Posted on 07/21/2008 6:00:22 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Bishop John Mark Gannon of Erie, Pa., chairman of the National Catholic Welfare Conference xxx department, sailed last night on the liner Queen Mary for Spain, where he said he expected to obtain first-hand information concerning the persecution of the Catholic clergy by the Barcelona government. He said that from information he had already received the ferocity of the ‘Loyalist’ government’s assault on the Catholic Church” was such that the civilized world would stand appalled when the full story was told.
Bishop Gannon said that already he had received conclusive evidence of many acts of violence and of persecution. Concerning this he said:
“Information in my possession, though it represents only a small portion of the full story that eventually will be revealed, demonstrates a hatred of everything Catholic which simply makes the mind reel. According to documented reports published in the French La xxx du Midi more than 20,000 churches and convents were sacked and burned in Spain by the ‘Loyalists.’ It is estimated that more than 16,000 priests have been murdered by these same ‘Loyalists.’
A recent list published in the Osservatore Romano gives the members of religious orders of men whose deaths at the hands of the Loyalists have been ascertained beyond any possible doubt. This does not include the religious orders of women, nor members of the secular xxxrgy [clergy make sense?-Homer], nor even all male religious orders such ass the Dominicans, of whom hundreds are known to have been slain.
This list is as follows: Claretians, 237 murdered; Christian Brothers, 136; Marists, 109; Franciscans, 104; Augustinians, 101; Jesuits, 100;Capuchins, 89; Clerks Secular of the Pious Schools, 84; Xxxsians, 67; Lazarists, 56; Disxxxed Carmelites, 42; Carmelites of the Early Observance, 42; Brothers Hospitaliers of St. John of God, 42; Trinitarians, 20; Redempterists, 19; Benedictines, 18; Congregations of the Holy Family, 16; Mercedarians, 16; Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, 10; Brothers of St. Gabriel, 3; Holy Cross Congregation, 2; Friars of St. Francis of Xxxala, 2.
Among the Bishops murdered by the ‘Loyalists’ are, according to the Osservatore Romano, the Bishops of Cadiz, Lerida, Almeria, Barxxxero, Jaca, Segorbe and Ciudad Real and the Auxiliary Bishop of Tarragona.
The ‘Loyalists’ used all sorts of stratagems to capture the priests in hiding. One of their favorite tricks was to send young girls around from house to house. They would ask if any one could tell them where to find a priest, as a mother or father was dying and crying for a priest to obtain the last rites of the church. If a priest agreed to render this service, he was seized and led off to his martyrdom. Other priests were tracked down with dogs in the mountains.
With regard to the number of Catholic laymen and laywomen slaughtered by the ‘Loyalists,’ present indications are the figures will go to at least 300,000. A Barcelona attorney, Marian Espar, haled before a revolutionary committee, admitted he was a Catholic. He was immediately condemned to death. As he stood before the firing squad, he said:
“My poor brothers. I pardon you. I offer my blood for you. Viva Christ the King.”
Bishop Gannon said there was evidence that fifty priests and laymen were killed at Balaguer out of hatred for their faith. He concluded:
“R. Hegarty of Wood Green, London, after a sojourn in Spain, had this to day in The Daily Mail:
‘A spy system has been instituted throughout Barcelona to search out the few remaining priests and nuns. I was told of one woman member of the Red militia who shot six nuns, killed five of them, and left the other to writhe in agony until she died. One of the most bloodthirsty scenes followed the surrender of the monks in a Barcelona hostel. As they walked out one by one, Red militiamen with huge hammers used normally for road-work smashed them on the head, and when they fell, trampled on them or beat them to death with the hammers.’
“The Spanish correspondent of the Catholic Times of London reported:
‘There was a widespread attempt in Red Spain, and more especially in Madrid, Valencia, and Barcelona, to murder and to outrage not only priests and male religious, but also nuns and pious women. This attempt was successful in so many cases that it merits the title of a general massacre of nuns. Of the Convent of Perpetual Adoration in Madrid, twenty-five nuns were murdered, some shot and others beaten to death with clubs. Of the Carmelite nuns at Cullera, the Mother Superior and eight lay-sisters were murdered. Of one convent of Carmelites in Valencia, the Mother Superior and seventeen nuns were murdered. Of the Institute of Christian Doctrine, Valencia, eighteen were murdered in the Plaza Mayor. From the Convent of xxxarie Reparatrice in Barcelona xxx nuns disappeared and were later seen in a lorry of the Federation of Anarchists of Iberia, and xxx corpses were recognized in the mortuary.’”
“In Barcelona, a priest, Father xxxol, was taken to a wood, placed against a tree and told to blaspheme against God, “ continued Bishop Gannon. “He replied by singing the Te Deum, adding the ejaculation, Laudeter Jesus Christus! For this he was beaten with sticks and xxxes until a blow cleft his skull.
“Father Timothy, O. M. Cap., was discovered hiding in a lot, flung into prison with two other priests and a number of Catholic laymen. When the Nationalists bombarded the town the ‘Loyalists’ took the whole group and massacred them, first inflicting torture and mutilating them. Pieces of flesh were later found at t e scene of butchery.
“The Claretian Fathers of the Catholic University of America, at Washington, issued the following account concerning one of their members:
“’Father Preceado, superior of the religious house in Bilbao, was arrested while he was celebrating mass and for some days was exposed to the brutalities of the “Loyalists.” After being taken to Castro and imprisoned, he was to be brought back to Bilbao, but on the way the soldiers forced him to get out of the motor car, and as he did so he was shot and wounded three times. Thinking him dead, they threw him down a ravine. A young peasant found him still alive and took him secretly to a hospital.’
“At Cervira, fourteen Claretians, mostly very young, were assembled by Father Emmanuel Jove and taken to Valiabona, to his father’s house, the Claretian Fathers report. No sooner did they arrive than Red militia took it upon themselves to hunt them. All the youths were slaughtered, among them Father Jove, who was shot down before the very eyes of his father, a witness of the ghastly massacre.
“At Ciudad Real, another group of Claretians were made to pass through a mob drunk with blood lust in order to reach the railroad station. Escorted by militiamen, they boarded the train and believed they were safe. When the train reached Fernan-Caballero, the militiamen ordered the fourteen religious to march out to the station platform. After some minutes, there rang out the crack of fusillade. Thirteen were assassinated. The fourteenth, mortally wounded, died the next day.
“Such cruelties as these, rarely found even in the pages of the martyrology of the church, were of almost daily occurrence. But such sights sometimes resulted in conversions. Father Lopez of Alagon, Saragossa, Spain, bears testimony to the truth of the story concerning a Communist youth who abjured publicly his atheistic creed when he saw religious going to their deaths, singing. He died with them, a martyr, in Barbasto, Spain.
“At this same time in Barbasto a great number of the martyred priests wrote their farewell messages on handkerchiefs and many of these handkerchiefs are now in the possession of relatives and of religious superiors.
“An interesting story showing the fervor of the priests is noted in the blood-soaked handkerchief of Father F. Perez, who wrote:
“’My last testament. I should desire that this handkerchief would reach you soaked in my blood. Then you would have a token proving that I preferred death rather than show myself false and faithless to the religious principles which I learned at my mother’s knee. This handkerchief is not now stained with my blood, but before it reaches you I will have shed my blood, crying out, Long live Christ the King! Long live Catholic Spain! Today twenty of my bother Claretians have been killed. Tomorrow it shall be my turn. In a short time I will be able to pray for you in heaven. Farewell, until we meed in heaven, Faustinue Perez, C. M. F.’
“In many instances the priests tried to convert or teach their captors, sometimes with disastrous consequences, as was the case with the Rev. Francisco Pamiera, a Franciscan professor at the Seraphic College. When arrested, he gently reminded the militia that Jesus Christ was the greatest friend of the workers and the social doctrines of the church were the most just and most humane. He was thereupon shot in the stomach and left beside the road, where he died shortly after.
“So on, ad infinitum, could be related the horrible tales of the cruelty shown to priests and nuns. And the same applies to the treatment of Catholic laymen and laywomen. How many men were killed, as in Balaguer, for wearing scapulars! How many were killed for possessing rosary beads! How many were slaughtered in cold blood simply because their names were marked down in the parish registries as church members!
“And yet we are expected to believe that the so-called ‘Loyalists’ are not anti-God, anti-religion, anti-Catholic!
“I do not think that the entire history of journalism has seen so many false stories spread by propagandists as has been the case in the present Spanish situation. After two years of this horrible nightmare, the Leftists are still exhausting their every resource to destroy the Catholic Church. Their depredations are not now so great because their control over Spain is not as extensive as it was.
“The land of Spain, consecrated with the blood of thousands of Christian martyrs, will continue to witness persecution as long as Moscow emissaries hold on in Barcelona.”
This article is from a middle page of the July 21 issue. It was laid out poorly for the microfiche photo and some of the words in the left-most column of the page were obscured by a fold. I was able to figure out some of them from the context but others left me at a loss. Where I couldn’t decipher a word I replaced it with “xxx.”
Say what you will, but thank God for Franco. He may have held onto power too long, but back then Spain needed him.
Sadly, the truth has been buried by history. But perhaps some day it will be revealed.
Powerful post Homey...Thanks.
I used to live half the year in SE Spain and it was full of terrible memories for a lot of people. Beautiful place but with a great sadness under the surface.
Another one that stymied me was Disxxxed Carmelites. I was able to track down the other orders through wikipedia but didn't find any matches for that one.
Discalced (barefoot) Carmelites. Carmelite order founded by Spanish Saints Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross.
Fantastic article, thanks for posting. BTW - Bishop Gannon founded Cathedral College, which was renamed Gannon University after he died.
Long live Christ the King!
Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.
(the white-robed army of martyrs, praise thee.)
"It is estimated that more than 16,000 priests have been murdered by these same ‘Loyalists....’"
"...With regard to the number of Catholic laymen and laywomen slaughtered by the ‘Loyalists,’ present indications are the figures will go to at least 300,000."
Another great article. Thanks!
Spain's population in 1938 was around 25 million, or slightly less than the US population (about 30 million) during our Civil War of the 1860s.
Americans (north + south) suffered over 600,000 military deaths in that war. The number of civilian deaths was well under 1,000 total, nearly all of them accidental.
I think one difference is that, regardless of everything else, both sides in the US Civil War considered themselves Christians, and at least tried to behave as such.
later
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.