CHURCHMEN'S VISIT TO SPAIN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 28, 17 February 1937, Page 11

CHURCHMEN'S VISIT TO SPAIN

-PreM Atsn,

No Godless Propagand^ IViinessed CLERGY PROTECTER

(By Tolegraph-

— Copyrixh*.!

Lv)NwiM| JT6D» lvf The absence of anti-God propagandi or molestation of" Protestant churchea and pastors, while ma«iy Cathojie ' churchea are destroyed and prieete killed impressed the AngHcan %nd Fr«e Qhurch group, including the Deans ot Chichester and Rochester, who have roturned from Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid. They report that while & etrong anticlerical movement esists, there it no evidence of . godless propaganda. Scripbures'ai'e being offered freely and books also. Catholic churchee were closed ot secularised and some were uninjured, Some had their religious symbolt re> moved and others were injured or destroyed by fire or military operationi owing to their employment as rebed mu» nition etores, from which the crowds were fired upon. TdTrorists in country districts .had invaded villages and burned churches, but the Government, upon regjaining control of the mob elements, had made efforts to preserve whatever was. artistically valuabl© in the ehurches and had tfied to safeguard the priests, conveying some abroad and protectively arresting others. Many were killed either after trials at which. they .were convieted of rebellion or in mob outbreaks. Unless parish priests were activelj iunpopular they were not killed by parishioner*. Hatred waa more violent againsi, the religious ordera than the parochial clergy, the discovery of large stores of money in clerical houses and convents aggravating the mob. Toleration woujd be assured if in future the Catholib leaders eeparated religipn from improfN er political activity,