I only write letters to the editors of publications very rarely, but the Catholic Herald was decent enough to publish a missive I sent defending Franco as the lead Letter to the Editor in this week’s edition. Readers of the Times Literary Supplement will recall seeing a brief note from me on the subject of Wodehouse & banking published in that weekly’s letters page a few months ago.

Franco came to the defence of a Church threatened with extinction

30 January 2009

From Mr Andrew Cusack

SIR – David Barrett (Letter, January 23) is certainly right that atrocities were committed by both sides in the Spanish Civil War, but is wrong to deny the Church’s debt to Franco. Mr Barrett claims that the presence of Communists in local government in France is proof that they were no threat to civilisation, but he must certainly recognise a vast difference between being in control of rubbish collection and street naming and being in control of the entire vast apparatus of a nation.

According to Mr Barrett, Franco “was an ally of Hitler and Mussolini” but while these two leaders did give the Nationalist forces tremendous aid and support during the Civil War, they received very little in return for their trouble. At the end of the traumatic struggle, Franco held a Te Deum at the Church of St Barbara in Madrid, giving thanks to God for the victory. He laid his sword upon the altar and vowed never to take it up again unless Spain was threatened with invasion. Thus Franco refused to declare war on France and Britain (the two countries whose arms embargo against him during the Civil War in fact forced him to accept Hitler and Mussolini’s help) because the two powers obviously bore no warlike intent against neutral Spain. Mr Barrett rightly asks: “How was an actual Fascist dictatorship any better than a possible Communist dictatorship?”

To begin, Franco’s dictatorship was not actually Fascist, but rather of an authoritarian reactionary sentiment. Franco only ever attended a single national mass meeting of the Falange and many of the proper Spanish Fascists (such as the Forza Nueva) thought very poorly of Franco’s regime.

Secondly, the Communist dictatorship was not merely possible, but very real. The areas of Spain which fell under Communist control were places of brutal repression, not only of the Catholics who rightly opposed Communist power, but even of the Communists’ fellow travellers: the anarchists, Marxists, Trotskyites and other Leftists. Under the Communists 12 per cent of Spain’s clergy were martyred – the Diocese of Barbastro alone lost 85 per cent of its priests. Over 20,000 churches and chapels were damaged or destroyed, and in Barcelona every single Catholic altar was desecrated. Compare this with the quite broad freedom (and patronage) the Church enjoyed under Franco – one archbishop repeatedly attacked him from the pulpit with no interference.

Given the choice between the total physical destruction of the Church in Spain and a dictatorial regime in which the Church’s freedom was guaranteed, I am sure we must join with Mr Dytor in admitting that “we all owe Franco a huge debt of gratitude”.

Yours faithfully,
Andrew Cusack
University of Stellenbosch,
South Africa

Found in an old Spanish magazine printed towards the end of the Civil War.

Category: Franco

POOR, PITIABLE SPAIN. So rich in saints in Heaven, but, to the outside observer, so poor in saints on Earth. There were days, of course, when Spain was governed by saints and holy men and women, but today Spain is ruled by the wayward, the foolish, and perhaps even the downright evil. Error is proclaimed truth, wrong is called right, and evil hailed as good.

Of course, these things that happen today have happened in the past as well, and even within living memory — less than a eighty years ago. It is announced from Rome that, with the approval of the Holy Father, two more groups of Spanish martyrs for the Christian faith are to beatified, and that, owing to the number of souls, the beatification will be held in the Eternal City itself. The mass beatification will be held this October on the Feast of Christ the Universal King. The feast is significant for these martyrs on a number of levels, namely that it was proclaimed by Pope Pius XI, during whose pontificate these martyrs sacrified their earthly lives, and that “¡Viva Cristo Rey!” or “Long Live/Hail Christ the King!” was their motto. One group is composed of those martyred during the leftist Asturias rebellion of 1934, and the second group is composed of martyrs killed in 1936 and 1937 during the Civil War. Each case has been the subject of deliberative study first in Spain and then in Rome for decades before beatification is approved.

In total, 498 names will be added in October to the list of those already beatified or canonized. Among those 498 names are a number from the many killed in the massacres of Paracuellos de Jarama. Coincidentally, Gerald Warner recently touched upon this place of death in a Scotland on Sunday column on the occasion of Edinburgh University revoking the honorary degree bestowed upon Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. In the column, Gerald discussed various honorary degrees which had been bestowed upon monsters, tyrants, and evil men, and finished his column with a case from Spain.

“That pilot,” Gerald concluded his column, “deserved an honorary degree”.

There is a good website which lists many of the Catholic martyrs of the Spanish Civil War; it starts here and carries on for sixty pages. The list also contains photographs or images of the individual martyrs when it has been possible to obtain them. Look at these photographs, see the faces of these holy men and women who now intercede for us in Heaven. They are priests and bishops, nuns and brothers, penniless Franciscans and wealthy aristocrats. They are fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, workers, craftsmen, students, nurses, teachers, young and old. In many cases, entire monasteries and convents were killed en masse, their cloisters flowing with blood, and the bodies of the martyrs dumped by the sides of highways, their killers vainly hoping their names would be forgotten and struck from history. But, as has oft been said before, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. We are human, and can only see with our eyes. Who knows what untold and unseen burdens have been lifted from Spain’s shoulders by the intercession of their prayers?

IN CASE YOU were in need of someone to raise a glass to, why not the 14th Duke of Hamilton and his friends? A reader and friend of ours from the fair Dominion of Virginia sent us a link to this program, which is available for listening to until next Monday, about “a famous flying ace, a top racing driver and an aristocrat” who together lent a helping hand to Christian Spain in her hour of need.

Famously, the four Douglas-Hamilton brothers (below) all simultaneously held the rank of Squadron Leader in the RAF. In the BBC program linked to above, one of the living Douglas-Hamiltons relates the tale of when all four brothers individually flew to a certain aerodrome and when the tower radio operator heard “Squadron Leader Douglas-Hamilton requesting permission to land” one time after another, he thought someone was pulling his leg.

Air Commodore Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton and 11th Duke of Brandon, KT, GCVO, AFC, PC, DL, FRCSE, FRGS, also served as Chancellor of the University of St Andrews.

Previously: The Tomb of Francisco Franco | The Caudillo in Action! | Fun With Franco

NO SOONER HAD the Wall Street Journal earned the highest regards from these quarters for their splendid ‘hedcut‘ portrait of the Generalissimo (on the front page, and above the fold, no less!) than their stock immediately plummeted in normal daytime trading on the Cusack Exchange. The best and most admirable feature of the financial-and-more paper is its splendidly broad size, in complete repudiation of the tabloid mentality. It has dignity, refinement, and gravitas. And so it must go. Newsdesigner reports that the Journal will be trimming its broadness to a much narrower, uglier size. The idea is to save newsprint, and thus cut costs, but the result is a disgrace. A sense of proper proportion is sacrificed to the gods of the balance sheet. Hmmm… where have we heard this before? The New York Observer trimmed its size, again without any regard for proportion, and the result was most poor. I bought it once after the changeover and never since.

Narrow broadsheets are not only a contradiction in terms, they are exceptionally irritating to read. The Berliner size of the Guardian, Le Figaro, and other papers is a handy, convenient size, and of a very comely proportion. The normal broadsheet of the Daily Telegraph, the current Wall Street Journal, and the Scotsman in its pre-tabloid days exudes soundness, reliance, and dignity. But ungainly tabloids and these new narrow broadsheets ought to be relegated to the dustbin of dodgy newspaper ideas.

AS THE MONTH of July draws to a close, we’d like to announce the Polish scientist and politician Prof. Maciej Giertych has been anointed our ‘Man of the Month’. Professor Giertych, who holds two degrees from Oxford and his PhD in tree physiology from the University of Toronto, is a Member of the European Parliament and recently took part in that inauspicious body’s debate commemorating the seventieth anniversary of the commencement of the Spanish Civil War, a debate which even the BBC’s Europe editor slated as “one of those debates that seem rather pious and pointless”. While the usual gang of characters spouted their unthinking praise for the tyrannical and genocidal Communist and Anarchist forces, Prof. Giertych had the decency to stand up and set the record straight.

“Thanks to the Spanish Army and Franco the Communist attack on Catholic Spain was thwarted,” Prof. Giertych told the European Parliament. “The presence of such people in European politics as Franco guaranteed the maintenance of traditional values in Europe and we lack such statesmen today. Christian Europe is losing against atheistic socialists today and this has to change.”

“I thought it was necessary to remind listeners in the EU Parliament,” the Professor said later, “that this was not an anti-democratic movement, but a movement that was in defense of certain values that are inherent in the Catholic way of seeing things pertinent to government to run civil society. The uprising was a defense of Catholic Spain, so the civil war in Spain was a conflict between Catholic Spain and communist Spain.” The Professor also used his speech to praise António de Oliveira Salazar, Portugal’s Catholic dictator who, like Franco, managed to keep his country free from the devastation of the Second World War. (Salazar was also a very close friend of Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith, who claimed in his memoirs that if Salazar had lasted a few more years, Rhodesia would still exist today).

Prof. Giertych is a Member of the European Parliament for the League of Polish Families, one of the political parties in Poland’s tripartite coalition government. His son, Roman Giertych, is both Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education of Poland.

Previously: The Tomb of Francisco Franco | Requiescat in Pace | The Caudillo in Action! | Fun with Franco! | The Reconquest of Madrid

General Eisenhower and General Franco

]]> http://www.andrewcusack.com/2006/07/31/man-of-the-month-professor-giertych/feed/ 8 http://www.andrewcusack.com/2006/01/18/the-tomb-of-francisco-franco/ http://www.andrewcusack.com/2006/01/18/the-tomb-of-francisco-franco/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2006 22:07:04 +0000 Andrew Cusack http://www.andrewcusack.com/net/2006/01/18/the-tomb-of-francisco-franco/

I attended a little get-together on the East Side back on New Year’s Day and met one of our loyal readers who requested more Francoiana, and thus I make this very rare concession to public opinion. I wonder if this splendid view can’t officially be considered P.O.D. (pious and overly devotional in Catholic blogspeak) until the good man is canonized, which could take centuries, if done at all. At any rate, a bit more reflective than most of our previous Franco appreciations, which have highlighted the Generalissimo’s more humorous side.

Dedicated specifically to our friends at a certain New York law firm.

Photo Credit: AP (I think)

Previously: Requiescat in Pace | The Caudillo in Action! | Fun With Franco! | The Reconquest of Madrid

]]> http://www.andrewcusack.com/2006/01/18/the-tomb-of-francisco-franco/feed/ 5 http://www.andrewcusack.com/2005/11/20/requiescat-in-pace/ http://www.andrewcusack.com/2005/11/20/requiescat-in-pace/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2005 14:58:43 +0000 Andrew Cusack http://www.andrewcusack.com/net/2005/11/20/requiescat-in-pace/

Generalissimo FRANCISCO PAULINO HERMENEGILDO TEÓDULO FRANCO y BAHAMONDE SALGADO PARDO DE ANDRADE, Caudillo de España por la gracia de Dios, Jefe del Estado, requiescat in pace.

4 December 1892 — 20 November 1975

I searched through the Franco section of the Cusack archives and found this photograph of the Caudillo with His Imperial Highness the Archduke Otto, the son and heir of Blessed Charles of Austria, as well as being a sometime Member of the European Parliament for Bavaria (until recently). We’ve already seen a photo of Franco with the artist Salvador Dalí who described him as nothing short of a saint.

I apologise for not spacing out more widely our appreciation of the Generalissimo, but I felt obliged to observe the day of his death.

Previously: The Caudillo in Action | Fun with Franco! | The Reconquest of Madrid

]]> http://www.andrewcusack.com/2005/11/20/requiescat-in-pace/feed/ 3 http://www.andrewcusack.com/2005/11/17/the-caudillo-in-action/ http://www.andrewcusack.com/2005/11/17/the-caudillo-in-action/#comments Thu, 17 Nov 2005 10:40:14 +0000 Andrew Cusack http://www.andrewcusack.com/net/2005/11/17/the-caudillo-in-action/

Franco fishes!

Franco golfs!

Franco hunts!

Franco takes the helm! But of course our readers already know what a sporting yachtsman the Caudillo was.

And of course Franco knows how to be reverent in church. Who’s that in the back? Late arrivals, there’s always one!

Previously: Fun with Franco! | The Reconquest of Madrid ]]> http://www.andrewcusack.com/2005/11/17/the-caudillo-in-action/feed/ 0