«gt.»

hours from the time his trial began his body was, on October

13th, 1909, riddled with bullets by a firing squad. And then,

as a next move, ninety-four modern schools, the schools Ferrer had founded, and similar schools, were closed by one edict.

Naturally the liberal-minded people of Spain were going to remember what the Church had done to this educator and his humanitarian work, and the memory of Ferrer in Spain in the intervening years has served the Spanish people as the memory of Robert Eimmett, since 1803, has served

the cause of Irish nationality and freedom.

Sixty-seven percent of the Spanish people were still illiterate in 1909, the year in which Ferrer was judicially murdered to please the Church. And a Catholic Bishop estimated that the monks and nuns alone held two-thirds of the wealth of Spain and one-third of the landed property of the country. The Church was spending Seven Million, Five Hundred Thousand Dollars a year for candles and in-

cense alone. One convent alone, the Manresa, took in

Seventy-five Thousand Dollars a year—-—that in a country whose beggars were everywhere. ‘

Naturally, logically, necessarily, there was widespread resentment among the thoughtful people of Spain against what they regarded as the ruin of the nation by the Church. You have observed that everywhere throughout the world the Catholic Church is opposed to Spanish Democracy. You have observed that every single letter coming from the Church regarding the Spanish situation that has appeared in our press has shown sympathy toward the rebel side.

.W e have to face these facts if we wish to understand the

situation. We may say, if we Wish, “Let us close our ears and our eyes and saynothing about the Church’s part in Spain’s tragedy,” but by following such a course we shall blind our eyes to the real nature of the situation in Spain. The fight in,Spain is very largely a fight on the part of the people against the Church. I speak, of course, of the

hierarchy of the Church. Had it not been for the policy

and practice of the leaders of the Church, there would be no war in Spain today.* . S . y , .

1 In 1923 the restiveness of the Spanish people under their

*Note: “Since 1931, when the educate-d part of Spain declared against the Church by a ‘majority of three to one, the Church has been fighting for its life, and the civil war‘ of 1936 would quite clearly not have occurred if the Church had not encouraged the Catholic Popular Action and the army leaders.,”——“The Papacy in Politics To-Day: Vatican Plots in Spain and Other Qountries,A” by Joseph McCabe,‘ p. 28. - A .9 ' iv V 9 \ '

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