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The Evangelization of Franco's ‘New Spain’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

William J. Callahan
William J. Callahan
Affiliation:
Mr. Callahan is professor of history in the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
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Extract

On 20 May 1939 General Francisco Franco attended the solemn Te Deum service held at the royal church of Santa Barbara to celebrate the triumph of nationalist over republican Spain. Surrounded by the symbols of Spain's Catholic past, including the standard used by Don Juan of Austria at Lepanto, the general presented his “sword of victory” to Cardinal Gomá, archbishop of Toledo and primate of the Spanish church.1 The ceremony symbolized the close ties between church and state formed by three years of civil war. The new regime had given proof of its commitment to the church even before the conflict had ended, and the clergy now looked forward to the implementation of a full range of measures in education, culture, and the regulation of public morality, measures that had last been seen in Spain over a century before.2

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 56 , Issue 4 , December 1987 , pp. 491 - 503
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1987

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References

1. Ya, 21 May 1939; Rodríguez, Teodoro, Así es España y así la antiespaña (Madrid, 1942), p. 275.Google Scholar

2. The abrogation of the Republic's legislation that was regarded as hostile to the church began early in the history of the regime. A decree of 22 September 1936, for example, re-established the confessionality of the public school system. Other measures, however, such as the abolition of divorce, were not taken until after the war had ended. Madrid, R. S., “La enseñanza religiosa en la nueva España,” Razórs y Fe (1938), no. 114, pp. 38–39;Google ScholarHermet, Guy, Les catholiques dans l'Espagne franquiste, 2 vols. (Paris, 1980–1981), 2: 93.Google Scholar

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4. Ibid., 4 March 1940.

5. An astute clerical observer remarked in 1909: “Today, there are great nuclei of workers who not only do not practice a religious life, but also hate it.” Similarly, one of the few statistical studies of religious practice carried out before the war painted a devastating picture of dechristianization in Madrid, Barcelona, and Bilbao. José de los Gutiérrez, Perales, El problema religioso en Epaña (Madrid, 1909), p. 101;Google ScholarPeiró, Francisco, El problema religioso-social de España, 2d ed. (Madrid, 1936), p. 14.Google Scholar For a general discussion of dechristianization in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Spain, see Callahan, W. J., “Was Spain Catholic?” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 2 (1984): 159–182.Google Scholar

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10. In 1908, for example, a national congress to reform sacred music took place in Seville; a similar group met at Valladolid in 1913 to propose measures to improve the quality of religious education. Crónica del Segundo Congreso Nacional de Musica Sagrada (Seville, 1909);Google ScholarCrónica oficial del primer Congreso Catequístico Nacional Español, 2 vols. (Valladolid, 1913).Google Scholar

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19. Sanromá, José Sanabre, Matirologio de la Iglesia en la diócesis de Barcelona durante la persecución religiosa, 1936–1939 (Barcelona, 1943), pp. 29–30.Google Scholar The standard work on this topic is Montero, Antonio, Historia de la persecución religiosa en España, 1936–1939 (Madrid, 1961).Google Scholar Although generally regarded as an impressive work of scholarship, this study has been subject to Criticism for its failure to distinguish the distinct phases of anticlerical violence in republican Spain. See the perceptive review of Raguer, Hilari, Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 57 (1962): 618–630.Google Scholar

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26. Thus provincial governors imposed fines on those accused of blasphemy, and the clergy launched periodic campaigns to improve moral conduct. Teachers who had not shown a sufficient degree of “morality and patriotism” were purged from the schools. Hermet, , Les catholiques dans l'Espagne franquiste, 2: 129;Google ScholarLamadrid, , “La enseñanza religiosa,” pp. 37–38.Google Scholar

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30. Ecclesia (1941), no. 40, pp. 5–6.Google Scholar The process of providing funds for reconstruction was ongoing. In 1943, for example, the government authorized a special loan of 40,000,000 pesetas at a subsidized interest rate for this purpose. Ecclesia (1943), no. 81, p. 18.Google Scholar

31. Petschen, Santiago, La Iglesia en la España de Franco (Madrid, 1977), pp. 59–60.Google Scholar The public purse was not bottomless, however, as Franco made plain in a 1942 interview. He indicated that the state expected the faithful to contribute generously to the rebuilding of churches. When asked if he had confidence in their generous instincts, he replied: “Oh yes! Charity is never exhausted.” Ecclesia (1942), no. 28, p. 7.Google Scholar

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34. Although frequently commented upon by students of the church in Franco's Spain, the surge in late vocations did not mean any substantial increase in the number of adults seeking to enter seminaries. It referred in a technical sense to aspirants between fourteen and twenty-five who were considered late vocations in comparison with the usual age of seminary entrance of from ten to fourteen. Fernando Urbina, “Formas de vida de la Iglesia en España: 1939–1975,” in Eglesia y sociedad en España, 1939–1975 (Madrid, 1977), p. 29.Google Scholar

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36. In 1927, for example, the secular clergy numbered 32,002, priests in the religious orders,12,219. In 1967, prior to a dramatic fall in vocations, seculars numbered 25,906, priests in the orders, 9,969. Anuario estadístico de España, 1927 (Madrid, 1929), pp. 601–605;Google ScholarVázquez, Jesús María, La Iglesia española contemporãnea (Madrid, 1967), p. 165.Google Scholar

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45. Ibid. (1943), no. 124, p. 21.

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48. Duocastella, , Mataró: 1955, p. 290;Google ScholarMiguel, Amando de et al. , Informe sociológico sobre la situación social de España (Madrid, 1972), p. 106.Google Scholar

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51. Secretariado Nacional de Liturgia, Asistencia a la misa dominical (Madrid, 1985), table 4.