Church Opposition

• The Catholic Church played a variety of roles during the period of Franco's dictatorship. During the civil war and the first half of the 1940s, the Church had supported Franco with few reservations.
• In the early 1940s, senior bishops used their influence to stop Franco adopting fully fascist policies. Senior figures in the Church were concerned by the repression that had happened in Nazi Germany and were therefore suspicious of the Falange. Although, the church had supported Franco's use of terror. Catholic clergy even worked with Franco's security services to root out enemies of the new regime. In return, Franco signed a Concordat which gave the Church considerable freedom from government interference.
• By the mid-1960s, the Church became more critical of the dictatorship. Catholic clergy were concerned about growing inequalities and the social problems created by the free market. These concerns led to many young priests questioning the direction of the regime.
• In towns and cities priests collaborated with workers to campaign for better pay and conditions. The link between workers and the Church went back to the establishment of the Catholic Action Workers' Association (HOAC) in 1945. There was also the Young Catholic Workers (JOC) established in 1947.
• The HOAC and JOC were legal associations since they were linked to the Church. Therefore they remained independent from the state and there was a limit to what Franco could do to suppress them. They attracted workers and clergy who were concerned about poverty in Spain.
• From the late 1950s, Catholic activists became involved in the organisation of worker strikes. Priests were also active in the strikes, which took place in northern Spain in 1962 and 1963. Catholic activists were monitored closely by Franco's security apparatus.
• In the Basque region, radical priests preached sermons encouraging local nationalism. Furthermore, in university towns 'progressive priests' worked with students demanding greater freedom of expression.
• Priests were able to play a radical role as the Concordat gave them special legal protection:

  • had the right to establish universities
  • could operate radio stations
  • could publish newspapers and magazines
  • guaranteeing priests protection from police intrusion into Church property
• Franco's government used a series of measures to deal with Church opposition. Some bishops were critical of the 'red clergy' meaning Franco was able to imprison the most troublesome priests in the 'Concordat Jail', which was established in Zamora in 1969. The government also began a propaganda campaign against the 'Marxistisation' of the Church and Franco wrote to the Pope in 1973 asking for his intervention to discipline radical priests.
• As time went by, the Church became increasingly radical. In 1973, the Spanish Church published The Church and the Political Community, which explicitly called for democratisation. The book showed that the leaders of the Spanish Church no longer backed Franco's government.