The difference between the Communists and the falangist side was that the Communists killed people purely on the grounds of their religion.

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…

Obviously the priests and nuns who were murdered by the Reds weren’t in charge of “death squads”

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.

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).

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?

Catholics and falangists simply found themselves on the same side out of expediency.

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 THING™, while the Catholic church tries to grant sainthoods.

Dont you see what is wrong with this?

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?