Holy Martyrs of Spain

Today in Rome 498 Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War were beatified. This makes nearly 1000 Blessed Martyrs from that terrible period of anti-Catholic persecution. An awful lot of nonsense is being said about the beatifications - from the extremely anti-Catholic government of modern Spain, which seems to want to revive the latent hostility against the Church in some parts of Spanish society. Anyone who wants to read an impartial account of what really went on in Spain during the Civil War should take a look at the chapter entitled "Spanish Holocaust" in Robert Royal's excellent book 'The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century.' To read the stories of nuns being dragged from their convents and shot, priests and monks lying dead in the streets and then listening to the politically correct version that they were "part of a corrupt regime" is sickening. Royal quotes British historian Hugh Thomas summing up the anti-Catholic dimension of the Civil War: "at no time in the history of Europe, or even perhaps of the world, has so passionate a hatred of religion and all its works been shown." Blessed Spanish Martyrs, Pray for Us!