Raguer's Document Essay: The Spanish Civil War

During the 1930s, The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was a significant event that alarmed the Church. In Spain, the Spanish Church was under constant problems from the Second Republic and the Spanish radicals of the left and right. Throughout Spain, members of the church faced constant violence or they fled to neighboring countries as refugees or exiles. During the war, they were constantly put in a situation where they had to pick a side. Meanwhile in France, French Catholics, along with the French government, had to make a choice on o not only get involved, but which side to support. Ultimately, countries such as France, Great Britain, and the United States followed the policy of nonintervention whereas the Totalitarian regimes of Europe became heavily involved in the war effort. Lastly, Italy and the Vatican supported the Nationalist cause of a crusade. Pope Pius XI, the

It focused on the issue of memory, the Church and the Civil War along with the differences between the Vatican’s position and the Spanish Church. With the collective epistle in July 1, 1937, an infamous document composed by Cardinal Gomá and requested by Franco, Raguer argued, “Many who have not actually read the epistle have wrongly praised it or criticized it for declaring the Civil War a “crusade.” In fact, the epistle expressly says that the war was not a crusade...” While the Spanish bishops have used the rhetoric of a holy crusade to describe the war in sermons and other epistles, Gomá feared he would anger the Vatican had he called the war a crusade. Raguer spent the rest of the article going over cases of Spanish church leaders that opposed the violence in Spain and that these leaders were either exiled or killed. Moreover, he ended his article claiming that the Spanish Church has not officially issued a public apology to their support for