Spanish bishops apologise for silence over killings
Spanish bishops broke decades of silence at the weekend to apologise for the killing of 14 priests by Francisco Franco’s troops during the civil war, asking forgiveness for the church’s collusion with the dictator’s cause
The bishop of Vitoria celebrated a memorial service in the cathedral of the Basque regional capital yesterday to mark the execution 73 years ago by Francoist troops of 14 priests who had never received a funeral, and whose deaths were never officially recorded.
The apology is unprecedented. Spain’s ecclesiastical hierarchy supported Francisco Franco from the moment the civil war broke out in 1936. It never wavered in its support for his 40-year dictatorship, and uttered no word of remorse during more than three decades of democracy that followed the generalissimo’s death in 1975.
The service was attended by the bishops of Bilbao and San Sebastian, 200 priests, family members of the priests who died, and representatives of the regional Basque government. Andoni Lekuona, nephew of one of the 14, said from the pulpit that he “didn’t even know where his uncle’s remains were.”
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The bishop of Vitoria celebrated a memorial service in the cathedral of the Basque regional capital yesterday to mark the execution 73 years ago by Francoist troops of 14 priests who had never received a funeral, and whose deaths were never officially recorded.
The apology is unprecedented. Spain’s ecclesiastical hierarchy supported Francisco Franco from the moment the civil war broke out in 1936. It never wavered in its support for his 40-year dictatorship, and uttered no word of remorse during more than three decades of democracy that followed the generalissimo’s death in 1975.
The service was attended by the bishops of Bilbao and San Sebastian, 200 priests, family members of the priests who died, and representatives of the regional Basque government. Andoni Lekuona, nephew of one of the 14, said from the pulpit that he “didn’t even know where his uncle’s remains were.”