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The English Catholic Press and the Second Spanish Republic, 1931–1936

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Thomas R. Greene
Thomas R. Greene
Affiliation:
Assistant professor of history in Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania.
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Extract

The sympathy of most English Catholics during the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939 lay with General Francisco Franco and the other generals who had rebelled against the Second Spanish Republic. If there was any doubt of this, the spate of literature which then appeared, much of it polemical, and the journalistic views presented could leave little doubt on the matter. The adoption of an anti-Republican stance in English Catholic circles, while not complete, nevertheless implied an adverse judgment upon the viability and legitimacy of the Republic, if not its legality, from 1936 onward. The Republic had failed in its primary obligation—to rule justly—and the military revolt had been necessary to forestall anarchy or communism. The judgment that the Republic had failed, however, was not an a priori one, nor was it enthusiastically reached so much as accepted.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , March 1976 , pp. 70 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1976

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References

1. In addition to such well-known writers as Lunn, Arnold, Spanish Rehearsal (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1937)Google Scholar and Spain and the Christian Front (New York: Paulist Press, 1937),Google Scholar which latter is a pamphlet aimed largely at an American readership, and Douglas Jerrold, whose works were presented largely in periodicals at the time of the Civil War, there were many polemical works of varying lengths, which included Gadden, G. M., Conflict in Spain, 1920–1937: A Documental Record (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1937)Google Scholar; Wall, Bernard, Spain of the Spaniards (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1938)Google Scholar; Tennant, Eleanore, Spanish Journey: Personal Experiences of the Civil War (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1936)Google Scholar; Dingle, Reginald, Democracy in Spain (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1937)Google Scholar; Luis de Fonteriz (pseudo.), Red Terror in Madrid (London: Longmans, Green, 1937)Google Scholar and numerous others, as well as journalistic articles. Almost without exception the view presented was the necessity of the rising to stave off communism, for the Republic had failed.

2. There was a large number of papers and journals which were then, and still are, part of the English Catholic intellectual climate. The number and quality of these was much greater than might be expected from the numerical position of English Catholics. The quality and vitality of this literature is conveyed by Wall, Bernard, Headlong Into Change (London: Harvill, 1969), pp. 66 ff.Google Scholar, in which, among other matters, Wall describes his experiences as founder and editor of Colosscum. These journals frequently produced articles directly from Spanish sources which, while strictly speaking not English, nevertheless formed and reflected attitudes in English Catholic circles.

3. Blackfriars 19 (06 1938): 444–445.Google Scholar

4. On the revolution and the establishment of the provisional government, see Robinson, Richard A. H., The Origins of Franco's Spain (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970), pp. 3 ff.Google Scholar; Jackson, Gabriel, The Spanish Republic and the Civil War, 1931–1939 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965), pp. 24 ff.Google Scholar

5. The Tablet, 18 April 1931.

6. Ibid., 25 April 1931; 16 May 1931; Hilaire, Belloc, “The Press and Spain,” G.K.'s Weekly, 23 05 1931Google Scholar; on the psychological impact of these elections, which was more significant than the numerical count, see Jackson, Spanish Republic, p. 29.

7. Such at any rate might be inferred from The Tablet, 8 March 1930, which emphasized that Catholicism did not necessarily involve monarchism.

8. Catholic Herald, 25 April 1931; The Tablet, 18 April 1931; The Month 157 (06 1931): 549–550.Google Scholar

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11. The Tablet, 16 May 1931.

12. Ibid., G. K. Chesterton, “The Sham Revolution,” G. K.'s Weekly, 20 February 1932, Catholic Herald, 9 May 1931: “Freemasonery. combined with Communism, Socialism, Atheism and similar influences have been the mainspring of the Spanish revolution…”; The Month 157 (June 1931): 547, also attributed the revolution to Bolshevism,

13. Catholic Herald, 20 June 1931.

14. Ibid., 22 August 1931; 17 October 1931; The Month 158 (September 1931): 270–271; 158 (November 1931): 459–461.

15. As, for example, in questioning the soundness of the faith of Aleala-Zamora. the president of the Republic, for being associated with such measures in the first place. The Month 158 (September 1931: 270.

16. Catholic Herald, 11 July 1931.

17. Ibid.

18. Dawson, Christopher, Religion and the Modern State (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1935), pp. 120–121.Google Scholar

19. Ibid., p. 126.

20. Catholic Herald, 11 July 1931.

21. Ibid., 29 August 1931.

22. The Month 158 (October 1931): 370; Catholic Herald, 17 October 1931. In emphasizing the debilitating effects of the financial arrangements, the criticism foreshadowed the later severe critisism on the same matter of Brenan, Gerald, The Spanish Labyrinth (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1944), pp. 47–49.Google Scholar

23. Catholic Herald, 5 November 1932.

24. The Month 158 (July 1931): 70

25. de Zulueta, Alfonso, “Catholic Spain,” Blackfriars 12 (08 1931): 598.Google Scholar

26. Ibid., p. 602.

27. The Month 158 (July 1931): 70–71; in fairness to The Month it should be noted it was a Jesuit journal, and the Jesuits were the special target of the republicans. The editor at the time, Fr. Joseph Keating, S. J., was also active as a member of the Catholic Social Guild.

28. Robinson, , Franco's Spain, p. 36.Google Scholar

29. The Month 158 (November 1931): 460.

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32. Robinson, , France's Spain, pp. 73–75.Google Scholar

33. The Month 159 (February 1932): 157 ibid. 159 (April 1932): 442–446.

34. Petrie, Charles, “The Spanish Revolution.” Dublin Review, 191 (07 1932): 55.Google Scholar Petrie was not a Catholic, but his work, like that of E. Allison Peers, an Auglieiai, appeared frequently in Catholic journals. The emphasis upon polarization and its process throughout the article is a standard interpretati n of the Republican period, but what 13 significant is the early pinpointing of the process by Petrie and other Catholic papers and the view that matters could not remain as they were.

35. Munoz, H., “Communism in Spain,” Clergy Review, 6 (06 1933): 471–477.Google Scholar

36. The Tablet, 20 August 1932; Catholic Herald, 21 January 1933, in which the Morning Post was quoted.

37. It was favorably reviewed by Christopher Hollis in Catholic Herald, 29 July 1933. The book based on a pamphlet by Calvo Sotclu. whose murder was later to precipitate the civil war, was written by Luis Bolin and produced in collaboration with Petrie, Charles and Jerrold, Douglas; Bolin, Luis. Spain: The Vital Years (Philadelphia and New York: Lippincott, 1967), pp. 122–124Google Scholar; Jerrold, Douglas, Georgian Adventure (New York: Scribner's, 1938), p. 364.Google Scholar

38. “The Catholic Reaction in Spain,” The Month 160 (08 1932): 152–155.Google Scholar

39. Parker, A. A., “Spain's Catholic Awakening”, Blackfriars 14 (02 1933): 136–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

40. For example The month 160 (September 1932): 270–271: also, a special article contributed by Montague, Arthur J., Catholic Herald, 2204 1933Google Scholar; The Tablet, 29 April 1933, and 5 August 1933.

41. Parker, A. A., “Spain's Catholic Awakening”,’ Blackfriars 14 (02 1933): 142.Google Scholar

42. Ibid., p. 142.

43. Dawson, Christopher, The Modern Dilemma (London: Sheed & Ward. 1933), p. 109.Google Scholar

44. Dawson, , Religion and the Modern State, p. 122.Google Scholar

45. Dawon, , Modern Dilemma, p. 110.Google Scholar

46. G. K.'s Weekly, 4 January 1934.

47. Robinson, , Franco's Spain, p. 149.Google Scholar

48. Ibid., pp. 148–152; and Robinson, “The Partics of the Right and the Republic”, pp. 59–60.

49. The Month 163 (March 1934): 201.

50. Silva, Ramon, “The Spanish Republic: Past and Future”, The Month 163 (02 1934): 158–159Google Scholar; and idem., “Social Unrest in Spain”, Blackfriars 15 (04 1934): 251–259.Google Scholar

51. Munoz, H., “Spain, Today and Tomorrow”, Blackfriars 15 (10 1934): 655–659.Google Scholar

52. Parker, A. A., “The Struggle in Spain”, serialized in Catholic Herald, 1, 8, 23 09; 6, 20 10; 10 11 1934.Google Scholar

53. Ibid., 10 November 1934.

54. Catholic Herald, 28 April 1934.

55. Jackson, , Spanish Republic, pp. 123–124.Google Scholar

56. G. K.'s Weekly, 11 January 1934.

57. Parker, , “Struggle in Spain”, Caltholic Herald 20 10 1934.Google Scholar

58. The significance of the rising is easily inferred from its treatment by Jackson and Robinson, and from its impact on contemporary English Catholic thought, where its effect was cataclysmic.

59. Catholic Herald, 13 October 1934; The Tablet, 13 October 1934.

60. The Tablet, 28 April 1934; 13 October 1934; G. K.'s Weekly, 18 October 1934; Month 164 (December 1934). 487–488.

61. Catholic Herald, 27 October 1934.

62. Jackson, . Spanish Republic, p. 143Google Scholar; Robinson, , Franco's Spain, pp. 214–215.Google Scholar

63. Jackson, , Spanish Republic, p. 157.Google Scholar

64. That is, since the left had already rebelled themselves, they were in a weak position to charge the conservatives with insurrection Lunn, , Spain and the Christian Front, p. 5Google Scholar; Gadden, , Conflict in Spain, pp. 34–36.Google Scholar

65. Silva, Ramon, “The Spanish Revolution”, Blackfriars 15 (12 1934): 832–840CrossRefGoogle Scholar; The Tablet, 11 May 1935, on the other hand, felt the government erred in being lenient.

66. la Torrehermosa, Marquis de, “The Religious Situation in Spain”, Dublin Review 196 (04 1935): 221–235.Google Scholar

67. Catholic Herald, 11 May 1935.

68. Robinson, , “The Parties of the Right”, p. 65.Google Scholar

69. Jerrold was instrumental in providing the aircraft which transported Franco from the Canaries to Spanish Morocco among other things; see Bolin, , Spain: The Vital Years, pp. 9–54.Google Scholar

70. Catholic Herald, 10 April 1936.

71. The Month 167 (03 1936): 197–198Google Scholar; G. K.'s Weekly, 5 March 1936.

72. The Tablet, 22 February 1936; G. K.'s Weekly, 5 March 1936.

73. Catholic Herald, 7 March 1936; The Month 167 (March 1936): 197–198.Google Scholar

74. Mendizabal-Villala, Alfredo, “The Revolutionary and Conservative Elements in Spain Today,” Colosseum, 3, 9 (03 1936): 43–56.Google Scholar The article appeared after the February elections, but was written at the end of 1935; much of the material in the article appeared later in appended form in his The Martyrdom of Spain (New York: Scribner's, 1937).Google Scholar It is true he is not English, as are some of the others herein cited, but it is the appearance of his views within the English context which significant.

75. G.K.'s Weekly, 5 March 1936.

76. Catholic Herald, 20 March 1936; The Tablet, 22 February 1936; 29 February 1936; on Caballero, see Robinson, , Franco's Spain, p. 239.Google Scholar

77. Quinlan, John, “The Spanish Elections Analyzed”, Blackfriars 17 (04 1936): 286–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

78. Ibid., p. 291; by July the analysis was to have gone awry; the Catholic unions, among other things, were disappearing. See Robinson, , Franco's Spain, p. 270.Google Scholar

79. Such is the view in a serial analysis presented “From a Correspondent Recently Returned From Spain” in The Tablet, 2, 9, 16 05 1936.Google Scholar

80. de Zulueta, Alphonsus, “Catholic Action in Spain”, Catholic Herald, 3 07 1936.Google Scholar

81. Catholic Herald, 20, 27 March, 10 April, 1 May 1936; The Month 167 (April 1936): 291–292; Christian Democrat, July 1936, as reported in The Month 168 (August 1936): 174.

82. Catholic Herald, 31 July 1936.