The attitude of the Catholic Church in Poland to the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)

p. 79-109

s. 79-109

During the Spanish Civil War the Catholic Church in Poland sided with General Francisco Franco. The reasons behind such an attitude should be sought in repression against the Spanish clergy by Spain’s left-wing government and in the attitude of the Holy See, which had given its blessing to the rebellion already in September 1936. The Church in Poland saw the Spanish Civil War in black and white. Everything associated with the left-wing Republic was shown as the greatest evil, anti-civilization, Satan’s domain. The Francoists, on the other hand, were usually presented in a positive light, as twentieth-century crusaders fighting in the name of Christian civilization.