Pope Leo XIV will be visiting Spain in June. Ahead of the momentous occasion, and with the leftist government of Pedro Sánchez more committed than ever to the cause of historical revanchism, the Roman pontiff recognised another 49 martyrs of the Spanish Civil War. It was a powerful moment—the Church hasn’t forgotten the Spaniards who fell for her between 1936 and 1939. Neither should we.
The cause of Republican Spain was always the darling of international progressivism. Some 60,000 non-Spaniards volunteered to fight in the Republic’s ‘International Brigades.’ There was no lack of big names endorsing it, including George Orwell (who took part in the war and whose experiences inspired his Homage to Catalonia), André Malraux, Pablo Neruda, John dos Passos, and Ernest Hemingway. Public perception of the war, then, understandably tilted to the left.
Behind this wall of leftist romanticism, however, there was always a far more unpalatable reality. The Republic was not really a defenceless democracy ravaged by the wolves of fascism; it was a brutal, communist-controlled regime that had stolen the 1936 legislative election from the Right and engaged in what has been described as the “occasion of the greatest anticlerical bloodletting Europe has ever seen.” Indeed, as argued by Mary Vincent in The Splintering of Spain: Cultural History and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939, “this extraordinary outpouring of violence claimed the lives of 4,184 priests and seminarians, among them twelve bishops, 2,365 monks and brothers and 283 religious sisters. … After a scant two months of civil war, 3,400 priests, monks and nuns had been murdered.”
The horrors of Spain’s Red Terror and the piles of Christian bones left behind by the Communists were never forgotten by the Church. The process of beatification of the thousands of Catholic martyrs of Republican persecution began under Pope John Paul II in 1987. By December last year, some 2,255 Spanish martyrs had been beatified. Some 2,000 others are under evaluation and, hopefully, on the way.
But Pope Leo XIV’s decision to beatify these latest 49 Spaniards comes at a sensitive moment in relations between the Socialist government in Madrid and the See of Rome. As prime minister, Pedro Sánchez has made it a personal mission to purge Spanish historical memory of the Nacionales, the right-wing coalition that unseated the tyrannical, philo-communist Republic in 1939. In 2019, Sánchez had the body of Francisco Franco Bahamonde, the leader of the Nacionales and victor of 1939, removed from his grave in the imposing basilica of the Valle de los Caídos, in the Sierra de Guadarrama.
The argument used back then was that Franco himself had not perished in the war and that the monument—which was intended by the Generalissimo as a symbol of national reconciliation and contains the remnants of some 34,000 victims of the war—should host only the bodies of the conflict’s direct victims. Naturally, this was a bogus excuse: in 2023, Sánchez similarly removed the body of José António Primo de Rivera from the site. Primo de Rivera, leader of the right-wing Falange Española de las JONS, was assassinated by the Republicans on November 20th, 1936. He was, indisputably, a victim of the war.
But Sanchez isn’t yet done with his petty revenge. He still wants more. For the last few years, he has dedicated himself to the process of “resignifying” the Valle de los Caidos as a great monument to antifascism. He had its name changed to Valle de Cuelgamuros and has done all in his power to evict the monks who still occupy a Benedictine abbey within the site. The government’s plans to transform the Valley would have significant parts of it—including magnificent works of art—destroyed.
The only reason Sánchez’ plans to take over the abbey haven’t yet succeeded is the admirable courage of the Spanish Church, which has so far fought tooth and nail the government’s intentions to “desacralise” the Valley. This bravery notwithstanding, it is now clear that Sánchez is a cynic with the heart of a tyrant; he will stop at nothing to have his desires fulfilled. That is why conservative NGO Hazte Oir, which has called Sánchez’ plans for the site “terrifying”, has been begging the pope to intervene directly in defence of the abbey, its monks, and the Valley itself, aware that only the power of the papacy can truly stop Sánchez.
It remains to be seen whether Rome will, in the end, stand by the suffering monks of the Valley. Sánchez himself seems to believe the pope will fight. In 2023, Msgr. Erik Varden, who is regarded as close to Leo, visited the Abbey. Additionally, the government has set the papal visit in June as its deadline to formally present plans to desacralise and transform the Valley, patently attempting to present Leo with a fait accompli. What the timing of the new recognitions of martyrdom suggests is that Leo is paying attention to what is happening in Spain—and signalling that neither the anti-Catholic abuses of the past nor those of the present will be ignored.
Leo XIV Recognises Another 49 Catholic Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War
Valle de los Caídos, Spain
Sigils, CC BY-SA 3.0 ES, via Wikimedia Commons
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Pope Leo XIV will be visiting Spain in June. Ahead of the momentous occasion, and with the leftist government of Pedro Sánchez more committed than ever to the cause of historical revanchism, the Roman pontiff recognised another 49 martyrs of the Spanish Civil War. It was a powerful moment—the Church hasn’t forgotten the Spaniards who fell for her between 1936 and 1939. Neither should we.
The cause of Republican Spain was always the darling of international progressivism. Some 60,000 non-Spaniards volunteered to fight in the Republic’s ‘International Brigades.’ There was no lack of big names endorsing it, including George Orwell (who took part in the war and whose experiences inspired his Homage to Catalonia), André Malraux, Pablo Neruda, John dos Passos, and Ernest Hemingway. Public perception of the war, then, understandably tilted to the left.
Behind this wall of leftist romanticism, however, there was always a far more unpalatable reality. The Republic was not really a defenceless democracy ravaged by the wolves of fascism; it was a brutal, communist-controlled regime that had stolen the 1936 legislative election from the Right and engaged in what has been described as the “occasion of the greatest anticlerical bloodletting Europe has ever seen.” Indeed, as argued by Mary Vincent in The Splintering of Spain: Cultural History and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939, “this extraordinary outpouring of violence claimed the lives of 4,184 priests and seminarians, among them twelve bishops, 2,365 monks and brothers and 283 religious sisters. … After a scant two months of civil war, 3,400 priests, monks and nuns had been murdered.”
The horrors of Spain’s Red Terror and the piles of Christian bones left behind by the Communists were never forgotten by the Church. The process of beatification of the thousands of Catholic martyrs of Republican persecution began under Pope John Paul II in 1987. By December last year, some 2,255 Spanish martyrs had been beatified. Some 2,000 others are under evaluation and, hopefully, on the way.
But Pope Leo XIV’s decision to beatify these latest 49 Spaniards comes at a sensitive moment in relations between the Socialist government in Madrid and the See of Rome. As prime minister, Pedro Sánchez has made it a personal mission to purge Spanish historical memory of the Nacionales, the right-wing coalition that unseated the tyrannical, philo-communist Republic in 1939. In 2019, Sánchez had the body of Francisco Franco Bahamonde, the leader of the Nacionales and victor of 1939, removed from his grave in the imposing basilica of the Valle de los Caídos, in the Sierra de Guadarrama.
The argument used back then was that Franco himself had not perished in the war and that the monument—which was intended by the Generalissimo as a symbol of national reconciliation and contains the remnants of some 34,000 victims of the war—should host only the bodies of the conflict’s direct victims. Naturally, this was a bogus excuse: in 2023, Sánchez similarly removed the body of José António Primo de Rivera from the site. Primo de Rivera, leader of the right-wing Falange Española de las JONS, was assassinated by the Republicans on November 20th, 1936. He was, indisputably, a victim of the war.
But Sanchez isn’t yet done with his petty revenge. He still wants more. For the last few years, he has dedicated himself to the process of “resignifying” the Valle de los Caidos as a great monument to antifascism. He had its name changed to Valle de Cuelgamuros and has done all in his power to evict the monks who still occupy a Benedictine abbey within the site. The government’s plans to transform the Valley would have significant parts of it—including magnificent works of art—destroyed.
The only reason Sánchez’ plans to take over the abbey haven’t yet succeeded is the admirable courage of the Spanish Church, which has so far fought tooth and nail the government’s intentions to “desacralise” the Valley. This bravery notwithstanding, it is now clear that Sánchez is a cynic with the heart of a tyrant; he will stop at nothing to have his desires fulfilled. That is why conservative NGO Hazte Oir, which has called Sánchez’ plans for the site “terrifying”, has been begging the pope to intervene directly in defence of the abbey, its monks, and the Valley itself, aware that only the power of the papacy can truly stop Sánchez.
It remains to be seen whether Rome will, in the end, stand by the suffering monks of the Valley. Sánchez himself seems to believe the pope will fight. In 2023, Msgr. Erik Varden, who is regarded as close to Leo, visited the Abbey. Additionally, the government has set the papal visit in June as its deadline to formally present plans to desacralise and transform the Valley, patently attempting to present Leo with a fait accompli. What the timing of the new recognitions of martyrdom suggests is that Leo is paying attention to what is happening in Spain—and signalling that neither the anti-Catholic abuses of the past nor those of the present will be ignored.
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