SPAIN’S WAR

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 400, 6 April 1937, Page 6

SPAIN’S WAR

Sermon Over the Trenches. Bilbao, March 28. A Good Friday seermon was preached in the Cathedral and broadcast to the trencher, where loudspeakers carried it both to /rhe atltacking insurgents and the defending loyalists of Biscaya. Biscaya is the only portion of republican Spain, v here Holy Week ceremonies were observed. The churches in Madrid have been closed tince the beginning of the war, so Good Friday w r as not marked by the centuries-o*d custom of the women going to church in their silk dresses and black mantillas, which have indeed, been replaced by overails and jaunty militia c.aps. Seville’s Faith. A strange contrast were the ceremonies observed ivith traditional splendor and pomp in Seville, where processions of brotherhoods with giant religious tableaux included a, statue of the famous Madonna of Faith from Macarena, specially venerated by bull-fighters, who, when Republicans were looting the churches at the beginning of the war. hid the statue at night time, ensuring its safety when the church was burned. General O’Duffy, leader of the Irish Fascists, was among those present at the ceremonies. Asked how long he "vas staying in Spain he replied, grinning, “For the duration of the war.” Walled Barefoot. Many women who had taken vows to make the pilgrimage to Seville, if their husbands and tons were spared until Easter, walked barefoot in profession to the Oathedral.