Soviet Influence in Spain 1919-1936 A Documentary Study Marcel Chaminade . _ . I c i v * , MavoeJ Sosiie^ Ifi-nowtce--.*- I I I A b L S G S ^ Religious Orders in Spain: Some Figures James A. Cleary, C.SS.R. I l l Religion Essential Because it is True Arnold Lunn $1.00 a year 53 Park Place Issued Fortnightly The America Press 5c a copy New York 5>::::o:3>: :o: :o: ?>;:<£ :o:3cc:o: 30: :0:30c :onci »licirci :o: ro:»:̂ : :o: 30: The Man Had a Headache Wondering What to Give His Friends for Christmas If You See Anybody Holding His Head During These Pre-Chrislmas Days Show Him This Gift List For Everybody: A M E R I C A , for one year $4.00 in U. S. A Weekly Review of the Current Affairs. For the Classicist: T H O U G H T , for one year . . $ 5 . 0 0 in U. S. A Quarterly of the Sciences and Letters. For the Student, the Writer, the Speaker: C A T H O L I C M I N D , for one year $1.00 in U. S. A Semi-monthly Collection of Authoritative Opinions on Worth-while Topics. 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Acceptance for mailing at special rates of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on June 29, 1913. Trade-mark "Catholic Mind," Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. tJeaeWRM THE CATHOLIC M I N D VOL. XXXVI DECEMBER 8, 1938 No. 863 /¿| Special St I \ CoiMong m Soviet Influence in Spain, 1 9 1 9 - 1 9 3 6 MARCEL CHAMINADE Reprinted from The Tablet (London), October 8, 1938. 'TVHE more one studies the beginnings of the Spanish Civil War, the more one is struck by the decisive part played by the Soviets in preparing the ground. So great was this, that we can say that the term "Civil War" is incorrect; we might even say that there has been no Spanish Revolution, or that there is only a Russian Revolution which has been arranged from outside, even a Russo-French Revolution, which has made Spain its center, after eighteen years of uninter-rupted effort. For, as we shall see, Moscow's work, which has been intensified and carried out down to the last de-tail, began just after the War, in 1919. Lenin's great phrase, that Spain would see the next Soviets after Russia, was far from being a prophecy. It was sim-ply the admission of a program already in existence. It was at the great industrial center of Barcelona, an old haunt of revolutionaries, that Moscow started 449 SOVIET INFLUENCE IN SPAIN, 1 9 1 9 - 1 9 3 6 450 its propaganda. Before the end of the year 1918 it had already sent a number of its most experienced agents into Catalonia, with the mission of working on the centers of Syndicalism. This propaganda soon bore fruit. Under the pressure of Communist converts, the Confederación Nacional de Trabajadores decided, in 1919, at its annual congress at the Comedy Theater in Madrid, despite the lively opposition of the Anarchist-Syndicalists, to join the Third International. The men used by the Russians for this were Angel Pestaña, Eusebio Carbo and Salvador Quemedas. They all went as delegates to the second congress of the Comin-tern in Moscow. So, at a single blow, the Soviets had succeeded in making their way into the heart of the workers' movement. Yet, in an old country traditionally Catholic and violently individualist as Spain was, the great ma-jority of the people were not only opposed, but even strongly opposed, to the Bolshevik gospel. Faced with an opposition which was soon seen to be bitter, if not insuperable, Moscow, in 1921, recalled its agents in order to discover the best way of dealing with this. Joaquin Maurin, Jesus Ibanez, Hilario Arlandiz and Andres Nin, the murderer of Dato, the President of the Council, who had fled abroad after his crime, were sent from Barcelona to discuss a new plan with the Soviets. The method decided was to provoke a divi-sion inside the National Confederation of Workers. Angel Pestaño was once more chosen for putting this scheme into effect. He was wholly successful. He went straight to the Confederation and, on exact in-structions from the Comintern, he made a report on "What I Saw in Russia," which had been composed in a manner certain to provoke a crisis by setting the Anarchist-Syndicalists against the Socialist-Com-munists. The Anarchist-Syndicalists won by a large majority, as had been foreseen. Immediately, instruc-tions to this effect having been given in advance, all SOVIET INFLUENCE IN SPAIN, 1 9 1 9 - 1 9 3 6 4 5 1 Socialist-Communist members resigned. A pretext had been found for setting up a rival organization, di-rectly Communist in inspiration. The task of creating this purely Communist Party, on the Russian model, was assigned to A. Anguiano and a former artillery officer, Perez Solis, a man of action who had become embittered because his career had not come up to his expectations. With the foundation of a Communist Party whose center was in Madrid, the Soviets now had a weapon which enabled them to pass to the attack. At Bilbao, where he had installed his office, Perez Solis, anxious to show his ability and justify the hopes placed in him, got to work, giving his attention to all the work-ers of the Basque coast and the Asturias; he frowned on some and smiled on others so successfully that he finished by splitting them up into groups, Communists and Anarchists. As a try-out, in the early months of 1923, he organized a strike which lasted three months and extended to all the mining concerns in that area. Solis' work bore fruit. He had been so successful, that in the autumn Moscow decided on another and shrewder blow. Considerable sums were sent to Solis who, at the head of a group of partisans, went through the Asturias, village by village, pouring out money for the local workers' leaders. At the same time, he sent agents to the south to provoke disaffection among the garrisons. In August there broke out simultaneously a great revolutionary strike in the Asturias and seri-ous mutinies among the troops in Malaga, which pre-vented reinforcements being sent from Morocco. En-trenched at Bilbao in the House of the People, Solis underwent a real siege against armed forces. In recognition of his services he was nominated a mem-ber of the executive committee of the Third Interna-tional. The ground had now been well enough pre-pared to allow the formation of a single Communist front, comprising Catalonian, Basque, Asturian and SOVIET INFLUENCE IN SPAIN, 1 9 1 9 - 1 9 3 6 452 Andalusian federations, under the direction of a new central committee, headed by Joaquin Maurin, Canet and Martin Sastre. With the coming to power of General Primo de Rivera, the Soviets were obliged to restrain their propaganda. Revolutionary movements were severely put down, the principal Bolshevik agents imprisoned or forced to leave the country. Solis, who had taken refuge in Paris, did return to Spain and tried to as-sault the Ataranzas barracks in Barcelona but the at-tempt failed and he was arrested. His two chief help-ers, Leon Trilla and Bullejos, were no more fortunate in their attempted riots in Bilbao. The rallying of the great workers' organizations to the dictatorship and the presence of Largo Caballero, as a councillor, beside Primo de Rivera, showed that, in spite of all the Bol-shevik propaganda, it had not taken real root in the country. Momentarily set back, the Soviets did not give up their attempts. They continued, by subterranean means, the work which they could not longer pursue openly, principally in Paris, which had become the great center of intrigue for Marxist agents. The cleverest members of the Comintern made their head-quarters there. Numbers of revolutionaries, Spanish and Russian, were directed by the great Russian Jew publicist, Ilya Ehrenburg. As soon as the dictatorship was over, they crossed the frontier, headed by Ehren-burg. The immediate reappearance of social troubles, the simultaneous outbreak of strikes in Passajes, San Sebastian, Bilbao and Seville, fomented in the same way and carried out by the same method, proved their characteristically Soviet origin and the care with which they had been prepared. All these troubles were due to the terrorism practiced by a small group of Communists, almost entirely made up of men who had recently entered Spain, well provided with foreign money. SOVIET INFLUENCE IN SPAIN, 1 9 1 9 - 1 9 3 6 4 5 3 But it was only with the proclamation of the Re-public that the activity of the Soviets was to enter its most intense phase and hold Spain in a circle of or-ganizations dedicated to the revoultionary struggle. With unbelievable rapidity, Moscow multiplied its at-tempts, its propaganda, its fighting groups. The first in point of time was the League of the Godless, ac-companied, particularly in the provinces, by the setting up of atheist schools. Soon it was followed by many others. In a few months came the Association of Revolutionary Artists and Writers, the Spanish sec-tion of the Red Artists' International, the League of Revolutionary Students, the Theatrical and Cinemas' Proletarian Club, the League of Proletarian Women, workers' athletic organizations, the National Anti-Fascist Committee, the Spanish section of the Inter-national Red Help, the Society of the Friends of the U. S. S. R. In this country, where the number of bookshops was very limited and publishing houses few, there suddenly sprang up a vast number of publishing houses, bookshops and an avalanche of new books. All these firms confined themselves to Communist works. Editorial Mar, Editorial Jason, the Red Rus-sian Series, Editoriales Ulises, reviews such as Studies, Sexual Reform, Pictorial World, Russia Today. The Cenit publishing house produced a new Communist book at least every week. The works of Rosa Luxem-bourg, Ilya Ehrenburg, Karl Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin were issued in tens of thousands. Kiosks and bookshops were littered with Red books and papers; there were also pornographic works labelled as sexual education. Translations of revolutionary writings and tracts specially written for Spain arrived in force from Russia and were issued by Russia Today. Vast publicity was accorded to such books as Stalin's Five Year Plan, Jose Diaz' Popular Front, Engels' Marx, Kosarev's Soviet Youth, the Hope of Peace, and de- SOVIET INFLUENCE IN SPAIN, 1 9 1 9 - 1 9 3 6 454 fences of free love by Margaret Nelken. These books found their way into the hands of millions. Moscow did not grudge the expense and went on to an attack which was to demoralize the entire country. The Republic had only been in existence a few months when the first revolutionary attempts were made. With the help and money of the U. S. S. R. there came into existence in 1932 the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo Unitario, which controlled Com-munist cells all over Spain and set up the "Red Guard," the center of the future Spanish Red Army and recruited special members who were sent to Rus-sia to perfect themselves as agitators and specialists in civil war. Flying squads were given the task of oc-cupying factories and paralyzing police action; the Red Guard had to train and equip militant Com-munists and create helpers in the armament indus-tries, the arsenals and the Army, in order to ensure the supply of arms and ammunition. Thanks to the perfect working of this vast ma-chinery, extremist agitation had made great progress by the year 1933. In 1929 there had only been a hun-dred strikes. There were 527 in 1930, 710 in 1931, just under a thousand in 1932. But by 1933, there were nearly three thousand. Preparations for civil war were being feverishly made. After a plan made by Spanish agents, acting with Russian experts, Spain was divided into different districts, centering on Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante, Valencia, Toledo, Seville, Bilbao, Santander, Valladolid, Burgos, Leon and Oviedo. Each district had a hidden arsenal and com-mand was, by preference, in the hands of men who had been in the U. S. S. R. This was the case in two Eastern provinces which were directed by Andres Nin and Ramon Casanellas, both of whom had served in the Russian Army. Every inhabitant was given his allotted task. I have personally seen, in these Eastern provinces, houses, whose owners went to church, or SOVIET INFLUENCE IN SPAIN, 1 9 1 9 - 1 9 3 6 4 5 5 read Right or moderate papers, marked by a sign for future reference. An idea of the fantastic number of arms stored, especially thanks to agents in the fac-tories of Trubia and La Vega, can be gained when one learns of a chance discovery in the province of Oviedo of 116,000 Mauser cartridges; and, after the Asturias' revolt, when 80,000 rifles were found at La Vega. Sim-ilar discoveries were made in the House of the Peo-ple in Madrid, in the homes of different Communist leaders, and, among other places, in the flat of the deputy Cortes Lozano. On September 14, 1934, the Communist Pinillos wrote in the paper Renovación: "Revolution is follow-ing its triumphant course. The first stages of revolu-tionary strategy are over. Now a few sticks of dyna-mite will be enough." In the Internacional Commu-nista of September 25, occurred these words: "The situation in Spain is simply a matter of time." On September 27, El Socialista said: "Wait for the Red signal! The next month will perhaps be 'our October.' We are ready to mobilize our Army and apply our international policy and plans for socialization." Secret instructions, coming from Moscow, were found in an investigation after riots in Madrid. These give circumstantial evidence and important details on the methods used: "At different points, especially in the suburbs of Madrid, incidents should be provoked, or, better, the burning of churches and monasteries which will com-pel police intervention and so occupy them. After outbreaks have been caused in different parts of the town which will keep the police busy, it will be easy to get hold of the government. "In the streets round the Puerta del Sol, rooms with a balcony must be taken in the chief hotels, so that machine guns can be installed which will com-mand the Government buildings. "Be strong-hearted. Do not allow yourselves to be SOVIET INFLUENCE IN SPAIN, 1 9 1 9 - 1 9 3 6 456 carried away by pity for innocent victims or fear to destroy neighboring houses when blowing up public buildings." Some days later, on the morning of October 5, the terrible revolt in the Asturias broke out and simul-taneous risings took place in Catalonia and in many other provinces of Spain. Soviets were proclaimed and popular tribunals set up. The cost of these twelve days of revolution was 1,372 killed and 2,921 wound-ed; 63 public buildings, 58 churches, 26 factories, 58 bridges, 730 private houses totally or partially destroyed. Arms taken from the rebels amounted to 89,354 rifles, 33,211 revolvers, 31,345 bombs, 10,824 kilos of dynamite, 50,585 cartridges, 1,000 machine-guns, sub-machine-guns, etc. In spite of this set-back, the Soviet program was not stopped for a moment. Extra grants of money were made to the Spanish Communist party for press campaigns and the spread of revolutionary writings. New printing works and Communist bookshops sprang up like mushrooms. The Edeya publishing firm started a Leninist Library, with works by Stalin, Krylenko, Grinko, Molotow. "Europe and America" publications received 200,000 pesetas for publishing Stalin's Bases of Leninism, Dimitrow's International Popular Front, Lenin's The State and the Revolution, and other works from the U. S. S. R. These were put on sale at ridiculously low prices and given great pub-licity. Then appeared Stalin's Strategy of Revolu-tion, and Theory of Proletarian Revolution, Neuberg's Armed Revolt, and Marcel Koch's Red Army. The Castro publishing house brought out the sen-sational Red Christ of Juan Garcia Morales. In 1935, at the Seventh International Congress of the Comintern, the Spanish delegate, Garcia, report-ing on the situation in Spain and the results of Soviet propaganda there, stated that the Spanish Communist Party owns fifty-five papers, not including the anti- SOVIET INFLUENCE IN SPAIN, 1 9 1 9 - 1 9 3 6 4 5 7 religious or "sexual education" journals issued by the League of the Godless. As these results were still con-sidered inadequate, this same congress, by the mouth of another Spanish delegate, Ventura, declared: "We will install a regime of pitiless terror and exterminate the bourgeosie." It also decided to increase the sum allowed to the Spanish Communist Press. A sum of 5,000,000 pesetas was voted for this and a separate allowance was made for the paper Mundo Obrero, which immediately became a daily and tripled its cir-circulation. At the same time, in order to hasten the revolution, a decision was made to endow a fund for the purchase of arms and ammunitions which would be dispatched monthly by the International Red Help of Paris. A paper, the Red Flag, was founded for dis-tribution in the barracks for the sole purpose of in-citing the soldiers to mutiny. In the last months be-fore the revolution, Soviet money was pouring almost daily into the Peninsula. There is no doubt that the Spanish revolution was wholly engineered in Moscow and equipped both in plans and arms by the Soviets. The Spanish Reds were no more than instruments in the hands of the Third International. The program adopted in Mos-cow, on February 27, 1936, at the very moment when the last elections before the revolution were held in Spain, by the executive committee of the Comintern, proves this up to the hilt. This program contains the following ten points: (1) The fall of President Zamora. (2) Recourse to violence against officers. (3) Confiscation of country estates, nationalization of all banks and industrial concerns. (4) Destruction of churches and monasteries. (5) The separation of Morocco from Spain and the SOVIET INFLUENCE IN SPAIN, 1 9 1 9 - 1 9 3 6 458 setting up of an independent Moroccan Soviet State. (6) Extermination of the bourgeoisie and suppres-sion of the bourgeois Press. (7) The setting up of a rule of terror. (8) The recruitment of armed militia men as the basis of a future Red Army. (9) The seizing of power by revolutionary means and the setting up of a proletarian dictatorship. (10) War against Portugal which is to be included in the Soviet Iberian Republic. In the light of later events, it is clear today that, as far as has been possible, except for paragraphs 5 and 10, this program has been realized by those in power at Valencia and Barcelona. And from the day after the elections, it was started with all the speed which circumstances would allow. In the month of April, the President, Alcala Za-mora, fell. Officers were made the subject of ceaseless attacks and hostile demonstrations. At the Cortes, the condemnation was sought of all those who had taken part in repressing the Asturias revolt. Generals Goded, Fanjul and Lopez Ochoa were placed on the retired list. The Communist Party drew up a black-list of officers to be liquidated. Every day, attacks on persons and property were made. Spain lived un-der a terror. In the course of the period between February 16 to April 20, 112 churches, 113 political headquarters, 26 Catholic institutions and schools, 29 public buildings, 135 private houses were entirely de-stroyed or sacked. There were 140 killed, 620 wounded, 246 armed attacks, 58 explosions. Between April 20 and July 18, the eve of the revolution, there were 198 armed attacks, 135 bombs thrown, 248 churches destroyed. In all, 360 churches had been de-stroyed before the outbreak of the civil war. SOVIET INFLUENCE IN SPAIN, 1 9 1 9 - 1 9 3 6 4 5 9 As the spring passed, the atmosphere became more and more stormy; revolutionaries became still more active and more feverish in their haste; contacts with the U. S. S. R. became more frequent and closer. Soviet pressure grew more intense. A complete staff of Russian specialists was sent to Spain for the final preparations for revolution. Not a decision was taken, not a detail was arranged without Moscow's knowl-edge. In the national Soviet, the membership of which had already been fixed by a secret circular of the revo-lutionary Committee (No. 22), Ventura was nomi-nated Secretary-General and his name is followed by this: "Representative of the U. S. S. R. and the Third International." It was the collaboration of Russian experts which was responsible for the division of Madrid into ten revolutionary commands and the boundaries of each section fixed. Nothing was done without the approval of Mos-cow. Each day saw the arrival of new agents or ob-servers. The Comintern sent its best men. One after another, Ilja Ehrenburg, Tschemodanow, Loumoviow, Tourochoff, Raymond Guyot, Secretary-General of the International Communist Youth, Henrique Fischer-Neumann, the butcher of Canton, Ventura, the pride of the Tcheka, veterans of civil war who had already shown their mettle in the Ukraine, in Hungary, in Germany, in Mexico and in China. At the same time, the Soviets started sending enormous quantities of arms. At the beginning of April, three and a half months before the outbreak of the revolution, the Soviet steamer Yerek brought in a single cargo and set down first at Algeciras and then at Seville, 128 great boxes of automatic pistols for the Communist cells of Granada, Almeria, Valencia, Badajoz, Cordoba, Ca-ceres and Jaen. On April 24, a first contingent of 124 Spanish revolutionaries arrived in Madrid, having been in Russia to perfect themselves in the arts of civil war. The International Communista published SOVIET INFLUENCE IN SPAIN, 1 9 1 9 - 1 9 3 6 460 a list of their names, among which was Margaret Nelken. Under the command of Ventura, aided by Santi-ago Carillo, the leader of the militias, posts were al-ready allotted and the work of the different militias arranged. The following were placed in charge of the movement: Rafael Perez in Biscaya; Pedro Aznar in Catalonia; Escandell in the Levant; Jaume in the Balearic Isles; Mitge in the Canaries; Bolivar in An-dalucia; Jose Luis and Andrez Manso in Castile; Pa von in Aragon ; Romero Robledano in Galicia ; Belarmino Tomar in the Asturias; Margaret Nelken in Estramadura. The militias were divided into three groups, each of which had its special task. One was for attack, another for defence and another for inter-rupting economic life. These groups had the follow-ing numbers: Madrid 25,000 25,000 25,000 Estramadura 15,000 10,000 20,000 Catalonia 30,000 20,000 40,000 Andalucia 15,000 12,000 15,000 Galicia 15,000 10,000 20,000 As to the manner in which mobilization was to take effect and the war material used, secret circulars, Nos. 3 and 22 of the Central Revolutionary Committee, give very careful instructions on this point. Thus we learn that by June, the groups of attack numbered 150,000 men, the defense groups, 100,000. One document seems especially interesting, not only because it shows the close cooperation between Madrid and Moscow and the slavish copying of Soviet methods, but also because it shows that the French Communist Party and the French Confédération Générale du Travail knew everything about what was going on, on the other side of the Pyrenees, and added their efforts to those of their Spanish political breth-ren ; this document is the minutes of a session held on May 16, 1936, by a delegation of the Central Révolu- SOVIET INFLUENCE IN SPAIN, 1919-1936 4 6 1 tionary Committee at the House of the People in Valencia. We think it may prove worth while to give the more significant parts of this document: CONFIDENTIAL REPORT "On May 16, there was a meeting at the House of the People at Valencia. At this meeting were: the delegate of the Third International, Ventura, and representing the Cen-tral Revolutionary Committee of Spain, were Aznar, Rafael Perez and many others. These three comrades had just come from France and have discussed matters with the French Com-munist Party and the C. G. T. Garpius, Thorez and Freycinet were present at this meeting. It was agreed to start a revolu-tionary movement in both countries in the middle of June, since, by this time, it is to be presumed that the French Popular Front would be in power, with Léon Blum as Premier. "Loumoviow and Tourochoff of the U. S. S. R. were also present. We agreed on the following points: (1) To move the central propaganda organization to Mar-seilles, 85, rue de Montpelier, to the site known under the name of International Studies. (2) To provoke on the day indicated above, a world-wide agi-tation of an anti-Fascist nature, to prove in a non-equivocal manner the adhesion of the entire working class to this movement. (3) To appoint for this purpose, a liaison committee, com-posed of Ventura and Comlin, Magne, Loupine or Soupo-vine, Basternier and Aznar, to these may be added Lou-moviow and Tourochoff, already nominated. (4) To organize in a systematic manner in all towns of Spain, strikes of an economico-social character, in order to dis-cover the degree of preparedness of revolutionary syndi-calism and the capacity of resistance of the organizations. Several of these strikes are actually in readiness in Madrid and the provinces. (5) To remove power from Casares Quiroga, be it by hostile voting in Parliament or by some other method. It would seem indicated that any attempt at assassination should be renounced as Casares Quiroga is very well guarded. (6) To attack and discredit these leading elements of the So-cialist Party who are marked by reformism and centreism, such as Prieto, Besteiro, etc. This must be done in a spectacular public way. If the Party Congress adjourns, as is desired by the Prietist faction, to provoke the rupture of the U. G. T. (Union Generale des Travailleurs) with the Party in the first days of June, at the same time giv-ing an official character to the dissensions. SOVIET INFLUENCE IN SPAIN, 1919-1936 462 (7) To provoke strikes in the Asturias, at Huelva and Bilbao in particular, as these are regions where these gentlemen (Prieto, Besteiro, etc.) and Gonzales Pena have influence. (8) To hold, in Madrid, on June 10, a reunion in the National Library of Chamartin de la Rosa, 11, Calle Pablo Iglesias, to which are invited Thorez, Cachin, Auriol, Fonchaus, Ventura, Dimitroff, Largo Caballero, Diaz, Carrilo, Guiller-mo, Anton, Pestaña, Garcia, Oliver and Aznar. (9) To order section No. 25 of Madrid, composed of govern-mental police agents in action, to deal with the elimination of political and military personalities, likely to play a marked part in the counter-revolution, etc., etc." One cannot fail to be struck by the surprising re-semblance between the Spanish revolutionaries and the tactics of Lenin for the conducting of the Insur-rectionist movement, and the establishment of the Communist Dictatorship, by the continuity with which the same methods have been employed in 1936 as in 1919, notably the seizing of control of the syndicalist organizations, which shows the unity of the direction of operations which has not ceased to manifest itself in the preparation of the Spanish revolution, and which bears, in an indelible fashion, the Soviet mark. M. Jacques Bardoux has told of the conditions and reasons whereby the Communist movement, which was to have broken loose in France, in June, 1936, and which had been agreed upon between Spanish and French delegates in the interview of which the reports of the reunion at Valencia make mention, had to be postponed. This postponement and the delay in Mos-cow's sending of war material, in their turn brought about a modification of the Spanish program. The general reunion of the Central Revolutionary Com-mittee which was to fix for a day in July, the exact •day of the Red mobilization, was delayed. The Na-tionalist rising succeeded in preventing the Commu-nist plot. Franco's liberating gesture was just in time, at the moment when Spain was about to succumb under the Russian grip. Religious Orders in Spain JAMES A . CLEARY, C.SS.R. Reprinted from the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Dublin. AN allegation sometimes made by Communists is that Spain was overrun with Religious Congregations. The following list compiled from figures presented in the Spanish Cortes in 1911 disproves this allegation completely: Catholics Religious Belgium 7,500,000 38,000 1 Religious for 190 Catholics England 2,000,000 6,500 1 Religious for 300 Catholics Ireland 3,300,000 9,100 1 Religious for 360 Catholics Spain 20,000,000 51,000 1 Religious for 390 Catholics Thus Spain possessed a very small proportion of Religious in 1911. In more recent years the number of Religious in Spain had considerably decreased, so that the proportion of Religious was still smaller. Thus in 1934: Catholics Religious Germany 21,000,000 90,000 Spain . . 24,000,000 40,000 1 Religious for 230 Catholics 1 Religious for 600 Catholics It is not surprising that the decrease in the num-ber of Religious was accompanied by a general decay of religion. A great part of Spain had become Cath-olic only in name. But she is recovering; she is re-turning with feeble and halting steps from the very edge of the tomb. The Nationalist forces are restor-ing religion. Their generals have brought back the Church's feasts, the Crucifix, the Mass. Please God, they will also bring back freedom and peace and social justice—the Reign of Christ. 463 Religion ARNOLD LUNN Reprinted from Catholic Truth, November-December, 1938. LTHOUGH I went to chapel every day at Eton, I never learned that religion was essential because it was true. I learned rather that Christianity was a useful asset in life, something that would help me to face my destiny, that would make me good. As I felt I could manage my destiny perfectly well for myself, and as I did not want to be good, I ceased to go to church when I left school. From school I went into business; it seemed to me then that there was only one cause worthy of devotion, the service of my fellow men. I wanted to serve hu-manity in the abstract rather than my neighbor. "One day," I used to think to myself, "I shall be a great captain of industry, and I shall use my money and my position for one cause alone, to advance the cause of humanity." I wanted to dedicate myself and my goods to removing poverty and pain from the world; in my day-dreams I was always a great benefactor of man-kind. I used to look forward to a day, a day which I should have helped to bring nearer, when there would be neither poverty nor pain. It would be a perfect world; I used to think about it more and more. I be-gan to wonder uneasily what I would have done if I had happened to be born into a perfect world. To-wards what goal would mankind strive, when no one had even a corn to complain of, and everybody rode in Rolls-Royces ? That question led to others. How did man come to be on this planet? How did life come into a world of death? Motion into a world of inanimate matter? 464 RELIGION 4 6 5 Could man, who had produced art and poetry, man with his reason and sense of good, be the product of inanimate matter operating by blind chance? I read the evolutionary textbooks and studied the theory of natural selection. I could find there no an-swer to my questions. I began to think there must be a force behind the universe. That meant there was only one vital question: Why had this force made us? What did it want of us? Was there any indication of its nature in the world, which we knew with our five senses ? I was exceedingly fortunate about this time to read Who Moved the Stone? The author, whose name I have forgotten, started the book believing there to be a natural explanation for all phenomena. He set out to find a natural explanation for the story of the resur-rection of Jesus Christ. He read deeply into his sub-ject, and studied the problem in Palestine itself. He unravels his case like a barrister, and the book reads like a detective story. In Who Moved the Stone? the author reaches the conclusion that there can be only one explanation of the Evangelists' stories, that Christ did actually rise from the dead on the third day. The book sent me back to the Gospels. Now I did not read them for Greek construe nor for moral pre-cepts, but for an answer to the burning question: Would I find in the life of Christ a revelation of the force behind the universe? What claims did Christ make for Himself? "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." "I and my Father are one." "Before Abraham was, I am." Christ, it seemed to me, was an outrageous charla-tan, or God. The reading and rereading of the Gospels con-vinced me that Christ's life rang with sincerity, and Who Moved the Stone ? convinced me that He had justified His claims by rising from the dead. 4 6 6 RELIGION I knew then that I could learn from Christ's life what our Creator wanted of us: I should be able to understand the meaning of life and suffering. Was Christ's message, I wondered, to be found in the Gos-pels alone, or had He left some organization, which would represent Him on earth, while He sat in heaven at the right hand of His Father? An organization which would interpret and develop His teaching. And it seemed to me that Christ's words must apply, not only to His immediate apostles, but also to their suc-cessors. "And I say to thee: That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatso-ever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven." Again, "The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord. He said therefore to them again: Peace to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. \OTiose sins ye shall forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose sins ye shall retain, they are retained." Are we to believe that this essential and priceless Sacrament of Penance was to be removed from the World upon the death of Christ's immediate disciples? "And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatso-ever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." How were these illiterate men to teach all nations? Christ gives the answer. "But stay you in the city till you be endued with power from on high." RELIGION 4 6 7 In His own time Christ fulfilled His promise. "And when the days of the Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming; and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues, as it were of fire: and it sat upon every one of them. And they all were filled with the Holy Ghost: and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak." Where was I to find the continuation of the miracle of Pentecost in the twentieth century? In the Angli-can Church, teaching many doctrines in one tongue? . . . Or in the Roman Catholic Church, teaching one doctrine in many tongues? I found that the Church of Rome had been marked by the hatred of the world in all ages, a hatred which had flamed anew in the Spain of 1936. But I did not find the explanation of that hatred in the measured words of personally-conducted divines, but in a proph-ecy of two thousand years ago. "If the world hate you, know ye that it hath hated me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hat-eth you." God, in His infinite democracy, calls many an un-worthy soul into His Church, while He leaves better and cleverer men outside. Through His grace, and not my own wisdom, I came to turn against the drift of contemporary thought, and to strike upstream for that rock where alone man may find a permanent har-bor. For upon that rock is built an eternal city, the Church of God. I know that my words must ring with arrogance, but that arrogance is not based upon the folly of my twenty-three years, but upon the wisdom of the Eternal Church, in which I participate, however slightly. 4 6 8 RELIGION From the steadiness of the rock, one sees the swirl-ing world in a new light. One sees the stream of hu-man thought and action, with the Communists and the Nazis swimming with strong strokes in the front. One sees the Dean of Canterbury paddling desperate-ly to keep up with the stream, and Mr. Bernard Shaw diving like a dolphin in and out of it. One sees the Liberals trying to persuade themselves that there is no stream, and to build a permanent house upon the shifting waters. But, with the exception of those who are anchored, consciously or unconsciously, to the rock, all are heading towards a secular organization of so-ciety, the sea where all must drown. "And each one said to his neighbor: Come, let us make bricks, and bake them with fire. And they had brick instead of stones, and slime instead of mortar. And they said: Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven; and let us make our name fa-mous. . . . And so the Lord scattered them from that place into all hands, and they ceased to build the city. And therefore the name thereof was called Babel." Winter Issue Out December 15th . . . CLASS TRANSMISSION OF EDMUND C. HORNE POLITICAL POWER BEN JONSON: 1573-1637 RUFUS WILL IAM RAUCH THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE A. J. SIQUEIRA "SPIRITUAL EXERCISES" OF ST. IGNATIUS MARGARET BRENT RUTH ALLISON HUDNUT THE RENEWAL OF CHRISTENDOM C. J. EUSTACE LEON I DAS FEDOROV A N D DONALD ATTWATER THE CATHOLIC RUSSIANS EDITORIALS CORRESPONDENCE BOOK REVIEWS VOLUME XI I I DECEMBER, 1938 NUMBER 51 THOUGHT, a Quarterly of the Sciences and Letters, published in March, June, September and December, by The America Press, 53 Park Place, New York, N. Y. Single copy $1.25; yearly $5.00. 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