An Analysis of Foreign Diplomatic Aid to the Catholic Clergy during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)

During the European crisis of the thirties of the twentieth century, the most significant persecution of the Catholic Church in the history of Spain was generated. With the ultimate goal of saving lives, the Foreign Diplomatic Corps provided many humanitarian services, the most important of those the massive granting of diplomatic and consular asylum to more than 11,000 people, including Catholics and clergy. This article analyzes the genesis and realization of this fact and its consequences, which were supposed to maintain and facilitate a clandestine Catholic cult in the Spain of Popular Front.