Spanish Civil War
UPDATE: I also have a more recent post about the Church apologizing for the killing of Basque priests who fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War.
There's a great post by Jeff today on the Vatican's plan to beatify some of the martyrs of the Spanish Civil War (link to news story) and about the war itself. I really knew nothing about that subject, so looked it up - I now have only the most basic understanding of the conflict ... the Republican government (secular and socialist), supported by the Communist Soviet Union,, and the Nationalists led by Franco (fascist and Catholic) supported by Nazi Germany ... the US stayed neutral, though they sold arms to both sides, I believe. I found lots of interesting stuff, but my understanding of it all is sketchy .... below are just some random bits of info I came across that struck me.
Looking around the net, I found mention of the different stances back in the 30s and during the SCW taken by publications like America magazine (the Jesuits) which was pro-Franco, and Commonweal which was more conflicted.
Also interesting - the non-Spanish who fought in the war. If you were a European or American liberal, you would have probably supported the Republican side of the conflict and there were International Brigades formed by non-Spanish to fight against what they saw as the danger of spreading fascism. Some of those involved included Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell.
And a number of Jesuits were martyred during the SCW, not long after the Order had been suppressed by the government. According to Wikipedia, 114 Jesuit were killed by the Repoblican side. SJWeb has a page on eleven of them ...
Father Thomas Sitjar Fortiá (1866-1936) and 10 other Jesuits were martyred in Gandía and Valencia, Spain, between Aug. 19 and Dec. 29, 1936 at the start of the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish revolutionary government had suppressed the Society in 1932, but a few Jesuits refused to go into exile, among them, Father Sitjar, who was superior of the handful of Jesuits dispersed into apartments around Gandía.
Only a week after the civil war began, authorities came at night to the apartment that Sitjar shared with Brother Peter Gelabert Amer and arrested the priest. Gelabert barely escaped through a window. By the next morning Father Constantine Carbonell, Brother Raymond Grimaltos and Gelabert joined the superior in a school that had been converted into a prison. Carbonell had served as superior of the Jesuits in Alicante, and minister of several different communities. Gelabert spent his life serving as a gardener.
The Jesuits were able to receive visitors, who brought mattresses and food, but their wait for the inevitable soon ended. Shortly after midnight on Aug. 19, Sitjar was told he was going to be set free; instead he was taken to a road outside the city and executed beneath an olive tree at 3:00 a.m. His three companions died four days later when authorities took them to an olive grove outside of town on the road to Valencia and shot them as well ....
And who knew that there was a kind of peace-nik movement in Spain at the time of the civil war. One of its most well known members was José Brocca. Here's a little of what Wikipedia says of him and the SCW ......
Brocca aligned himself with the socialist segment of the complex political spectrum in Spain, and represented Spanish pacifists at international meetings of the peace movement (Orden del Olivo and War Resisters' International). He was a colleague of feminist doctor Amparo Poch y Gascón. He believed that pacifists had to support the republican cause, but he was first and foremost a humanitarian. There is a local legend in Viator which suggests that he helped a Catholic priest escape assassination by giving him his car. After Viator, Professor Brocca worked in Madrid, where he taught at the University, in Barcelona and other locations. (It is believed that at one stage, preceding the republican era, he also spent some time in Argentina where his brother was living. The reasons for this are not clear, but one source indicates that he was in 'exile' due to political circumstances in Spain). Many people's perception of the Spanish Civil War is one of two monolithic 'sides': a war of democracy against fascism. In fact it was by no means as simple as that, and although it was the republican cause that was more seriously undermined by internal power struggles, there were many factions and sub-groups within both the main groupings .....
The war must have been a moral can of worms for those involved, as well as onlookers, especially liberal Catholics. This brings me back to a point made in Jeff's post ... the martyred Catholic religious of the Spanish Civil War are in contrast to those more recent martyrs of Latin America like Romero and the Jesuits of El Salvador .... they seem to be on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. I wonder if this has anything to do with the reforms of Vatican II. I can't help but think the change is for the better.
There's a great post by Jeff today on the Vatican's plan to beatify some of the martyrs of the Spanish Civil War (link to news story) and about the war itself. I really knew nothing about that subject, so looked it up - I now have only the most basic understanding of the conflict ... the Republican government (secular and socialist), supported by the Communist Soviet Union,, and the Nationalists led by Franco (fascist and Catholic) supported by Nazi Germany ... the US stayed neutral, though they sold arms to both sides, I believe. I found lots of interesting stuff, but my understanding of it all is sketchy .... below are just some random bits of info I came across that struck me.
Looking around the net, I found mention of the different stances back in the 30s and during the SCW taken by publications like America magazine (the Jesuits) which was pro-Franco, and Commonweal which was more conflicted.
Also interesting - the non-Spanish who fought in the war. If you were a European or American liberal, you would have probably supported the Republican side of the conflict and there were International Brigades formed by non-Spanish to fight against what they saw as the danger of spreading fascism. Some of those involved included Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell.
And a number of Jesuits were martyred during the SCW, not long after the Order had been suppressed by the government. According to Wikipedia, 114 Jesuit were killed by the Repoblican side. SJWeb has a page on eleven of them ...
Father Thomas Sitjar Fortiá (1866-1936) and 10 other Jesuits were martyred in Gandía and Valencia, Spain, between Aug. 19 and Dec. 29, 1936 at the start of the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish revolutionary government had suppressed the Society in 1932, but a few Jesuits refused to go into exile, among them, Father Sitjar, who was superior of the handful of Jesuits dispersed into apartments around Gandía.
Only a week after the civil war began, authorities came at night to the apartment that Sitjar shared with Brother Peter Gelabert Amer and arrested the priest. Gelabert barely escaped through a window. By the next morning Father Constantine Carbonell, Brother Raymond Grimaltos and Gelabert joined the superior in a school that had been converted into a prison. Carbonell had served as superior of the Jesuits in Alicante, and minister of several different communities. Gelabert spent his life serving as a gardener.
The Jesuits were able to receive visitors, who brought mattresses and food, but their wait for the inevitable soon ended. Shortly after midnight on Aug. 19, Sitjar was told he was going to be set free; instead he was taken to a road outside the city and executed beneath an olive tree at 3:00 a.m. His three companions died four days later when authorities took them to an olive grove outside of town on the road to Valencia and shot them as well ....
And who knew that there was a kind of peace-nik movement in Spain at the time of the civil war. One of its most well known members was José Brocca. Here's a little of what Wikipedia says of him and the SCW ......
Brocca aligned himself with the socialist segment of the complex political spectrum in Spain, and represented Spanish pacifists at international meetings of the peace movement (Orden del Olivo and War Resisters' International). He was a colleague of feminist doctor Amparo Poch y Gascón. He believed that pacifists had to support the republican cause, but he was first and foremost a humanitarian. There is a local legend in Viator which suggests that he helped a Catholic priest escape assassination by giving him his car. After Viator, Professor Brocca worked in Madrid, where he taught at the University, in Barcelona and other locations. (It is believed that at one stage, preceding the republican era, he also spent some time in Argentina where his brother was living. The reasons for this are not clear, but one source indicates that he was in 'exile' due to political circumstances in Spain). Many people's perception of the Spanish Civil War is one of two monolithic 'sides': a war of democracy against fascism. In fact it was by no means as simple as that, and although it was the republican cause that was more seriously undermined by internal power struggles, there were many factions and sub-groups within both the main groupings .....
The war must have been a moral can of worms for those involved, as well as onlookers, especially liberal Catholics. This brings me back to a point made in Jeff's post ... the martyred Catholic religious of the Spanish Civil War are in contrast to those more recent martyrs of Latin America like Romero and the Jesuits of El Salvador .... they seem to be on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. I wonder if this has anything to do with the reforms of Vatican II. I can't help but think the change is for the better.
posted by crystal | 12:45 PM
4 Comments:
Good post, Crystal. I learned a lot from it.
Regarding your last question, I do think that in Latin America, which during the 1960s and 1970s had latifundist economic and political systems very similar to Spain's, the bishops looked at the Vatican II documents and in response, drafted their own documents at a conference in Puebla that outlined their "Preferential Option for the Poor". I think they were determined not to repeat the mistakes the Church had made in Spain in their negelect of the interests of the underclass and their coziness with the powerful and the priviliged. Sadly, I think some of that Puebla spirit has been quashed somewhat as Opus Dei bishops have been appointed in Latin America and the LT theologians censured. The old Spanish model is making a return. There are signs, though, that the liberationists may not be done quite yet.
Just one point regarding Spain that I didn't mention. In the Basque region, many priests during the SCW were supportive of the Republic.
The Basque region - that's where Ignatius was from, I think :-)
I once read in the documents of the 34th General Congregation [GC34] of the Society of Jesus - can't find them now online. There was a part that said they had too often in the past aligned themselves with those in power and with wealth, anf that they now instead would do all they could to be there to protect and help the poor and powerless. I think Vatican II and Arrupe did change the Order.
Warfare is a fascinating subject. Despite the dubious morality of using violence to achieve personal or political aims. It remains that conflict has been used to do just that throughout recorded history.
Your article is very well done, a good read.
Thanks :)
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