The pope has apparently begun ensainting Franco’s clergy (or whatever the word is for declaring them to have been “saints” rather than “active supporters of a dictator who overthrew a democratically elected government by force.” Think Guernica). According to the Times, a fight broke out
outside a church in Rome yesterday after the Pope beatified 498 priests and nuns killed in the Spanish Civil War.
Members of the congregation attacked left-wing protesters carrying a banner that read: “Those who have killed, tortured and exploited cannot be beatified.â€
Franco? The 1930s fascist who clung on to power for decades by the simple expedient of not joining his fascist chums in the Second World War. According to the Times, again,
Bands of Communist and Anarchist irregulars on the Republican side burnt churches and killed thousands of priests and nuns. Falangist death squads executed tens of thousands of Spaniards suspected of harbouring leftist sympathies
So, if we are stacking up bodies to measure levels of atrocity, it looks as if even the Times sees that Franco’s toll was the highest.
This isn’t just a historical point, there are current resonances.
The country’s Socialist Government has clashed repeatedly with the Roman Catholic Church. The Prime Minister, José Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero, whose grandfather was executed by Franco’s forces, has caused howls of protest from conservatives after introducing a law aimed at redressing the injustices suffered by victims of the regime. Among other measures, the law orders the removal of any symbols of the dictatorship, which arguably include the shrines in many Spanish churches to the dead on Franco’s side. Republican victims still lie in dozens of unmarked mass graves around the country.
Why draw the line in Spain? Why not go the distance and start beatifying the Ruandan clergy involved in promoting genocide.
Doesn’t this act seem like calculated provocation with the Pope intervening to show which side he’s on in the current climate?
There seems to be a slight misunderstanding here. The difference between the Communists and the falangist side was that the Communists killed people purely on the grounds of their religion. Obviously the priests and nuns who were murdered by the Reds weren’t in charge of “death squads”, and it’s silly to pretend that they were. Besides, the Catholic Church did not support Franco, even though nowadays it does support the leftist government of Zapatero (over his betrayal of the West in Iraq, for example). Catholics and falangists simply found themselves on the same side out of expediency. Nowadays, perhaps unfortunately, that expediency no longer exists.
Oliver
I tried to comment on your comment politely. It didn’t work. I will try again. Basically this is nonsense.
Catholic Church and Franco weren’t hand in glove? Puhlease! If they found themselves on the same side out of expediency, what was so expedient? Stopping a mass of popular anti-clerical feeling, maybe? Would Franco have gained control or stayed in power without being able to draw upon his identification with the “traditional” values of the Catholic Church. Did many clerics and the church hierarchy draw upon their moral authority with the population to oppose him in any way throughout his rule? Was the Catholic Church in any way concerned about unseating a democratic government by force or did it support this “expedient” project wholeheartedly?
Does anyone think the communists were blameless in the Spanish Civil War? Clearly not. There is a whole literature produced by members of the International Brigade reflecting their disillusion with faction-fighting and even atrocities carried out by the anti-Franco forces. None felt this justified Franco’s rule.
However, I have not heard it said that the anti-Franco forces killed people “purely on the grounds of their religion” – which would have been a truly genocidal project in Spain, it being close to 100% Catholic. Even were this true, is it somehow different in kind from killing people because of their political beliefs, as the falangists did?
Oliver, thank you for taking the time to comment here, but there are some points you make which I feel need to be commented upon.
Nonsense. The communists and the international brigades were made up of people who were both atheist and theistic. They did not kill Catholics because they were Catholics (as Heather says, this is Spain we are talking about….). Most of the people Franco and his thugs killed will have been Catholics.
All you are doing here is creating a weird form of strawman.
Interestingly, there is an additional implication in your words, in that it is OK to kill thousands as long as it isn’t being done on the grounds of their religion…
Really? First off, why is it “obvious” that this is true? Is this something we should take at face value simply because they are Catholic clergy who would never do something bad…? Or because the Pope has implied this is so?
The behaviour of the inter-war Catholic church with regard to fascist dictators is far from good.
Seriously, you are saying the Catholic church didn’t support Franco? What do you base this on? Is this some alternate dimension history I have overlooked? What does its support for Zapatero (a Catholic) have to do with its support (or otherwise) for Franco? Given the democratic nature of the west, how can Spain choosing to do something different (following the wishes of its people) be seen as betrayal?
Blimey. I am sure there is some twist of reasoning which makes it acceptable to support a dictatorial government which is murdering the population on the grounds it is seen as “expedient” but I cant quite grasp it at this time. Did the Catholic church in Spain (an almost 100% Catholic nation, thanks to Torquemeda et al.) feel it was under such threat from the Reds that the war was justified? Was the Catholic church really so fragile?
Franco’s forces with the tacit approval of the Catholic church in Spain tortured and killed. The Communists tortured and killed. We now look back on Communism as a BAD THINGÂâ„¢, while the Catholic church tries to grant sainthoods.
Dont you see what is wrong with this?
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