.html Internet: Visited on Saturday, March 01, 2008
[7]Osservatore
Romano,
[8] Guardian
Unlimited,