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.
