Spanish Protestants in Trouble
MOWRER, RICHARD
Franco Government confiscates Bibles and closes seminary of religious minority Spain's Protestants in Trouble By Richard Mowrer Madrid The situation of Spain's 20,000 Protestants is no better,...
...Presumably the reason for confiscation is that the books and Bibles were being printed here without Government permission...
...The Fuero de los Espanoles was promulgated in July 1945...
...But official permission for the seminary to resume normal activities is still withheld...
...This one word, they claim, is interpreted by the authorities in a restrictive sense totally incompatible with precepts of religious freedom and tolerance...
...About the middle of January," writes George Borrow, "a swoop was made upon me by my enemies, in the shape of a peremptory prohibition from the political governor of Madrid to sell any more New Testaments...
...Thus it is that no sign is permitted to be placed outside a Protestant chapel to identify it, nor may Protestant services be announced in the press...
...On January 23, the authorities closed a Protestant theological seminary in Madrid which had existed since 1883...
...In September 1952, these views were expressed officially as follows: "Neither the Fuero de los Espanoles nor our Concordat with the Holy See gives the Government power to authorize Protestant proselytism...
...Such, at least, is the opinion held by Evangelical sources here an opinion which recent incidents have tinged with anxiety...
...The majority of Spaniards believe that Protestant propaganda is an attempt at foreign penetration into the national life directed with the political aim of destroying the religious [Roman Catholic] unity that substantially exists in Spain and that is recognized by all Spaniards...
...The closing of the seminary was followed three months later by Government seizure of Protestant devotional literature, including 890 Bibles and 1,291 copies of the New Testament, belonging to the British and Foreign Bible Society in Madrid...
...Nor has Spanish membership in the United Nations, attained last December, caused the regime to take a more tolerant view of Protestantism...
...In the eyes of the law, a couple so married are not man and wife, and their children are illegitimate...
...As with the seminary, nothing of the matter has been mentioned in Spanish newspapers...
...The Government places the number of Protestants in Spain at approximately 20,000 in a population of 29 million...
...Spanish Protestants say that the catch in Article Six is the word "private...
...On April 21 this year, the "swoop" was carried out by inspectors of the Ministry of Information...
...They left behind a detailed receipt for what they took away...
...The British Embassy has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to investigate the incident "with a view to restoration of the seized property to their rightful owners...
...The Spanish Government's position is that there is no Protestant problem in Spain, that the rights of religious minorities are safeguarded by Article Six of the Fuero de los Espanoles (Spain's Bill of Rights), and that non-Catholics have the same recourse to law as any other citizens...
...Indeed, the trend seems the other way...
...So neither the eight students enrolled in the seminary nor the 50 children enrolled in the Protestant school on the premises are attending classes...
...aid-for-bases deal made the Franco state an ally of the free world...
...They were for private use in our chapels, they were not advertised or reviewed anywhere, they were not for public sale, they cannot be sold in bookshops...
...In 1940, the Bible Society was raided and 110,000 religious books were seized and destroyed...
...Withdrawal from the Roman Catholic Church is not recognized by the state, and the obtaining of civil marriage certificates in such cases is extremely difficult...
...Borrow was then the Iberian representative of the Bible Society...
...nor has the case been mentioned in the local press...
...Thus it is evident that they have no need for the backing and support of foreign political and religious organizations...
...The Fuero also prohibits any external manifestations of non-Catholic religions...
...The Bible Society has had an office here for well over a hundred years, and raids by the Spanish police are not a new experience...
...Jose Flores, the Bible Society's local representative, says that the Bibles and other religious literature were being printed here in Spanish "because they are not allowed to be imported...
...In March, the authorities permitted removal of the police seals which had been affixed on the classroom doors...
...There is no doubt that the few Spanish Protestants and the foreign Protestants who reside in Spain have recourse to legal channels if they believe the rights conceded them by law have not been recognized...
...Another grievance is that the marriage laws make it virtually impossible for persons who were baptized in infancy as Catholics and who have since become Protestants to be legally married...
...Article Six reads: "No one shall be molested for his religious beliefs nor in the private exercise of his worship...
...What results these inquiries have had has not been divulged...
...The Government's reasons for closing the seminary have not been made public...
...The law is that no work may be printed without censorship clearance...
...Without the civil marriage certificate, marriage in a Protestant chapel is not considered valid...
...Franco Government confiscates Bibles and closes seminary of religious minority Spain's Protestants in Trouble By Richard Mowrer Madrid The situation of Spain's 20,000 Protestants is no better, and in some instances it is worse, than it was three years ago when the U.S...
...Two days afterward, a spokesman of the U.S...
...This happened in 1838, and the event is described in Borrow's classic, The Bible in Spain...
...Embassy stated: "Immediately upon being informed of this action, American Ambassador to Spain John Davis Lodge reported the matter fully to the Department of State in Washington and is making inquiries of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Madrid...
Vol. 39 • June 1956 • No. 23
