A Reminder of the Past and of the Future

https://t.co/lmA8kgaWsZ Saturday, three volunteer nurses from the Spanish Civil War will take a step closer to sainthood. via @thecatholicsun pic.twitter.com/uPykJZEWRx

— Catholic News Service (@CatholicNewsSvc) May 29, 2021

What have the Roman Catholic churches in Spain done in the past 80 years to repent and prevent this from happening again?

Sebastian Junger Being Pious?

accepting his father's POV regarding the Spanish Civil War? Was his father a Communist? Junger may have some good things to say about being part of a tribe, but here he just parrots the revolutionary narrative about the Spanish Civil War and "fascism," and TIME is glad to publish it in their war against Red Americans.

"Even longtime democracies like America are vulnerable to fascist takeovers because fascists tend to threaten civil war when they lose elections, and democracies will do almost anything to avoid civil war."https://t.co/nFN1vCId7P

— Sebastian Junger (@sebastianjunger) May 20, 2021

A reminder of what the revolutionaries are currently attempting in Spain:

Stanley Payne on Spain’s Law of Historical and Democratic Memory, “the most dramatic, arbitrary, and punitive proposal concerning discussions of history anywhere in the Western world”https://t.co/YbojbJAyTk

— Matthew Schmitz (@matthewschmitz) May 19, 2021

The Road to Revolution

according to Alexis de Tocqueville...

Stanley Payne, the great historian of twentieth century Spain, describes how modern democracy succumbs to revolution and civil war. https://t.co/kKJWDsqfH7

— Matthew Schmitz (@matthewschmitz) December 11, 2020

Mine Were of Trouble

I just purchased the book "Mine Were of Trouble", which shows the perspective of Francisco Franco's Nationalist/Monarchist side of the 'Spanish Civil War' of the 1930's.

Printed by @MysteryGrove . Special thanks to @PAEasy64 , @JackRobinDC , etc. for influencing me to buy it. pic.twitter.com/x22CIsGPdQ

— Carolina Cavalier ⚜️🇪🇸 (@oldcarolinian) October 2, 2020

Mine Were of Trouble – Peter Kemp

The Worthy House

July 17, 2020

I love seeing young Spaniards celebrating the Caudillo. pic.twitter.com/MR3jKMyhds

— Tory Nationalist ن (@ToryPapist) July 17, 2020

And yet they are in danger of losing their country once again.

Pietro De Marco on the Exhumation and Transfer of Franco's Body

Analysis. Why Franco’s Memory Is Putting the West and the Church To the Test

The Slow Death of Catholic Spain

AmConMag: Franco’s Victory Was Necessary, But Ultimately Meaningless By Grayson Quay
If he was fighting for traditionalist Catholicism against the forces of modernity, then he failed.

Quay's conclusion: After his exhumation last week, the message for us is that the Christendom that endured from Constantine until the middle of the 20th century cannot be preserved, certainly not by force. If we try, we’ll only make things worse.

If one is referring to a "spiritual state of affairs," then of course being Christian cannot be coerced from without. But what exactly did the churches in Spain do to evangelize and make better Christians during the time of Franco? What did traditionalists do to preserve traditional Spanish cultures and communities? Maybe it wasn't just coercion that was a problem but coercion dependent upon the state, one which did not address the issues raised by Leon Podles regarding the disregard of men by Spanish Catholicism. If Catholic Spain was lost, the blame does not lie primarily with Franco, even if his government can be criticized, or at least scrutinized carefully, for injustices.

Franco's Legacy

What did the Church do during the reign of Franco?

Very little to strengthen catechesis or to evangelize the non-believing parts of Spain. (Or were these parts heavily anti-Christian?)

Rod Dreher is on tour in Spain: The Pain in Spain

Interview with Leon Podles

The New Emangelization: Discussion with Dr. Leon Podles – Author of “The Church Impotent – The Feminization of Christianity”

Audio

A 2014 post by Msgr. Charles Pope in which he tries to play it safe and moderate.

Podles' new book which may be published this year by St. Augustine Press; unfortunately the publisher has a reputation for delays.

How many Latin Catholic men, after viewing photos and videos of Pope Francis and reading transcripts of his remarks, would give a no confidence vote based on his speech and mannerisms? How many non-soy men would do so? I suspect that any natural "charisma" he may have is perceived only by women and it is not based on his words behavior but on a well-crafted image that appeals to emotion.

Franco: Anatomy of a Dictator by Enrique Moradiellos

I.B. Tauris

Peter Hitchens: A New Biography of Francisco Francoby Enrique Moradiellos at First Things

Does Hitchens have a Romantic view of liberal democracy?

His rule was not Christian or lawful and could not possibly draw its authority from God, however much Franco might have liked it to. Its origins lay in violent rebellion against the legitimate government, always hard to square with scriptural views of authority. Franco’s state rested on a foundation of bayonets.

What modern nation-state doesn't rest on a foundation of bayonets? Please.

Some More Thoughts on Podle's Next Book

You can find the link to the excerpt here.

Was Nietzsche correct in characterizing Christianity as a "slave morality" which men with spirit should rightly reject? How should St. Paul's admonishments be understood, then? As an implicit approval of slavery? (Or approval only of just forms of slavery and not "chattel" slavery?) How long did it take for slavery to disappear from Rome? Is it correct to say that serfdom replaced slavery? And how was the rise of serfdom linked to changes in the societies of Germanic tribes?

How should the reaction of those unjustly oppressed or "disrespected" by traditional elites (landowners) be understood? Did the elites commit the first sin by failing in charity and Christian fraternity? Could the Christian churches have acquiesced in the rise of medieval kingdoms, followed by the modern nation-state, in different ways that would have prevented the emasculation of their men?

An interesting thesis from Leon Podles

Though I have my doubts; it is one thing to reject Christianity because it has been feminized. But it is enough to do the demonic things done by many of the leftists during the Spanish Civil War. Even if Christianity is no longer part of one's identity, what of country or king? Or upholding the aristocracy?

Still, if women were in charge of the spiritual formators, that is a problem, and reveals that if there was a form of patriarchy in Spain, it was lacking in something very important with respect to the role of the fathers, who should have been in charge of religious education and the primary exmeplar of a Christian life. Did they abdicate this role because they preferred some idol or pagan way? Or was it due to something else after the Reconquest and then the decline of the Spanish Empire. And are there parallels with Spanish-speaking territories in Ibero-America?

Roots Of Spanish Anticlericalism by ROD DREHER

The landowners thought they were good Christians because they gave charity to the poor; but what the poor, especially the men among them, wanted was respect. The men saw that the Church, the priests, could attract women and would interfere in male sexual pleasures, even in marriage. The revolutionaries were not ideologists, but wanted recognition, independence, and respect, so that they could be respected by others as men and respect themselves as men.

Would they even care for the words of St. Paul? And would the words of St. Paul concerning the relationship of slaves and masters even be relevant?

The Spanish Civil War

Dreher still has to play the moderate...

Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Look at There Be Dragons Movie with Director Roland Joffe

Does Joffe get the difference between charity and love right? Or the Spanish Civil War? Or does he refuse to take sides?

I still haven't read The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas.

Some of the interesting books I saw while I was at the gift shop at Mission San Jose in San Antonio included Hugh Thomas's Conquest.

Henry Kamen, Philip of Spain
Lewis Hanke, The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the Conquest of America

And some items from the Alamo gift shop:
The American Frugal Housewife
Paul N. Spellman, Captain J. A. Brooks, Captain John H. Rogers,
H. Joaquin Jackson, One Ranger and One Ranger Returns

(I also note that the story of Texas independence we usually get in out textbooks is not nuanced -- there is no mention of the Mexican Constitution of 1824 and the struggle between the federalists and centralists, and how the Texans were willing to stay a part of Mexico, so long as it returned to this constitution and maintained a federal system. Causes that were discussed included differences in culture and religion and the ban on slavery, but at the Alamo I read that many did convert to Catholicism. I do not know if slavery was that much of an issue, in comparison the constitutional question.)