Military mass

The Catholic Church and its hierarchy played a fundamental role in the Civil War. Although religious faith transcends political divisions, the Collective Letter of the Spanish Biships to the Bishops of the Whole World published on 1 July 1937 at the request of Francisco Franco, represented the explicit support of the Spanish Church for the Francoists. Religion had been a key part of rebel propaganda in the first year of the conflict, but following the publication of the Collective Letter there emerged a symbiosis of Catholicism, fascism, and militarism that became the foundation of the rebels’ ideology.

From that moment, military chaplains were sent to the front lines to accompany rebel military units, perform masses, offer communion, and hear confession. This was a great support for many believers, who saw the chaplains as part of Franco’s armed forces. Moreover, because of the laicization of the state during the Republic and the Church’s loss of its monopoly over education, when the rebels captured a town or city, one of the first things they did was to organize a pilgrimage to return crucifixes to the classroom.

Masses, like the one celebrated in Aragón in 1938 shown in the photo, had a clear political component, demonstrating the influence of the Army, the Falange and the Church hierarchy. Many of the military parades held when a city was taken concluded with a mass. On other occasions, those ceremonies were directed solely at the combatants, with a clear intent to indoctrinate them. Homilies frequently focused on the idea of a “Crusade” against communism, one of the most important concepts in Francoist propaganda.

FLC