For Christ and Catalonia: Catholic Catalanism and Nationalist Revival in Late Francoism

Abstract

Princess of our noble Catalan land

Oh Virgin of the mountain

… pious Mother of this land that has

always loved you, make it great

and powerful ¹

Over the course of Franco’s dictatorship in Spain (1939–1975), we can trace a remarkable transformation in the position of the Catholic Church in the historic territory of Catalonia. Subject to deep-rooted anti-clericalism, with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the Church found itself the target of an unprecedented assault. The victory of Franco’s Nationalist forces in 1939 restored the Church, yet due to its Spanish Nationalist ideology, sought the ending of the Catalan Catholic tradition. However, over the course of the 1940s and 1950s, the Catalan Church was able to undertake a cautious reconstruction of the indigenous religious and cultural movement. This revival would begin to transform the Church’s position in Catalan society to the point where, by the mid-1960s, it was possible to assert that anti-clericalism was no more. The Church became a key element in the revival of Catalan nationalism and an important component to the opposition in late anti-Francoism.