ABSTRACT

CURSILLOS DE CRISTIANDAD IN SEVILLA: CATHOLIC RENEWAL IN THE LATE FRANCO PERIOD

In the 1960s, the Catholic Church in Spain was undergoing massive changes and was struggling to adapt. In that decade the oppressive Franco regime weakened in the face of failed economic reforms and as the Second Vatican Council ushered in monumental reforms of church identity, practice, and policy. A new generation of Spaniards, including Catholics, challenged the regime and its policy of National Catholicism, which had sought to impose a uniform national and Catholic identity upon Spain. It ultimately failed to erase the long-standing differences in regional religious practices throughout Spain. This study seeks to explain how one movement in the 1960s, Cursillos de Cristiandad, embraced local traditions in Sevilla of Andalusia in southern Spain and the reforms of Vatican II to foster a religious experience in which ordinary Catholics gained agency in expressing their religious identity independent from National Catholicism. Using publications of Catholic Action and Cursillos, local newspapers, government cultural archives, and personal interviews, I argue that through the Cursillos movement laypersons found an authentic religious experience and community in which they actively defined their own religious identity as Catholic Andalusians.

Melody Diane Downie-Dack May 2016

CURSILLOS DE CRISTIANDAD IN SEVILLA: CATHOLIC RENEWAL IN THE LATE FRANCO PERIOD

by Melody Diane Downie-Dack

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History in the College of Social Sciences California State University, Fresno May 2016 APPROVED For the Department of History:

We, the undersigned, certify that the thesis of the following student meets the required standards of scholarship, format, and style of the university and the student's graduate degree program for the awarding of the master's degree.

Melody Diane Downie-Dack Thesis Author

William Skuban (Chair) History

Michelle Denbeste History

Melissa Jordine History

For the University Graduate Committee:

Dean, Division of Graduate Studies AUTHORIZATION FOR REPRODUCTION OF MASTER’S THESIS

X I grant permission for the reproduction of this thesis in part or in its entirety without further authorization from me, on the condition that the person or agency requesting reproduction absorbs the cost and provides proper acknowledgment of authorship.

Permission to reproduce this thesis in part or in its entirety must be obtained from me.

Signature of thesis author: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my thesis committee for their support in this endeavor: my advisor, Dr. William Skuban, and my readers Dr. Michelle Denbeste and Dr. Melissa Jordine. My colleague Ali Halesy provided insight and feedback in the early stages. I appreciated the research and writing advice from Dr. Daniel Cady and Dr. Bradley Jones, the director of the Master of Arts in History program at California State University Fresno. My husband, David, was a priceless editor, encouragement, and research companion throughout the entire process. I would also like to thank our parents for providing support, particularly childcare, to allow me to study, research, and write. I would like to dedicate this thesis especially to my late father, Dr. Robert Lawrence Downie, who inspired a deep love of history in me. Finally, the assistance of a number of individuals has been essential in the carrying out of this research. One of the historians cited in this thesis is Antonio Cazorla-Sanchez, Spanish-born professor of history at Trent University in Ontario, Canada. His assistance in identifying the important archives of Catholic Action and the governmental cultural archives was foundational to my research. In Spain, the personnel at the National Secretariats of Catholic Action and Cursillos de Cristiandad were particularly accommodating, and the President of the Sevilla chapter of Cursillos, Fernando Parra Martin, provided extensive resources, interviews, and access to local records and facilities. I want to thank Mr. Parra Martin and those Cursillos participants who graciously let me interview them during a brief research trip to Spain in 2014: Ignacio Montaño, Rafaela Martín Romero, and Consuelo Ramos Cervera. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

The Historiographical Landscape ...... 6

Organization ...... 14 CHAPTER 1: THE FRANCO REGIME & CHURCH-STATE RELATIONSHIP ...... 18

The Second Republic, 1931-1936 ...... 18

The Spanish Civil War, 1936-39 ...... 21

The Franco Regime and National Catholicism, 1939-1975 ...... 23

Catholic Action ...... 25

Cursillos de Cristiandad ...... 29

Economic Crisis for Franco Regime ...... 32

The Second Vatican Council, 1962-65 ...... 34 CHAPTER 2: THE SPANISH CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CRISIS: COUNCIL, CATHOLIC ACTION & CURSILLOS ...... 37

Reforms of the Second Vatican Council ...... 38

Vatican II Divides Spanish Church ...... 40

Conflict Among Spanish Youth Over National Catholicism ...... 45

Crisis of Catholic Action, 1966-68 ...... 47

Independence and Growth of Cursillos de Cristiandad ...... 51

Controversy for Cursillos ...... 54

CHAPTER 3: CURSILLOS IN SEVILLA, ANDALUSIA ...... 59

Success for Cursillos in Sevilla ...... 60

Church Hierarchy in Sevilla Support Cursillos ...... 61

Historical and Cultural Context of Sevilla ...... 65 vi vi Page

Diversity of Cursillos de Cristiandad ...... 71

Adaptability of Cursillos ...... 76

Cursillos and Gender ...... 77

Leadership Development of Laity ...... 82

CONCLUSION ...... 86

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 92

INTRODUCTION

In 1966, in a quiet suburb of Sevilla, Spain, a local journalist admired a towering “Monument of Faith” resting on the hill that overlooks the center of San Juan Aznalfarache.1 Among the prominent features of this religious complex dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was the more recent addition of La Casa de Cursillos, a place for spiritual retreats, largely directed by laity, and dedicated to vigorous prayer and theological study. Even into the early morning hours, the Casa, or house, resounded with the voices of young men joining together in study, in prayer, in sacrament, and in song in order “to live the Mystical Body of Christ.”2 One could hear the folk tune “De Colores” carry into the streets with the lyrics, “joyfully we will bring to our Savior a harvest of souls.”3 As in other areas throughout Andalusia, Southern Spain, this Casa had been built as part of a charismatic lay leadership movement to revive Spanish Catholicism at a time when the Church was struggling to adapt to a rapidly changing world. This movement, Cursillos de Cristiandad invited ordinary Catholics to express their spirituality creatively despite the fascist regime of Francisco Franco that sought to impose one nationalist version of the Catholic faith upon the nation. Francisco Franco came to power when his Nationalist Army defeated and overthrew the army of the Second Republic in the bloody Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Prior to the Civil War, the leaders of the Second Republic (1931-1939)

1 Benigno Gonzalez, “Un Monumento de Fe.” ABC Sevilla. October 29,1966, accessed March 20, 2013, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm.

2 Hervás, Juan. Cursillos in Christianity: Instrument of Christian Renewal. 2nd ed. trans. William Young, S.J. (Madrid: Ultreya, 1967), 60.

3 “What is the origin of De Colores?” French-speaking Cursillo Movement of Canada, February 23, 2012, accessed February 8, 2016, http://cursillos.ca/en/faq/f12-decolores.htm. 2 2 had instituted a secular state, and the Catholic Church experienced intense persecution. In contrast, Franco’s nationalist vision included restoring the Church to the privileged position it had enjoyed for much of its history. Once in power, Franco sought to impose what came to be called National Catholicism, which intertwined state and religion to increase his own power and stature. The Church achieved its most privileged status in modern history, but at the price of collaborating with a dictator.4 For Franco, however, trying to impose a uniform version of Catholicism throughout the diverse regions of Spain would prove a challenge, especially in Andalusia in the south. Under the oppressive Franco regime (1939-1975), which claimed to advance the cause of Catholicism, a small band of Spanish Catholic priests and lay people sought to revive what they believed was the heart of their faith among people in an increasingly secular and rapidly changing world. In Mallorca this group started to conduct “little courses” in 1948 in preparation for a pilgrimage by the youth of Catholic Action, Spain’s largest lay organization, to Santiago de Compostela.5 From there Cursillos de Cristiandad evolved into a movement that by the 1960s had received the blessing of the pope and stretched across Spain and to many parts of the world. In Spain, Cursillos persevered in its purpose and its identity of religious revival during a tumultuous time in Spanish history – the 1960s. During that decade, Franco’s power was weakening, the global Catholic Church was redefining itself, and the Spanish Church hierarchy and Catholic

4 Lannon, Francis. Privilege, Persecution, and Prophecy: The Catholic Church in Spain, 1875- 1975. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987), 5.

5 The word “cursillos” in Spanish literally means “little courses.” The pilgrimage was organized by leaders of the youth branches of Catholic Action to demonstrate the Church’s presence in society. It had originally been proposed during the Second Republic to combat the anticlericalism but was felt necessary even under Franco’s regime as the political party Falange was in some ways resistant to the Church’s influence. 3 3

Action clashed over the church-state relationship as well as over the role of laity in the Church. During the last two decades of the authoritarian regime under Francisco Franco, Spain and the Catholic Church yearned for reform. Decades of oppressive, ineffective fascist policies had left the nation divided and many living in extreme poverty because the economy had never fully recovered from the Civil War (1936-39). Beginning in 1959, the regime loosened its control over the economy and it began opening the country to the global economy to keep the nation afloat.6 But these reforms ultimately failed to produce significant improvement in the lives of ordinary Spaniards. Then, the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) in Rome began to shift its support away from Franco’s confessional state. The Council significantly redefined Catholic practice and Church policy in the areas of politics, ecumenism, economics, and more. The Church was seeking, on an international level, to come to terms with modernity, including political rights and freedoms. Vatican II not only created new conflict between the Church and Franco, but it intensified internal Church divisions within Spain. There were not only divisions within the Spanish Church hierarchy, but also disagreement regarding the role of Catholic Action, Spain’s largest organization of clergy and laity. Catholic Action had arisen during the late nineteenth century and by 1960 it was a broad umbrella for parish-based and occupation-based branches, including propagandists and worker organizations organized by gender and occupation. The latter were different from labor syndicates, but they did represent a worker-

6 For analysis of Franco’s Stabilization Plan of 1959 that sought to open the Spanish economy to global commerce, see Payne, Stanley, G. The Franco Regime. 1936-1975. (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987), and Cazorla-Sánchez, Antonio. Fear and Progress: Ordinary Lives in Franco’s Spain, 1939-1975. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010). 4 4 oriented agenda. By the 1960s, many of the worker organizations of Catholic Action had become a bed of resistance against many of the regime’s policies. Priests across the nation were speaking out against fascism and in favor of democracy and workers’ rights.7 But the Church hierarchy in Spain was split over the Vatican II changes and how to address its “rebellious priests” and the increasing anti-Franco activism of Catholic Action’s worker organizations. The Cursillos movement embraced the changes of Vatican II yet avoided taking political positions in order to achieve its primary purpose of Catholic renewal of the laity in Spain and many parts of the world. The trend toward modernization and social justice experienced by the Catholic Church worldwide and validated by the Second Vatican Council in 1965 found a voice in Cursillos as early as the 1940s in Spain. Beginning in 1955, Catholics in Sevilla, in southern Spain, embraced Cursillos and through it reclaimed agency in defining their religious identity within the Catholic tradition. This Cursillos movement, which consisted primarily of three-day retreats for lay leaders of the church, soon developed a network of follow-up seminars and gatherings. Within this network, Sevillans took hold of their religious experience and participated in the practice of association and grassroots community development. This movement would weather the storm of the 1960s, maintaining a strong presence in the southern region of Spain, Andalusia, where Catholic practice had historically been low and unorthodox.8

7 Cazorla-Sánchez, “Did You Hear the Sermon?” Progressive Priests, Conservative Catholics, and the Return of Political and Cultural Diversity in Late Francoist Spain.” The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 85, No.3 (September 2013): 528-557, accessed August 4, 2014, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/670823.

8 See Lannon, 9-10, and Callahan, William J. The Catholic Church in Spain, 1875-1998. (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2000), 446, 472. 5 5

This study seeks to explain the complex nature of religious identity of Catholics during the Franco regime in Sevilla, Spain. In a confessional state run by a fascist dictator and his bureaucracy, a dynamic movement Cursillos de Cristiandad took root. On one hand it represented a way to reconcile the triumph of Catholicism in Spain after the Spanish Civil War. Cursillos upheld central Catholic doctrines and sought to instruct laity in these doctrines. On the other hand it was a way to cultivate and inspire novel and diverse spiritual experiences for Catholics and it celebrated the reforms of Vatican II. At times expressions of this spirituality were in conflict with the National Catholicism presented by Franco and some Spanish bishops. The split nature of the Cursillos movement, both traditional and progressive, has made it hard to define.9 This study will present Cursillos de Cristiandad as a fundamentally progressive movement by focusing on one particular period, the 1960s, in one particular region, Sevilla. How did the Cursillos movement allow ordinary Catholics, particularly in Southern Spain, to preserve and advance their own sense of religious identity in this challenging context of a confessional yet oppressive regime? While the ecclesiastical conflict over the role of Catholic Action led to the virtual destruction of its autonomy and nearly erased it from Spanish society, the Cursillos movement grew as it adhered to a primarily spiritual mission in the midst of dramatic societal and economic challenges. The movement was progressive, charismatic, and consistent in its purpose to revive the spirituality of Catholic laity. Cursillos did not pursue a radical social agenda and thus avoided direct confrontation with the regime. But it also did not hold blindly onto tradition; in fact, it embraced diversity within the Catholic faith and adapted to the changing landscape of the

9 Cursillos often receives a brief mention in extensive works on the Church in Spain or on Catholic Action. 6 6

1960s, particularly Vatican II, with enthusiasm. As other parts of the Spanish Catholic Church struggled to adapt and thrive in the 1960s, Cursillos de Cristiandad, steadily and uniquely moved forward with its message of faith, service, and piety. It was this ability to adapt that allowed local leaders in Sevilla to invite Catholic laity to explore unique expressions of their faith and gain ownership of that faith. While this movement maintained a primarily spiritual agenda that focused on small groups, Cursillos provided important foundations for grassroots community action and change. This study will argue that Cursillos empowered ordinary Catholics to express their religious identity independent from Franco’s National Catholicism while upholding the basic tenets of the Roman Catholic Church. Cursillos participants gained greater agency to define how they would understand and implement their beliefs in their own communities. This empowerment was particularly significant in the Sevilla diocese of Andalusia because of historical tensions between the Church and local culture. I argue that in Cursillos, these two were successfully blended to preserve Catholic beliefs and unique Sevillan flavor.

The Historiographical Landscape Historical analysis of the religious identity of Catholics in Spain and the nature of the church-state relationship under Francisco Franco carries certain ideological assumptions even forty years since his death and the end of the regime. While historians have long acknowledged the mutual benefits of the union between the Catholic Church and Franco’s regime, sometimes in an over- simplistic manner, more recent and substantial study has focused on the tensions within that union. Beginning in the late 1950s, sweeping changes that occurred both within and outside of Spain and the Catholic Church resulted in the 7 7 unraveling of Franco’s authority, albeit slowly, and of the Church’s traditional role in society. While the larger picture of how the Church handled this time of transition has been analyzed from a variety of perspectives, the role and religious identity of grassroots and lay organizations, such as Catholic Action and Cursillos de Cristiandad, merits further exploration on regional levels. The traditional view of the Catholic Church in Spain under Franco was that it was one of three pillars of support for the regime, along with the army and the Falange, the Spanish fascist party, which were all united during the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39. Some historians supported this view in the 1970s and it persists today in more recent monographs as well.10 Historian Audrey Brassloff goes as far to say that the church-state relationship prior to 1959 was “symbiotic.”11 In contrast, Stanley G. Payne, a political historian of modern Spanish history, has called into question traditional assumptions about the church-state relationship, including this view of a cohesive union between the Church and the Franco state, so-called National Catholicism. Payne looks at Spanish Catholicism with a wider historical lens to emphasize the long-standing tradition in Spanish history of a close but not always harmonious connection between the Catholic Church and the Spanish state.12 William J. Callahan, in a 1997 article, “Regalism, Liberalism, and General Franco,” notes that even under more liberal regimes, including the Second Republic, the state consistently sought to intervene in ecclesiastical affairs and that

10 See Bowen, Wayne H. Spain During World War II. (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2006). Bowen supports this traditional view and cites Norman Cooper as a proponent of this view in his work Catholicism and the Franco Regime published in 1975.

11 Brassloff, Audrey. Religion and Politics in Spain. The Spanish Church in Transition, 1962-96. (London: MacMillan Press Ltd, 1998), 7.

12 Payne, Stanley G. Spanish Catholicism. An Historical Overview. (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984). 8 8 under Franco’s regime this policy of “regalism” actually broke down.13 From the 1960s onward, in part under the pressure of Vatican II reform, which included supporting an independent Catholic Church, the Franco regime lost its grip on the Spanish Church and the stage was set for a democratic regime after his death. In the end, National Catholicism failed for many reasons, as will be discussed below. This thesis will show the work of one Catholic lay movement, Cursillos de Cristiandad, in one region of Spain, Andalusia to promote a Catholic identity independent from National Catholicism. Indeed, the disintegration of church-state relations and failure of National Catholicism in Spain has become a point of historiographical debate. The traditional explanation of the Church undermined by its association with the oppressive regime is an over-simplification. Recent monographs, by highlighting internal ecclesiastical factors, have challenged the traditional view that Vatican II, as a culmination of secularization throughout Europe, was the primary factor for such a shift in Spanish church-state relations. Historians like Brassloff and Callahan assert that the Church was unable to truly establish a uniform national Catholic identity primarily due to internal conflicts and inconsistent methods of evangelism over time.14 Furthermore, while the union between the Church and the regime weakened the Church’s credibility for some, there were also significant internal conflicts within the Church, particularly within the hierarchy and between it and the leaders of Catholic Action. These conflicts represent some of the obstacles navigated by Cursillos de Cristiandad during the 1960s.

13 Callahan, William J. “Regalism, Liberalism, and General Franco.” Catholic Historical Review. 83 (1997), no. 2: 201-216, accessed February 8, 2016, Academic Search Premier. 14 Brassloff, and Callahan, Catholic Church. 9 9

In general, among historians of Spanish Catholicism, the Cursillos movement has not received substantial notice. Some historians, namely Callahan and Lannon, have downplayed Cursillos in the larger narrative of the Spanish Catholic Church as too conservative or individualistic. This thesis will present the grassroots and innovative nature of Cursillos to demonstrate its appeal to Sevillans and how it motivated them to take control of their religious identity.15 Cursillos provided participants, i.e. Catholic laity, with a sense of religious identity independent from Franco’s National Catholicism, an identity that adapted creatively to the changing times of the 1960s in Spain and within the Catholic Church globally. The movement embraced Vatican II and disregarded the Franco regime consistently while the Spanish Church hierarchy and Catholic lay associations struggled to delineate a consistent approach to both. Thus, Cursillos persisted as an important part of Catholic spirituality for Catholic laity, particularly in Andalusia, through times of intense change in society and in the Church. Much of the scholarship on the Spanish Church in the twentieth century focuses on Catholic Action and the Second Vatican Council. The crisis that Catholic Action experienced between 1966 and 1968 is the focus of works by Audrey Brassloff and Antonio Montero García. The impact of Vatican II on the Spanish Church and on the church-state relationship in Spain is discussed by all of the historians mentioned but some do give it more agency in changing the dynamics within the Spanish Church. Brassloff stresses the role of Vatican II in increasing and even creating conflict within the Church and leading to the crisis of Catholic Action, while Montero García closely analyzes the new restrictions

15 Callahan, Catholic Church, 497, and Lannon, 231. 10 10 imposed on Catholic Action by the hierarchy as evidence of a crisis primarily of identity for Catholic Action.16 Montero Garcia discussed Cursillos solely in its relationship with Catholic Action and notes its independent status from Catholic Action by the early 1960s. I will argue that this independence allowed Cursillos to pursue its spiritual agenda of Catholic renewal while Catholic Action faced internal divisions and demise in the late 1960s. Even historians who are more critical of Cursillos, namely Lannon and Callahan, discuss this movement in relationship to the shifts in the Spanish Church towards reform like those of the Second Vatican Council.17 Cursillos de Cristiandad, in addition to taking the contemporary global changes in stride, adapted to long-standing challenges of diverse Catholic practice through Spain. Regional disparity regarding adherence to Catholicism throughout Spain is well documented by Callahan in his comprehensive, well-rounded work, The Catholic Church in Spain, 1875-1998.18 Northern regions of Spain have traditionally shown the greatest level of conformity to Catholic religious practices and, at least seemingly, to beliefs as well. Central and eastern Spain typically fall into an average range in terms of religious observance, while Southern Spain, including Andalusia and Extramadura, has had the lowest levels. Historian Frances Lannon identifies regional statistics such as the ninety percent Sunday mass attendance of Navarre (north) and the thirteen percent in Sevilla (south) from

16 Montero García, Feliciano. La acción católica y el Franquismo: Auge y crisis de La Acción Católica especializada. (Madrid: UNED, 2000). Montero Garcia also provides important analysis of the origins of Catholic Action in Spain in “Origen y Evolución de la Acción Católica Española.” In Clericalismo y Asociacionismo Católico en España: De la restauración a la transición. Edited by Julio de la Cueva Merino and Ángel Luis López Villaverde. (Cuenca: Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2005), 133-159.

17 Callahan, 496-498, and Lannon, 230.

18 The disparity has been supported by historians Frances Lannon and Antonio Cazorla-Sánchez. 11 11

1950 - 1965.19 She attributes this trend in southern Spain, at least in part, to the Church’s association with the oppressive latifundio system in that primarily rural region.20 Callahan refers to the “historic” distinction of religious practice between the north and south as continuing during the Franco period, although he does concede the lack of national figures on religious practice in the early years of the regime.21 By primarily evaluating outward conformity to Catholicism, Lannon explains that larger cities such as Madrid and Barcelona (although not in the south) had lower religious observance than the surrounding rural areas.22 The effect of urbanization on religious observance would be a challenge faced by the Church, and in turn the Franco regime, during the 1960s as workers movements grew. Sevilla, a major city in southern Spain, presented a double-challenge for the Catholic Church. Despite its role in the Spanish Inquisition, Sevilla was not a bastion of orthodox Catholicism in the twentieth century. Historians like Lannon often rely on statistics and regional mapping to analyze levels of religious practice within certain populations. These maps provide visual reference for statistical data on religious practice in various geographical regions.23 In the 1950s, French sociologists, La Bras and Boulard first established the method of evaluating regional religious practices and beliefs based on attendance at mass, practice of religious rites, and perception of respondents to Catholic doctrine.24 This data is typically ascertained through

19 Lannon, 10.

20 Ibid, 9.

21 Callahan, Catholic Church, 446, 472.

22 Lannon, 18.

23 See for instance Lannon, 11 for map showing mass attendance levels for various regions of Spain.

24 Callahan, Catholic Church, 471. 12 12 parish records based on observations of local priests. Callahan notes the limitations of such methods to establish the quality of Spanish Catholicism; these methods only present what can be measured quantitatively and often do not provide original interpretations. He asserts that the “La Bras tradition” has served the study of Spanish Catholicism primarily in giving concrete regional and social analysis to confirm what has long been known about trends within the country.25 Francis Lannon, however, combines regional statistics regarding religious practice and beliefs with a discussion of the religious communities (orders) and the clergy and accounts of popular religious practices. This results in a more comprehensive and meaningful exploration of Catholic identity in the various regions of Spain. Her effort to balance hard data with more qualitative descriptions of Spanish cultural values acknowledges a distinction between adherence to religious obligations and participation in popular community rituals that may be religious. For example, in Almería of Andalusia, brothels displayed pictures of the Virgin Mary over the beds.26 Cazorla-Sánchez uses a similar approach to discuss the political and economic status of Spaniards. Lannon also discusses the gender gaps and class tensions within the Church that impacted Catholic religious identity and experience.27 The work of other scholars supports the strength and persistence of regional religious traditions despite attempts of Franco and of the Catholic Church in Spain to promote uniform beliefs, practices, and identity. Joan Domke’s 2011 dissertation in comparative education and politics argues that the indoctrination

25 Ibid, 474.

26 Lannon, 22.

27 Ibid, 54-56, 152. 13 13 efforts of Franco and the Catholic Church were only successful at suppressing the public expression of opposing ideas and beliefs. Domke further asserts that this National Catholicism indoctrination did not alter what children were raised to believe by parents and local community traditions. Thus, a national (and Catholic) identity throughout the diverse regions of Spain proved unrealized.28 Additionally, anthropologist David D. Gilmore has written extensively about Andalusia and various aspects of its culture, including its Carnival celebrations that blend Catholic religion with popular and sensual rituals. His work focuses on what he describes as the paradoxes of Andalusian culture.29 Some historians more recently have focused on the role of the Church, clergy, and laity, in developing the seeds for the transition to democracy in Spain after Franco. Historians Antonio Cazorla-Sánchez and Pamela Beth Radcliff provide analyses of government and church archives that reveal that liberal priests and local Catholic parishes influenced the evolving political consciousness of Spaniards that laid the foundation for Spain’s relatively smooth transition to democracy after Franco’s death in 1975.30 These two historians, along with Stanley G. Payne and Aurora G. Morcillo also address the dire economic situation under Franco’s regime. Payne argues that some elements of the Stabilization Plan of 1959 that embraced aspects of capitalism were successful for the nation’s

28 Domke, Joan Cicero. “Education, Fascism, and The Catholic Church in Franco’s Spain.” (Ph.D. dissertation, Loyola University Chicago, 2011), accessed October 12, 2012, http://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/104. This study utilized school textbooks, government documents, and personal interviews, to assert the persistence of local religious traditions throughout the Franco period.

29 See works of David D. Gilmore entitled Carnival and Culture: Sex, Symbol, and Status in Spain. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), and Aggression and Community: Paradoxes of Andalusian Culture. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987).

30 See Radcliff, Pamela Beth. Making Democratic Citizens in Spain: Civil Society and the Popular Origins of the Transition, 1960-1978. (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2011), and Cazorla- Sánchez, “Did You Hear the Sermon?” 14 14 economy as a whole. He asserts that it was Franco’s ministers who insisted on these reforms and convinced Franco to accept them.31 Radcliff discusses these economic reforms as unpopular to both the left and right wings of the Catholic Church.32 Cazorla-Sánchez, in his work Fear and Progress: Ordinary Lives in Franco’s Spain, 1939-1975, highlights how Spaniards suffered under Franco in their daily lives throughout the entire dictatorship. Aurora G. Morcillo, in her work True Catholic Womanhood, describes how Catholic women under the Franco regime struggled to define their role in society. Under the Stabilization Plan of 1959, Spain transitioned to a consumer society and in many ways this undermined the traditional role of women in the family that Franco’s regime had sought to enforce.33

Organization This study will demonstrate the resilience of the Cursillos movement and its relevance to ordinary Catholic laity in southern Spain during the 1960s first by examining how the context of the declining Franco regime and the Second Vatican Council set the stage for the success of Cursillos, particularly in Sevilla, and then by contrasting Cursillos with Catholic Action and with the Church hierarchy in Spain. Chapter 1 traces the rise of the Franco regime and the complicated relationship of the regime to the Church under the banner of National Catholicism. After the persecution of the Church under the Second Republic, the Church saw an opportunity for revival and evangelism. Under the Franco regime, the Church had

31 Payne, Franco Regime, 463.

32 Radcliff, 47-8.

33 Morcillo, Aurora G. True Catholic Womanhood. Gender Ideology in Franco’s Spain. (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2000).

15 15 control over all education and a dominant voice in legislating morality. But the very protection and privilege provided by the regime would become a significant obstacle in reaching younger generations and urban working class Spaniards. In addition, this chapter provides history and analysis of Catholic Action and Cursillos in Spain, both of which sought to reach out to these sectors of Spanish society. The Cursillos movement in particular saw the need for revival of the Catholic faith even within a confessional state. I will assert that a single, uniform National Catholicism was not successfully achieved and that regional distinctions in belief and practice persisted. In contrast, the Cursillos movement did not seek a homogenous national religiosity, but sought to revive the Catholic faith through small group retreats. I will argue that the Cursillos movement successfully spurred Catholics in Southern Spain (among other areas) to claim their own religious identity independent from a one-size-fits-all Catholicism under Franco. The second chapter of this thesis highlights the tension that developed within the Catholic hierarchy in Spain over the sweeping reforms of the Second Vatican Council. It also analyzes the so-called “crisis” of Catholic Action between 1966-68, when the lay organization was undercut by the hierarchy in an effort to retain the Church’s privileged position with the regime. Chapter 2 contrasts the social and economic agenda of certain elements of Catholic Action with the spiritual and personal focus of the Cursillos movement. While Vatican II divided the hierarchy throughout much of Spain, leaders of the Cursillos movement celebrated its reforms and even boasted to have incorporated the spirit of reform earlier. Further, some of the most enthusiastic supporters of Vatican II in the Church leadership presided over the Sevilla diocese and simultaneously acclaimed Cursillos and the Council. This chapter will draw upon the work of other historians as well as present an analysis of Cursillos and Catholic Action 16 16 based on their publications and archival records. Some of these publications are English translations of materials still used by the Cursillos movement in English- speaking locations, while others are from the Madrid archives for both organizations. I will argue that the progressive and adaptable nature of the Cursillos movement allowed it to remain relevant and invigorated by Vatican II, particularly within southern Spain. Additionally, I argue that the Cursillos movement avoided the fate of Catholic Action and evolved as a unique and adaptable movement that remained committed to the spiritual development of its participants rather than a political agenda. Chapter 3 demonstrates the acceptance and growth of the Cursillos movement in southern Spain, Andalusia, particularly in the Sevilla diocese. Much of this chapter will draw upon local Sevilla newspapers and personal oral interviews of Cursillos participants conducted by the author in Spain in 2014. The relatively low level of Catholic practice in the region and its reputation for sensual and religious festivals had proved a challenge for Catholic clergy, but the Cursillos movement with its non-traditional, charismatic methods found fertile ground in Sevilla and the surrounding communities. It will be shown that Cursillos embraced the unique environment of Sevilla and adapted to meet the paradoxical and diverse nature of Andalusia. Drawing on the work of Cazorla- Sanchez and Radcliff, I will assert the impact of Cursillos in Andalusia, where it provided an outlet for Catholics to develop practices of association and social activism. The location was chosen in part due to both the author’s prior knowledge of the region’s culture, as well as its historically low rates of Catholic practices. These rates have been traditionally ascribed to Andalusia’s past as part of Moorish Spain and the diversity of local beliefs, as well as the Church’s association with latifundio landlords in the rural areas of Andalusia and the 17 17 increasing urbanization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Sevilla.34 Cursillos overcame these challenges in Andalusian society in part by including women, the poor, liberals, middle class, and conservatives. Finally, this thesis will show that the methods and philosophy of Cursillos revealed a devout Catholic spirituality that had not been recognized by the clergy from other regions of Spain. I will argue that Cursillos affirmed this spirituality, allowing Sevillans to define their own religious experience beyond the limits of National Catholicism and to embrace the changing context of Spain in the 1960s.

34 Lannon, 9-10.

CHAPTER 1: THE FRANCO REGIME & CHURCH-STATE RELATIONSHIP

In 1939, Francisco Franco, leading the Nationalist army against the government of the Second Republic, came to power as the self-proclaimed savior of Spain and the Catholic faith. His regime would establish a fascist-style dictatorship, but unlike other fascist regimes, such as Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy, Franco’s nationalist vision included a confessional state where the church and state were intimately connected. Franco’s so-called National Catholicism gave greater privilege to the Church than even the previous Catholic monarchies in Spain during modern times. His government enlisted the Church in massive indoctrination efforts by giving the Church state funding, control of all education, and legislation of its moral values. This elevated status, however, would be a major obstacle to authentic religious identity for many ordinary Catholics, and throughout his regime, the Church would struggle to reach both the nation’s youth and the growing working classes. As will be explained below, it was within this context that the Cursillos movement arose to revive a faith that its founders felt was struggling even in the early and enthusiastic days of Franco’s regime.

The Second Republic, 1931-1936 Beginning in the early nineteenth century, Spain experienced a series of pendulum swings between conservative and liberal regimes. All of these governments, with one possible exception, sought to control the Church through a policy known as regalism in which the government intervenes in ecclesiastical 19 19 affairs.1 Under more conservative regimes regalism often included special privileges for the Church, while liberal governments, like the Second Republic (1931-1936), sought to eliminate the privileged status that the Church possessed. Before the mid-nineteenth century, the Spanish Catholic Church as an institution had been a part of the privileged class, controlling vast amounts of land and wealth. In response, anticlericalism had become a growing and strengthening force in Spain throughout the nineteenth century. During many of the liberal governments since the 1820s, including some monarchies, the Church experienced incidents of violent persecution and loss of stature, funding, and property. This history of civil-ecclesiastical conflict led the Church hierarchy and many of its followers to prefer the conservative regimes that preserved its traditional privileged status despite regalist controls. But that preference increased the suspicion with which the more liberal ministers in the government of the Second Republic viewed the Catholic Church in Spain. The Second Republic sought to establish a secular and democratic modern state. But concern over the Church supporting monarchist revolts, along with growing anticlericalism, led the Second Republic to the most radical form of regalism rather than establishing true freedom of religion.2 The Catholic Church once again was stripped of property, wealth, and its role in education and other facets of society. The new constitution, particularly Article 24, took away all state funding for the church, allowed civil marriage and divorce, and prohibited teaching by members of religious orders in Spain.3 The government of the Second

1 This term regalism is used in particular by William J. Callahan, who asserts that Spain’s First Republic in 1873 truly sought a free Church in a free state and thus was a departure from regalism. See Callahan, “Regalism, Liberalism, and General Franco.”

2 Callahan, “Regalism.”

3 Lannon, 4-5. 20 20

Republic restricted religious orders, called for the total suppression of the Jesuits, and nationalized most Church property in the form of cathedrals, parish churches, episcopal palaces, and rectories.4 The government’s policies towards the Church angered Catholics, and the Church hierarchy hoped to reverse many of them through diplomacy with the government and by encouraging Catholic political parties to influence legislation. Many Catholics viewed the government’s efforts to promote religious liberty as an attack on Catholic Spain and as encouragement for waves of violent anticlericalism throughout various parts of the country. Some historians downplay the intensity of the persecution of the Church by the government of the Second Republic.5 However, the animosity between anticlerical and Catholic Spaniards living during the republican government was indeed intense, particularly in certain areas of Madrid, Andalusia, and the Levante region along the Mediterranean.6 These areas experienced what was called “quema de conventos” or burning of convents. In May of 1931, just after the proclamation of the Second Republic, many religious buildings were burned by local mobs. The worst case occurred in Málaga, on the Southern Coast of Spain, in Andalusia.7 The government rejected the violence and used the army to put a stop to it, but anticlerical sentiment persisted. More widespread persecution of the Church came in the form of municipal restrictions on its role in society, including

4 Ibid, and Callahan, Catholic Church, 295, 302.

5 Callahan, Catholic Church, 291. Callahan does this by contrasting the “harassment” of the Catholic Church under the Second Republic to the “harshness of government policy in Mexico” at the same time. His assessment questions even using the term persecution to describe the government policy towards the Catholic Church in Spain from 1931 to 1933.

6 Ibid, 283.

7 Ibid. Mobs in Málaga also looted and destroyed commercial warehouses and the Chamber of Commerce, indicating that anticlericalism often went along with hostility towards upper classes and the wealthy. 21 21 banning public religious processions and taxing the ringing of church bells.8 By 1932, in the Sevilla archdiocese, “alienation from the Church was already entrenched” and one cardinal estimated that ninety-four percent of men failed to attend Sunday mass.9 In the five years of the Republic prior to the Civil War, priests were murdered by mobs, churches and convents were burned to the ground, and state financial support for the Church ended. As a result the Catholic Church rejected the new government’s policies and Spanish Catholics mobilized to form political parties dedicated to defending the Church’s interests. This further complicated the political situation for the Church and led many Catholics to support the nationalist camp in the coming civil war.10

The Spanish Civil War, 1936-39 The Spanish Civil War broke out on July 18, 1936 when the army rebelled against the Second Republic. The republican government had struggled to realize many of its reforms, thus leading to increasing civil unrest, which in turn increased fears of social revolution among many Catholics, monarchists, and other conservative groups. But instead of a quick military coup to install an authoritarian regime, the republican government rallied its own troops to maintain control of major cities and industrial centers, including Madrid. A long and bloody struggle began that would last three years. Overwhelmingly the clergy and laity of the Catholic Church supported the Nationalist army revolt. After the first few months of the war, the hierarchy publicly cast in its lot with the Nationalists as

8 Ibid, 292.

9 Ibid, 341. The same cardinal estimated that even among women in Sevilla eighty percent did not attend Sunday mass.

10 Payne, 166-7, and Brassloff, 6. 22 22 well, particularly as regions under Nationalist control began to support and protect Catholic practices.11 Bishop Pla y Deniel of Salamanca described the war as one between good and evil, between Catholic Spain and godless communists.12 During the civil war, long-standing popular tensions between the left and right, non-Catholic and Catholic were unleashed in full force. In Republican areas the Church went into hiding, as almost seventy thousand priests and members of religious orders were executed and ecclesiastical buildings were destroyed en masse by various local anticlerical groups.13 In the Nationalist zones, reprisals for such executions were at times indiscriminate. During the Spanish Civil War, fascist dictators Mussolini and Hitler backed their fellow fascist Franco and the Nationalists and the Soviet Union supported the Republican government. This international participation intensified the violence as foreign troops and weapons were deployed on both sides. Some Western governments, like the United States, viewed the Republican government as communist and for this reason gave military assistance to Franco’s forces.14 After World War II, fear of spreading communism would again lead the United States and other Western democracies to more openly support Franco economically. The involvement of other major powers in the Spanish Civil War resulted in it being a

11 There were exceptions to this support for the Church when it came to autonomous movements, like in the Basque area, where many priests were persecuted for suspected support for Basque autonomy. This included the execution of fourteen priests “by lower-level Nationalist authorities.” See Callahan, Catholic Church, 353-54.

12 Ibid, 349.

13 Ibid, 358. The central government of the Second Republic in these areas did not have control, which led to various anticlerical and revolutionary groups taking over various local areas.

14 There were in fact Americans (and other Western Europeans) who fought with the Republican army during the Spanish Civil War. According to Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives website, there were around 2800 Americans of the nearly 40,000 men and women from fifty-two nations who volunteered fought against Franco’s fascist army. See “The Abraham Lincoln Brigade.” Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, 2014, Accessed October 30, 2015, http://www.alba-valb.org. 23 23 testing ground for new weapons developed in the interwar period. The fire bombing of Guernica by primarily German planes and the use of German tanks gave Hitler’s army crucial experience before its attacks on neighboring nations in the latter part of the 1930s. The bloodshed and death toll of the Spanish Civil War thus was increased by the intensity of animosity between the two sides within Spanish society and by the involvement of other powerful nations with advanced weapons.

The Franco Regime and National Catholicism, 1939-1975 During the war, Francisco Franco and his nationalist army allied with the Church. The alliance was not without conflict, as both sides had their own agenda and sought to get the most benefit out of the relationship. Once in power, Franco’s regime restored and rebuilt Church property and pursued a policy of “National Catholicism,” giving the Church substantial funding and control over state education.15 But not all the offending legislation of the Second Republic, such as the legalization of divorce, was reversed immediately as the Church leaders had expected and in fact demanded of Franco.16 While some historians consider the idea of National Catholicism simply a slogan or unrealized policy, it expressed the intent of the Church and the state to achieve a uniform doctrine, both religious and political.17 The Church did regain authority over public education and children were indoctrinated with ideals that benefited both the church and state. Spain’s national and Christian history was emphasized in

15 Domke, 75.

16 Callahan, Catholic Church, 375.

17 Ibid, 383. 24 24 opposition to the traditionally more dominant regional narratives throughout the country. The Franco regime wanted to stamp out regional autonomy, especially in the Basque region and Cataluña, where the state brutally punished even clergy for perceived or actual support for regional autonomy. On the whole, the Church attained a privileged status, and “under the guise of religion, the government used the educational system as a means of socialization, connecting nationalism and religion to promote their fascist agenda.”18 Indeed, the ideal of National Catholicism “contributed to buttressing the regime’s legitimacy” according to historian William J. Callahan.19 From the beginning of his reign, Franco sought support of his National Catholicism from the Vatican to further bolster his authority. Francisco Franco finally secured official recognition and sanction from Pope Pius XII in the Concordat of 1953. In the document, the Vatican gave official recognition to Franco as the leader of a confessional state and allowed him a role in the selection of Spanish clerical appointments. The Concordat also reinforced the privileges of the Roman Catholic Church in Spain, particularly over education, and granted it exclusivity in state affairs.20 For example, the Concordat specifically gave protection to the lay organization Catholic Action from direct interference from the government. Franco, of course, expected the Church to control the members and activities of Catholic Action, discussed below, since it received hefty government subsidies and privileges. Until the late 1960s, however, that protection provided a haven for growing voices of change within Spanish

18 Domke, ix.

19 Callahan, Catholic Church, 382.

20 Brassloff, 7. 25 25

Catholicism, including criticism of the regime, even before the shift brought by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).21

Catholic Action Catholic Action was Spain’s largest Catholic organization and evolved over several decades as an umbrella for various associations of laity and clergy who sought to promote Catholic practice through charities, propaganda, occupational associations, and other groups. Beginning in the 1880s, in response to a wave of liberalism, Spain followed the example of several other European Catholic nations by establishing a series of Catholic “congresses” or public assemblies as “non- political forum[s]” to advocate for the demands of the Church.22 These congresses aimed to draw the attention of the public and of politicians and thus to gain influence over society and the government. In particular, the congress participants wanted to assert the rights of the Church in public education and to promote Catholic devotion to sacraments and works of charity.23 While the congresses in Spain were ineffective, they provided the beginnings an organizational structure that would develop into Catholic Action in Spain. Thus an early basis of Spanish Catholic Action was formed around 1881 with the purpose of “transforming Spanish society” with the focus on promoting morality.24 According to historian William J. Callahan, it was during this time that the model for the Catholic Action of the twentieth century was developed – “an association that pragmatically

21 Radcliff, 69. Radcliff research on Madrid demonstrates role of parishes in developing democratic practices of association. See also Antonio Cazolra-Sánchez “Did You Hear the Sermon?”

22 Callahan, Catholic Church, 108.

23 Ibid.

24 Lannon, 152. 26 26 accept[ed] the regime in power but [was] opposed to many of its policies.25 Although its roots were not initially successful, Catholic Action evolved and, according to Callahan, became the “most influential organization of twentieth- century Spanish Catholicism.”26 It would be in the first decades of the twentieth century, with papal endorsement, that Catholic Action (under that name) would emerge in Spain. Catholic Action also referred to an international organization that was developed over time by several popes, including Leo XIII, Pius X, and Pius XI. These bishops of Rome endorsed the Catholic “congress” and association trend in Europe and sought to provide direction to it. During the late nineteenth century there was tension over the relationship between national governments and the Catholic Church, and thus the Church felt the need for greater organization to promote its interests in society. In the 1890s, Leo XIII established the organization referred to as “Catholic Movement” as a way to reclaim the Church’s social and evangelical presence in an increasingly liberal & secular world.27 Originally, this “Catholic Movement” included political operations as well as worker unions (or syndicates) and had a relative level of autonomy from the Church hierarchy. Under Pope Pius XI in the 1920s, however, this international organization became officially known as Catholic Action as a way to coordinate efforts by Catholic laity for work, such as evangelism, under the authority of the Church hierarchy in each individual nation. As historian Feliciano Montero points

25 Callahan, Catholic Church, 110.

26 Ibid, 110.

27 Montero, Feliciano. “Origen y Evolución,” 133-134. 27 27 out, this model of Catholic Action resulted in a narrower, non-political purpose, and coincided with the rise of fascism in Italy.28 In Spain, Catholic Action grew and began to harbor groups that advocated for justice (not just morality or the Church’s interests) and represented what would be called “social Catholicism.” Included among these groups, to be discussed later, were labor syndicates that advocated for fair wages and other worker protections.29 Furthermore, under the umbrella of Catholic Action, these groups, though at times challenging state authority, had the protection of the Concordat of 1953. Nevertheless, under the Franco regime, Catholic Action encountered new challenges. Early in the twentieth century, a shift began to take place within some parts of Catholic Action (along with the Church as a whole). Originally Catholic Action sought to promote Catholic piety and doctrine among the working class, which were seen as ‘corrupted’ by modernization and by socialism. Along with parish- based education, charitable groups, and propaganda divisions, Catholic Action included gender-based and occupational associations. The latter functioned in many ways as labor syndicates but were started to “re-conquer the working class” in the increasingly industrial society.30 But in many cases the clerical leaders of these worker branches became advocates for labor issues as they became exposed to the living and working conditions of the people in their communities. As early as the 1910s, a Dominican priest in Jerez, Pedro Gerard, responded to dire economic conditions, a general strike, and animosity towards the Church by

28 Ibid, 135.

29 Lannon, 154-56.

30 Brassloff, 8. 28 28 calling for fair wages as a right for all workers. In 1912, the Spanish and papal hierarchies condemned him for “repudiating confessional tests and demanding that all syndicates of Catholic workers” focus on worker issues rather than “acts of piety.”31 Gerard’s attitude was not new in the Catholic world, but it was not the prevailing view of much of the hierarchy. Gerard was eventually dismissed from his post in Jerez.32 Later, under the fascist policies of the Franco regime and the increasingly poor economic conditions, the worker branches of Catholic Action became a haven for worker rights’ advocates who followed Gerard’s example. In the late 1950s and 1960s the specialized worker branches of Spanish Catholic Action became increasingly influential even though traditionally, most of the organization had been parish-based and middle class.33 The two most important of the worker associations were Hermandad Obrera de Acción Catòlica (HOAC) and Juventil Obrera Católica (JOC). As more clergy and laity within Catholic Action focused on labor rights, the organization’s ranks swelled with working class Catholics.34 Rather than focus on Catholic devotion and morality, these organizations pushed for solutions to societal inequality, which sounded to some like Marxist ideology. These specialized worker branches were not tied to a parish (or local church) but they were based on occupation, gender, and age. Thus, through the 1950s and 1960s, they became increasingly independent from the Church hierarchy (which ultimately oversaw Catholic Action, even though it

31 Lannon, 155-156.

32 For more on Gerard, see Callahan, Catholic Church, 130-134.

33 Montero García, Felicano. La acción católica, 64.

34 For examples of priests speaking for working class, see for instance Antonio Cazolra-Sánchez “Did You Hear the Sermon? Progressive Priests, Conservative Catholics, and the Return of Political and Cultural Diversity in Late Francoist Spain.” The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 85, No.3 (September 2013), 528-557. 29 29 was a lay organization). Later in the 1960s, the growing independence of groups like HOAC and JOC and clashes between them and the Franco regime would lead to a crisis of the organization as internal church divisions grew.

Cursillos de Cristiandad The Cursillos de Cristiandad movement originated out of Catholic Action’s young branches in Spain beginning in the 1940s. In those years, Catholic Action for Youth sponsored a series of trainings for leaders and spiritual exercises to prepare for a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. More than seventy thousand young men from Spain, other European nations, and South America completed the pilgrimage in August of 1948.35 After the pilgrimage, beginning in 1949, sessions continued and the movement quickly developed into a program of lay leader discipleship directed by clergy and laity, beginning in Mallorca under the direction of Bishop Juan Hervás and other leaders including layman Eduardo Bonnín. Cursillos de Cristiandad literally means “little courses in Christianity” and they were intended to revive Catholic laity to a life of piety, evangelism, and charitable work. Bishop Hervás stated that the movement was “born” in Catholic Action as the “field” into which the diocese “planted the seed of Cursillos.”36 But, he also asserted that participants, known as cursillistas, not be required to join Catholic Action even though its founders, including Hervás, were a part of the organization and the movement had originated in the youth sections of Catholic Action in the 1940s. In the 1960s, the Church recognized the autonomy of Cursillos, and in the mid-1960s Catholic Action thus established its own office for

35 “Eduardo Bonnín.” French-speaking Cursillo movement of Canada. October 21, 2010, accessed October 30, 2015, http://cursillos.ca/en/histoire/h2-eduardo.htm.

36 Hervás, Juan. Questions and Problems concerning Cursillos in Christianity. trans. William Youngs, S.J. (Madrid: Ultreya, 1963), 77 30 30 courses in topics like marriage and spiritual practices.37 In July of 1962, the Conference of Spanish Bishops approved the creation of a National Secretariat of Cursillos de Cristiandad, separate from Catholic Action.38 The Cursillos movement was distinct from past programs that were directed exclusively by the clergy.39 Historian Francis Lannon remarks that the “style [of Cursillos] was certainly novel in Spain, relying on a total immersion in intensive prayer, lecture, and discussion sessions in residential three-day courses.”40 These three-day retreats or “little courses” were largely directed by trained lay leaders who were typically supervised by clergy but given freedom to lead exercises and discussions on their own. This freedom allowed for regional and local culture to become a part of each Cursillos. In some cases, these lay leaders were practically illiterate, but they were given the opportunity to give religious talks and testimonies.41 The movement grew in popularity and found a permanent place in Spanish Catholicism that persists today and has spread to other parts of the world. One contemporary Spanish journalist described the movement as a “studied and

37 Montero García, La acción católica y el franquismo, 64.

38 “Conferencia de los Rvdmos. Metropolitanos Españoles.” Cursillos de Cristiandad. Hoja informative del Secretariado Nacional. Madrid. No.1 (May 1963); 1. All archived Cursillos newsletters were obtained as part of a bound book of old newsletters/bulletins by the author in July 2014 from the National Secretariat of Cursillos office in Madrid. Sources seem to vary on exactly when Cursillos was officially given its own secretariat within the Catholic Church independent from Catholic Action. An article from the ABC newspaper in Sevilla from January 1, 1959 refers to the opening of the Secretariat Office for Cursillos in Madrid while the current Secretariat of Cursillos de Cristiandad in Spain website references 1962 as the year the secretariat office was established, see http://www.cursillosdecristiandad.es/historia/.

39 Callahan, Catholic Church, 497.

40 Lannon, 230-231.

41 Don Publio Escudero Herrero, “Los comienzos de los cursillos de cristiandad en Sevilla,” interview by Antonio Márquez, Sevilla, Spain. n.d. This interview was conducted by a Cursillos participant in Sevilla in the last several years but the exact date has not been identified by the author. It was provided to the author as an electronic document by the current president of Cursillos in Sevilla. 31 31 wise” exploration of the “significance of Christ in the concrete problems of our time.”42 The Cursillos and follow-up reunions were intended to bolster the faith of individuals in the context of a group, which they called teams, to promote the Cursillos experience of renewal in real life circumstances. Spontaneity and creativity were encouraged in Cursillos in the teaching of Catholic doctrine and in the expression of Catholic practices. This stood in contrast to the mass indoctrination efforts coming from the regime and the Church. Franco tried to stamp out regional identities and failed. Cursillos embraced local and individual dynamics so that its participants, called cursillistas, could develop their own religious identity within Catholicism. In the 1960s, Cursillos would adapt to the struggling economic situation through its foundational practice of reaching out to all socio-economic classes and bringing them together in small group retreats. The purpose of the Cursillos retreats was not to change the ordering of classes in society, but to evangelize and develop lay leaders in local communities. Instead of Franco’s emphasis on the state above the individual, Bishop Hervás believed “the renewal of Christianity must begin with man, with each one of them, individually.”43 One cursillista, interviewed for this study, noted that taxi drivers and university students could be found at the same cursillo retreat even in the earliest years of the movement in Sevilla.44 Even today, cursillistas talk about the change of heart they experienced

42 Jose María Jiménez Aguirre. “Cursillos de Cristiandad.” ABC Sevilla. Edicion de Andalucía. June 11, 1960, accessed April 6, 2013, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm.

43 Hervás, Questions, 8.

44 Ignacio Montaño, Interview with author, Seville, Spain, July 21, 2014. Montaño originally participated in Cursillos in Sevilla in the 1950s but in 1963 moved to Cáceres in the Extremadura region of Spain, also known for low levels of Catholic practice, where he was a leader in the Cursillos movement and in Catholic Action. Montaño was a government auditor controller for most of his career, all under the Franco regime. He later returned to Sevilla (1970s). 32 32 in the Cursillos; few talk about messages of social justice as an end itself. But, as they tell about this religious conversion, stories of the real everyday life implications of that conversion reveal a grassroots-style movement to effect change. And, back in the early 1960s, change was increasingly needed in the lives of Spaniards, as these would be years of tremendous turmoil in Spain, for the Franco regime, for the Catholic Church, and for Spanish society as a whole.

Economic Crisis for Franco Regime As growing social unrest, economic woes, and global shifts in the 1960s challenged Franco’s hegemony, Cursillos would persevere even as other Catholic groups struggled. Cursillos would continue to foster the genuine and personal faith of Catholics throughout Spain. The roots of the economic and political crisis of the 1960s can be found in Franco’s earlier, failed policies of autarchy in the 1940s, which sought to create a self-sufficient Spanish economy through a system of economic controls. Instead, these policies led to increased need for imports and economic aid. While the standard of living was rising on the whole in Spain at this time, agricultural output failed to meet the nation’s demand for food, which had to be increasingly imported. Eventually this in turn resulted in increased trade deficits, inflation, and in a wave of strikes beginning in 1958.45 Franco himself resisted making major changes even as the nation faced bankruptcy in 1959, but his advisers were able to persuade him to liberalize the economy towards the international market, resulting in the Stabilization Plan of 1959.46 This plan called on Spain simultaneously to adapt to a consumer economy and to maintain a traditional society, particularly regarding gender roles and

45 Payne, Franco Regime, 463-466.

46 Ibid, 469-471. 33 33 government suppression of socialist unions. In the wake of the plan, unemployment soared and wages declined, jolting the average Spaniard.47 Ultimately, the state avoided bankruptcy and received new investment and a large increase in tourism due to Spain’s new openness and friendly relation with democratic-capitalist nations like the United States.48 After World War II and the beginning of the Cold War, Franco seemed like less of a threat to the United States and a potential ally against the Soviet Union. As Franco took steps to open up Spain to the global economy and promote more traditional capitalist policies, the United States, particularly under Eisenhower, was eager to keep Spain in the anti- communist camp. As Francisco Franco aged and the failed economic policies intensified Spain’s lag in the global economy, internal divisions intensified between conservative and progressive Catholics in Spain. The promises of national glory under the self-proclaimed savior of God and country remained unrealized and the regime allowed increased contact with a capitalist and democratic world. The growing plight of the working and lower classes captured the attention of clergy and laity, many of whom had not lived through the anticlerical Second Republic and brutal Spanish Civil War. The younger generation of Spaniards, including middle class, questioned Franco and his confessional state. The church-state union would also come under fire from Rome through the Second Vatican Council. As the Franco regime accepted increased dependence on foreign trade with Western capitalist democracies, this contact provided new domestic challenges for

47 Ibid, 371.

48 Ibid, 459. 34 34 the fascist dictator. This Western influence both promoted new ideas about government (and church-state relations) and created resentment particularly among younger generations. Already in 1959, many young university students disdained the Franco regime despite the fact that most came from middle class families that largely benefited from the stability and order provided by Franco. In a New York Times article, correspondent Benjamin Welles found that these privileged students rejected the fascist propaganda and were angered by censorship and the corruption in the government and economy. One law student interviewed blamed the United States for keeping the Franco regime going in the name of “lead[ing] a free world and stop[ping] communism.” He claimed that the United States could force Franco out at the hands of his own generals and bankers if all oil was cut off.49 Opening up Spain to the global consumer economy kept the nation afloat, but it also supplied fuel for dissident political parties from pro- democracy to socialist to communist and everything in between.

The Second Vatican Council, 1962-65 Another external shift of the 1960s that brought instability within Franco’s Spain was the Second Vatican Council. The Roman Catholic Church under the leadership of John XXIII and Paul VI “attempt[ed] to respond to the growth of secularization by coming to terms with ‘modernity’, an aggiornamento [updating] to make the Church and its message more relevant to the day and age.”50 Through its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (1965), the Council affirmed that the Church should be independent from political systems and give up

49 Benjamin Welle. “Spain’s Students are Angry Young Men.” New York Times. October 11, 1959, accessed October 1, 2012, http://select.nytimes.com.

50 Brassloff, 12. 35 35 privileges that may undermine the “sincerity of [its] witness.”51 Under the Concordat of 1953, the pope had given official recognition to Franco as the leader of a confessional state. However, as the Church began “disengagement from secular powers…[it] denounced totalitarianism and supported democracy.”52 Thus, Vatican II negated certain rights that had been given Franco as it affirmed that religious liberties must be protected and that the Church should be independent from the state.53 The changes introduced by the Council left the Spanish Catholic Church and the Franco regime in a state of shock. Franco had tried to influence the Council for fear of it delegitimizing his regime.54 The Spanish bishops were left divided over these changes, as some feared it threatened the Church’s status as well. In contrast, Cursillos de Cristiandad embraced the Vatican Council, and even claimed to have anticipated its reforms in its own framework.55 The movement would thus continue to move forward in its mission at renewal of Catholic laity from all backgrounds and regions. The Franco regime secured the Church’s existence in Spain but hindered its evangelism. As the government demanded Catholic practice as part of patriotic duty, a cynicism and apathy developed among the younger generation and a growing urban working class. Many within the Church rejoiced at its protection under Franco and the restoration of much of its authority, state funding, and role in

51 Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World in The Documents of Vatican II, ed. Walter Abbott (New York, 1966), 288. quoted in Callahan, Catholic Church, 510.

52 Brassloff, 12.

53 Callahan, Catholic Church, 512

54 Preston, Paul, foreword to Brassloff, xi.

55 Capó, Juan. “Basic Concepts of the Cursillo movement in the light of Vatican II.” 1968, trans. Rev. James Brown O.A.R., (Dallas: National Cursillo Center, n.d.), 22. From a prepared address given to Latin American Encounter of Cursillo Leaders in Bógota Colombia in August 1968 by his brother Rev. Jaime Capó. 36 36 education. In contrast, the leaders of what would become Cursillos felt that a pilgrimage originally planned during the Second Republic and its anticlericalism was still needed in 1948. They felt that the Catholic faith existed in form but not in the hearts and lives of the people.56 Cursillos sought to revive the intimate spiritual nature of Catholics, the heart, even under a confessional regime. The Spanish Catholic Church’s continued support of Franco’s government thwarted and rendered ineffective much of the Church’s attempt at evangelism (as it knew that not all Spaniards were Catholic despite its own rhetoric of “Catholic Spain”) and even resulted in many abandoning the Church. In the 1950s and 1960s some Catholic groups (i.e. Catholic Action’s worker organizations) openly and even with hostility rejected Franco and National Catholicism. But the Cursillos movement, as will be seen in later chapters, dedicated itself entirely to religious revival and did not engage in political divisions. By avoiding direct confrontation with the regime, Cursillos presented a safe haven for ordinary Catholics to develop genuine and personal religious identity independent from nationalist propaganda. Eventually the Church leadership would distance itself from the regime (1970s) as a whole, but the Cursillos movement stood in contrast to National Catholicism from the start. Therefore, it was successful because it provided Catholics in various regions of Spain, particularly in Andalusia, a way to develop their own religious identity that was authentic and inclusive of many of their local cultural traditions.

56 Goyi Cerro, personal electronic correspondence with author, July 8, 2014. Goyi Cerro was the President of the National Secretariat of Cursillos de Cristiandad in Spain in 2014.

CHAPTER 2: THE SPANISH CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CRISIS: COUNCIL, CATHOLIC ACTION & CURSILLOS

During the 1960s, Spanish society was experiencing dramatic changes due to its sudden opening to global commerce and the weakening of the Franco regime. At the same time the Catholic Church, through the Second Vatican Council, 1962-65, set forth sweeping reforms to adapt to the reality of an increasingly secular world. Increasingly European states had abandoned a confessional Catholic stance and the Church seemed to be losing its hold on younger generations. In addition to liturgical reforms, such as allowing masses to be said in the local vernacular, the Second Vatican Council adopted more liberal positions on economic, political, and social issues. The Council asserted the non- political nature of the Church and thus put itself at odds with the Franco regime, which still promoted National Catholicism (along with much of the Spanish church). Vatican II “dramatically altered the assumptions” that had informed the Spanish Catholic Church’s policy and operations since the Civil War.1 While the Spanish Church officially supported the Council, there was much division and conflict at every level about how to adapt to its reforms. This was part of the identity crisis in which the Spanish Catholic Church found itself during the 1960s. Internal divisions over the regime, the Council, and the role of laity within church and society all resulted in this identity crisis for the Spanish Catholic Church and consequently for Catholic Action. The Cursillos movement, in contrast, solidified its identity and flourished during the 1960s in Spain and around the world.

1 Callahan, Catholic Church, 508. 38 38 Reforms of the Second Vatican Council Vatican II divided leaders of the Spanish Church as some celebrated the Council and others resisted its edicts. The Cursillos de Cristiandad movement represented the former. Not only did the leadership of Cursillos welcome the changes brought about by the Council, it claimed many of these changes were already part of the theology and practice of the movement. Particularly regarding the role and autonomy of the laity, Cursillos did advance a more modern interpretation of Catholic theology from the beginning in the 1940s, which Vatican II would affirm in the 1960s. Cursillos proved itself to be a progressive and unequivocally spiritual movement that provided a way for Spanish Catholics to maintain a sense of religious identity in the midst of an oppressive regime that co- opted their faith and during the tremendous change for the Church in the 1960s. The Council invigorated Catholic Action initially as well, but many within that organization, particularly the worker branches, sought radical means to carry out the Council’s ideals of social justice and political freedom. This would ultimately put Catholic Action on a devastating collision course with the government and the Spanish hierarchy who continued to support it. Pope John XXIII inaugurated the Second Vatican Council in October of 1962. The Council fathers issued an opening message that declared a desire for renewal of the Church and reiterated the pope’s concern for peace and social justice.2 The Council was concluded under Pope Paul VI in December of 1965, who echoed the “urgent appeal of the peoples of the world for more justice, in their will for peace, in their conscious or unconscious thirst for a higher life.”3

2 “Message to Humanity.” Documents of Vatican II. Ed. Walter M. Abbott. (New York: America Press, 1966), 5-6.

3 “Closing Messages of the Council.” Documents of Vatican II. Ed. Walter M. Abbott. (New York: America Press, 1966), 728. 39 39

These pontiffs were seeking what was called an “aggiornamento” or a modernizing of the Catholic Church in light of its declining influence in the twentieth century world. As noted in Chapter 1, in the Council the Catholic Church abandoned the model of confessional states in which the Vatican endorsed a particular leader or political party, however corrupt or oppressive, as long as the Catholic Church was upheld as the national religion. In addition, Article 68 of the Council document Pastoral Constitution in the Modern World (1965) upheld “free and independent labor unions” that should be permitted to function “without fear of reprisal,” and Article 75 affirmed that “all citizens” have the right “to participate freely and actively” in the organization, running, and election of leaders of the government.4 These positions stood in stark contrast to the political, economic, and social realities of Franco’s Spain. In addition to new stances on politics and the economy, Pope Paul VI in particular emphasized the importance of the laity in the church, praising groups like Catholic Action and Cursillos de Cristiandad. During the Council he named Saint Paul as the patron saint of Cursillos and lauded the “renovation of family life” and “revitalization of parishes” that was occurring because of Cursillos.5 Beginning in the 1950s, the movement was already promoting the kind of enhanced lay spirituality and leadership that Vatican II would advance in the early 1960s. The overall tone of the Council, according to one participating Spanish bishop, was “pastoral” and thus primarily concerned with how to care for the faithful of the church in particular and generally all peoples in need around the

4 Quoted in Callahan, Catholic Church, 510.

5 “Editoriales: San Pablo, Patron de los Cursillos.” Ecclesia. No. 1182 (March 7, 1964): 3. 40 40 world.6 It focused less on defense against heresy and of religious laws and more on “rejuvenation” of the Church, including its rituals and canonical structures.7 The Council included bishops and priests from all over the world, of all ages and ethnicities. The result was a dramatic shift in the way the Church operated and engaged with the secular world. Indeed the reforms of Vatican II coincide with the purpose, theology, and practice of Cursillos, which strove to make the Catholic faith relevant and compelling to the modern man.

Vatican II Divides Spanish Church The sweeping changes of Vatican II were met cautiously and even discordantly by many of the Spanish bishops, some of whom were present at the Council. In particular, the older bishops, who had lived through the persecution of the Second Republic and the horrors of the Civil War, continued to hold onto the ideal of “Catholic Spain” and a confessional state.8 For some of them the language of religious freedom promoted by the Council harkened back to the anticlerical legislation of the Second Republic. In the end, many of the Spanish bishops present at the Council voted to affirm the changes being proposed, but their approval was mostly due to respect for the papacy and a failure of the conservative bishops to organize themselves into a coherent opposition.9 After the closing of the Council, the Spanish bishops were slow to make real changes and initially only issued statements that regurgitated Council documents. Many of the older bishops not only recoiled at abandoning a confessional state, but they also

6 José María Cirarda. “Vaticano II: Un Concilio Distinto.” Catholic Action Archives, Madrid, Spain, file 5.50 Juntas Diocesanas Sevilla, Correspondencia (1962-1971).

7 Ibid.

8 Brassloff, 15.

9 Callahan, Catholic Church, 510. 41 41 feared losing some of their authority over the Catholic lower clergy and laity, many of whom had been acting with increased independence during the 1950s and early 1960s.10 Among the Spanish bishops, there were some enthusiastic supporters of the Council. The future Primate of Spain and Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Vicente Enrique y Tarancón favored many of the changes brought about by the Council. Beginning in 1971, he would oversee many of those changes once he became the head of the Church in Spain. In that position, Tarancón would also oversee the Church during Spain’s transition to democracy, ease restrictions placed on Catholic Action by the older reactionary bishops, and praise the work of Cursillos. Several supporters of the Council among the Spanish bishops were from posts in Southern Spain, Andalusia, which is the focus of this study. The Archbishop of Sevilla, Cardinal Bueno Monreal was a major advocate of the social justice message of the Council. The Cardinal condemned what he saw as the unjust distribution of wealth in Spanish society and “social conflict between labor and management” that resulted from “too ‘capitalistic’ a mentality.”11 As might be expected from this position, he supported the worker branches of Catholic Action. Bueno Monreal’s auxiliary bishop, José María Cirarda, who resided in Jerez of Andalusia also praised the Council for its celebration of diversity and its emphasis on the role of laity within the Church.12 These forward-thinking bishops would also be advocates of Cursillos in Andalusia,

10 Ibid, 509.

11 Brassloff, 16.

12 Cirarda, Monseñor José María to Santiago Corral Pérez, February 4, 1964, Catholic Action Archives, Madrid, Spain, file 5.50 Juntas Diocesanas Sevilla, Correspondencia (1962-1971), and Cirarda, José María. “Vaticano II: Un Concilio Distinto.” Catholic Action Archives, Madrid, Spain, file 5.50 Juntas Diocesanas Sevilla, Correspondencia (1962-1971). 42 42 setting a tone for progress and revival of the Church in that region during the 1960s and beyond. At the grassroots level, there were supporters of the Council as well. From the start of the Council, “young clergy and lay activists … translated conciliar recommendations into deeds, which resulted in clashes with the Franco regime and with their ecclesiastical superiors.”13 Franco claimed to support the pope and the Council, but his cold relationship with Paul VI was well known.14 One example of these conflicting responses to ideas of Vatican II came in Barcelona in 1966. In that city police brutally broke up a meeting of pro-democracy students and in response one hundred and thirty priests protested and were met with ill-treatment at the hands of the police. After this incident, the regime and the Church hierarchy reiterated the status quo of National Catholicism in Spain, claiming that the priests “fail[ed] in discipline.”15 This position was met with radical resistance from many within Catholic Action, particularly its worker organizations (HOAC and JOC), as well as Catholic intellectuals and younger clergy. These groups continued their activities, begun in 1950s, to change “unjust structures of society” with renewed vigor from “Pope John XXIII’s encyclicals and… Council declarations.”16 Catholic Action and its worker branches were on a collision course with the conservative Spanish hierarchy as well as the regime. By 1968 Catholic Action would be reprimanded, restricted, and enfeebled by the hierarchy in order to preserve its privileged relationship with the regime.

13 Brassloff, 18.

14 Montaño, interview.

15 Brassloff, 18.

16 Ibid, 19. 43 43

The Second Vatican Council stimulated a different dialogue within Cursillos. Leaders of the movement immediately celebrated the Council, particularly its emphasis on the importance of the laity. Historian Francis Lannon in her critical discussion of the Cursillos movement notes that “enthusiasts” claim that the movement actually “anticipated” the trend of change that culminated in Vatican II.17 But these claims were not unfounded. Making that case was the purpose of the fourth edition of Bishop Hervás’ lengthy pastoral letter, Questions and Problems concerning Cursillos in Christianity, published in 1963 during the Council. Hervás felt that many who participated in the Second Vatican Council were interested in Cursillos and that some had doubts or questions regarding the movement. He hoped the book would allow cursillistas “to clarify their own ideas and to dissipate confusion and ambiguity which might spring up in a given environment.”18 He was confident the book would prove useful to anyone interested or skeptical of the movement, particularly those involved with the Council. Hervás declared as well that Cursillos “constitute a method of evangelization which combines all the conditions asked for by the Fathers of the Vatican Council II” which sought to address the issue of presenting Christianity to the modern world.19 Other leaders of Cursillos expressed enthusiasm for Vatican II and its alignment with their movement. One of the lay co-founders, Francisco Forteza Pujol, recalls the “happiness” with which he and other cursillistas reviewed the Council documents and saw “reflected in them many of [their] concerns”

17 Lannon, 230.

18 Hervás, Questions, 5.

19 Ibid, 9-10. 44 44 regarding the relationship between the Church and secular world.20 Another of the founding leaders of the Cursillos movement, Father Juan Capó, wrote an address to Cursillos leaders in South America in 1968 entitled “The Basic Concepts of the Cursillos Movement in the light of Vatican II,” which is still used by the movement to highlight the aspects of the movement that correlate and yet pre-date the Council.21 For example, Capó articulates the Cursillos position that every Catholic layman is an apostle with a degree of autonomy and responsibility to carry out his mission. He further explains that Cursillos espoused this doctrine five years before the Council began.22 Historian William J. Callahan downplays the relevance of Cursillos due to its focus on individual spirituality when “progressive laypeople and theologians” pushed “towards the idea of the Church as a community of believers.”23 Contemporary critics also expressed this assessment to which Father Capó responded, “Cursillos does not promote apostolic individualism.” 24 The structure of the cursillo retreats and follow-up gatherings stressed the importance of community. Another position that, according to Capó, was part of Cursillos prior to Vatican II was its assertion that lay people had an outward apostolate. While Capó, Hervás, and other cursillistas emphasize the role of community in the movement, the focus on individual discipleship may indeed have limited its appeal to more liberal elements amongst Catholics in the 1960s.

20 Forteza Pujol, Francisco. Historia y memoria de Cursillos. (Barcelona: La Llar del Llibre, 1991), 213.

21 Capó, 113-125.

22 Ibid, 24-28.

23 Callahan, 498.

24 Capó, 24. 45 45 Conflict Among Spanish Youth Over National Catholicism During the 1960s, while the Spanish Catholic Church and Catholic groups responded to societal and ecclesiastical changes, a new generation born after the Civil War was coming of age in Spain. These young people represented yet another challenge to the status quo in the church-state relationship. As early as 1959, a New York Times writer who interviewed Spanish university students found that for these youths being Catholic did not mean blind obedience to the Church. He concluded that while they did not question faith, they did “question the elderly, reactionary leadership of the Roman Catholic Church in Spain.”25 This was exactly the disillusioned attitude that Cursillos de Cristiandad sought to address, according to Bishop Hervás, who spoke of the need to drop the “archaic and unintelligible language” of the Church and to connect with the “individual” and the “ordinary life of our people.” 26 In fact, many of the founders of Cursillos were young men in their twenties and thirties at the time. As noted, these concerns were echoed in the Second Vatican Council, which removed the practice of Latin masses and emphasized the role of laity in the Church. Young people in particular were questioning the credibility of the Spanish Church due to its close bond with Franco. Miguel Benzo Mestre, a significant player in Spanish Catholic Action during the 1950s and 1960s, documented this tendency in young people.27 In February of 1964 he reported in Ecclesia, Catholic

25 Benjamin Welles. “Spain’s students are angry young men.” New York Times. October 11, 1959, accessed October 1, 2012. http://select.nytimes.com.

26 Hervás, Instrument, 51.

27 Benzo is given agency in the controversial shift of Catholic Action from a parochial model to a specialized organization with branches divided by age, gender, and occupation by Montero, Feliciano. “Fuentes escritas y orales para la historia de la ACE durante el franquismo,” Espacio, Tiempo y Forma. Serie V, Historia Contemporánea. No. 10. (1997), 383-406, accessed April 3, 2013, http://revistas.uned.es/index.php/ETFV/article/view/2932/2792. These specialized branches focused on age, gender, and occupation to group participants. 46 46

Action’s magazine, results of a survey that he conducted at the University of Madrid where he taught various courses.28 He interviewed 609 students, 409 of which were male, and found that the majority believed in God (83.2 percent for males, 97 percent for females). But progressively less responded in the affirmative when his questions became more specific to Catholic doctrine or tradition, such as the divinity of Christ, the infallibility of the Pope, the importance of the Second Vatican Council, and the regular practice of confession. Most notably, Benzo’s survey revealed that less than a third overall thought that the Spanish state should be a Catholic confessional state. The majority of the students, particularly the young men he surveyed, thought that the Spanish state should be religiously neutral.29 Benzo was well respected among Cursillos participants in the 1960s, who were mostly of the very age group surveyed by Benzo in Madrid.30 For this younger generation of Spaniards, alliance with Franco would not prove an advantage for the Church. During the 1960s, university student protests against the government grew in Spain; in fact, Franco instituted martial law throughout the nation in 1969 for the first time since the civil war in response to massive student protests.31 Indeed, not unlike other western nations in the 1960s, Spain was experiencing a clash of generations along with all the other changes of that time. The survey thus noted a trend of decreasing support for a confessional state. This trend provided fertile grounds for the Cursillos movement that stood in

28 Benzo Mestre, Miguel. Pastoral y Laicado a la Luz del Vaticano II. (Madrid: Ediciones Accion Católica, 1966). Benzo wrote quite extensively of his views of the need for the Church to adapt to changing times, particularly in regards to youth culture, in the Catholic Action publication, Ecclesia.

29 Ibid.

30 Montaño, interview.

31 Cazorla-Sánchez, “Did You Hear the Sermon?,” 543. 47 47 contrast to National Catholicism and encouraged local community involvement to address needs in society by non-political means.

Crisis of Catholic Action, 1966-68 Cursillos de Cristiandad avoided political positions and anti-government activity and thus grew unencumbered by government interference throughout the 1960s. Simultaneously the worker branches of Catholic Action positioned themselves against the Franco regime with increasing fervor and activity. These groups had become increasingly critical of the Franco regime and active in promoting the rights of the working classes, participating in strikes and protests against government policies. For example, the miner strikes that began in Asturias in 1962 and then spread throughout the country were largely supported by the HOAC and the JOC.32 While this increased the conflict between civil and church authorities, Primate of Spain Cardinal Enrique Plá y Deniel affirmed the independence of lay Catholic groups as defined by the 1953 concordat between the regime and the Vatican.33 It was under the leadership of Plá y Deniel that Catholic Action experienced substantial ecclesiastical support and thus autonomy. Quoted in a New York Times article in 1961, the Primate bemoaned the way the HOAC was treated, saying it was “harassed by police” and “labeled as subversive in government documents” in Spain, which he called “one of the few confessional states in the world with a model concordat.”34 That Concordat, as stated earlier, gave official recognition to the regime as a Catholic state, but it also placed

32 Brassloff, 19.

33 Callahan, Catholic Church, 503.

34 Benjamin Welles. “Primate of Spain Tells Franco Church-State ‘Conflict’ Looms.” New York Times. January 1,1961, accessed December 8, 2012, http://select.nytimes.com. 48 48 limitations on the state control of the church, including Catholic Action’s freedom from government interference. Nevertheless, according to the same article, Spain’s Primate predicted a conflict looming between the Church and Franco’s regime. As Plá y Deniel aged, he was replaced in his various leadership roles by more reactionary and conservative bishops. These replacements sought to avoid the church-state conflict that Plá y Deniel anticipated. Beginning in 1966 conservative elements within the Church hierarchy in Spain worked to curtail and to control the activities of Catholic Action’s worker branches HOAC and JOC. At that time, after Spain’s opening to the world economically, Montero García argues that the regime had begun to put pressure on the Church hierarchy to control the pro-democratic specialized branches of Catholic Action.35 This tension between Franco and the Church was complicated when the Second Vatican Council affirmed the need for labor unions to be free from government abuse and undermined the validity of confessional states.36 These reforms coincided with much of the agenda of Catholic Action worker branches, but as noted, the hierarchy remained divided on how to reconcile itself with the changes of Vatican II.37 According to Lannon, Vatican II overshadowed the work of Spanish Catholic reformers by advocating for political freedoms and social equity. 38 Consequently there was division among the Spanish bishops over the role and organization of Catholic Action within the Spanish Church. In the end, the more conservative voices among the Spanish hierarchy would clamp

35 Montero García, La acción católica y el franquismo. 242.

36 Callahan, Catholic Church, 510.

37 Previously noted in English language sources of Callahan, Catholic Church, and Brassloff. For discussion of this by a Spanish historian, see Montero García, La acción católica y el franquismo, 243.

38 Lannon, 246. 49 49 down on Catholic Action in an effort to appease the regime and maintain the Church’s status. Overall, internal discord amounted to a crisis of identity for the Church and ultimately brought down the worker organizations of Catholic Action and its overall numbers.39 The debate between the church leaders and lay activists over the role of Catholic Action revealed a deeper identity crisis for the Spanish Church in the 1960s. The hierarchy was seeking to maintain its privileged status under the Franco regime and Catholic Action was endeavoring to promote social and in many cases political and economic change. This conflict culminated under the leadership of conservative Archbishop Morcillo who replaced the aging and more moderate Archbishop Plá y Deniel as President of Catholic Action in 1966. Morcillo referred to Catholic Action as having developed “an acute anti- hierarchical spirit” and serving as a basis for opposition to the regime.40 Under his leadership, the Spanish Council of Bishops passed a series of new restrictions that effectively took away the autonomy of Catholic Action and its ability to define its own agenda, which the hierarchy claimed to be connected to Marxism and even atheism for its involvement in the labor movement.41 According to historian Montero García, the majority of Spanish bishops was eager to suppress these anti-Franco activities for fear of the regime.42 The lay organization was to be put under the direct control of the hierarchy and restricted to pursue a purely “spiritual agenda.” As a result, the membership of Catholic Action went from one

39 Montero García, La acción católica y el franquismo, 244.

40 Callahan, note on 521.

41 Brassloff, 21.

42 Montero García, La acción católica y el franquismo, 242. 50 50 million in 1966 as the “crisis” began to 100,000 in 1972 due to restraints put upon the Catholic Action’s worker branches (HOAC and JOC) by the more conservative Church hierarchy.43 By the time Archbishop Enrique y Tarancón eased the restrictions in 1971, thousands had left the ranks of Catholic Action and it ceased to play a prominent role in Spanish society. These activists joined clandestine unions and labor syndicates in order to pursue the agenda of social change that was now silenced within Catholic Action. Yet, the legacy of social justice and lay renewal promoted by the Catholic Action would persist as part of Spanish Catholicism. Many priests who had been participating in the worker movement believed that social and political reform advocacy was part of their religious mission.44 The rising conflict between Catholic priests who advocated working class rights and the Franco regime played a role in a cultural shift that prepared Spaniards for eventual democracy, political participation, and tolerance of increasing diversity.45 The crisis of Catholic Action was symptomatic of the larger struggles within the Spanish Catholic Church in the 1960s. According to Spanish historian Montero García, the crisis represented fundamentally a crisis of identity.46 Divisions within the Church reflected conflicting views of the Church’s role in society and how best to fulfill the Church’s evangelical mission, particularly in the wake of Vatican II. While many clergy and laity were calling for reforms and acting in many cases independently from the hierarchy, the majority of the Church

43 Brassloff, 21.

44 Lannon, 237.

45 Cazorla Sánchez, “Did You Hear the Sermon?” 556-557, and Montero García, La acción católica y el franquismo, 245.

46 Montero García, La acción católica y el franquismo, 244. 51 51 leadership in the late 1960s preferred continuing the privileged and protected position (albeit censored) provided by Franco’s government despite reforms promoted by Vatican II. Thus, much of the Spanish hierarchy were in conflict with the grassroots level of Catholic Action that had been advocating for social and economic changes as part of the Church’s role in society. The internal discord reveals that the traditional explanation that solely its association with the oppressive regime undermined the Church is an over- simplification. While the union between the Church and the regime weakened the Church’s credibility, there was also significant internal conflict within the church, particularly over the various roles of the hierarchy, of the parish priests, and of lay leaders. These debates were further inflamed by the dramatic and controversial reforms of Vatican II. During the 1960s, Catholic Action became more entrenched in the struggles of class that divided Spanish society and in conflicts that divided Church leadership. In that same decade, Cursillos de Cristiandad, pursued an idea of spiritual revival for all classes that effected social justice without the political controversy that enveloped the worker branches of Catholic Action.

Independence and Growth of Cursillos de Cristiandad In contrast to the turmoil of Catholic Action, the leadership of Cursillos de Cristiandad navigated the changing landscape with remarkable success by clinging to its foundational purpose of spiritual revival while demonstrating flexibility and spontaneity in each local chapter. This primarily laity-driven movement did not set aside the basic tenets of the Catholic Faith, such as the divinity of Christ or supremacy of the pope, nor did it abandon the Church’s traditional emphasis on acts of piety, such as attendance at mass and confession. 52 52

But, Cursillos represented a unique approach to evangelism in the Catholic Church in Spain. It broke from tradition on many aspects of Catholic practice and in doing so reached disengaged believers from various walks of life. Particularly in the dioceses in southern Spain, and Sevilla most particularly, Cursillos abandoned the Church hierarchy’s habit of condemning the blending of local culture with church traditions. Cursillos embraced the local traditions and popular culture, although not at the expense of basic Catholic beliefs, in a remarkably flexible way. Many historians note the internal conflict within the Church hierarchy over how to protect its status and remain relevant.47 But Cursillos wasn’t looking for status or to maintain the status quo; the movement was dedicated to its pursuit of spiritual revival through individual and small group programs. From the small retreats of Cursillos and through the regular follow-up gatherings, participants gained ownership of their religious identity and effected changes in their local communities. In this way, Cursillos was relevant and grew while avoiding the conflicts that plagued much of the rest of the Spanish Church hierarchy and laity. Perhaps anticipating the crisis ahead for the more liberal elements within the Catholic laity, the founding priest of Cursillos, Bishop Juan Hervás, sought to clarify its spiritual purpose and assert its independence from Catholic Action. Although Cursillos provided an outlet for modern and novel expressions of faith and a greater role for laity, the movement’s main focus was spiritual revival aimed at individuals. One idea that Hervás sought to assert is that Cursillos is not a political movement or a political party although he affirms that those who have participated in Cursillos, with their renewed devotion to living their lives in accord with their beliefs, will naturally participate as citizens in the political process to

47 See for instance Brassloff, and Callahan, Catholic Church. 53 53 promote Christian principles.48 Amidst the looming tensions over Catholic Action, the autonomy of Cursillos solidified by the early 1960s, which may have saved it from the fate that Catholic Action would experience at the end of that decade. As noted earlier, by 1962, Cursillos had its own national secretariat, separate from Catholic Action. During the early 1960s, Bishop Juan Hervás had published manuals and pastoral letters to serve as guidelines and clarifications for those participating in the Cursillos. In them, there is a clear motive of maintaining its purpose and focus on spiritual renewal of individuals and small groups. Despite the criticism by some activists that Cursillos was merely a program of indoctrination for the upper classes, one of its founders, Eduardo Bonnín sought to include young people of all social and racial backgrounds, and even welcomed non-believers.49 The Andalusia edition of the ABC newspaper echoed Bonnín’s sentiment in a 1963 article marking the end of the 100th Cursillo in Sevilla stating that the cursillo is “for all people, without exception.”50 Many people who had been marginalized by society embraced the movement. In a single cursillo, one could find the homeless and illiterate alongside the wealthy and educated.51 The writings of Bishop Hervás provide testimonies of those who participated in the Cursillos ranging from intellectuals to politicians to ordinary citizens. Other criticisms included the claim that it put an almost Protestant-like focus on individual salvation and experience.52 The founders of Cursillos

48 Hervás, Questions, 269-270.

49 Callahan, 496.

50 Urbina. “Los Cursillos de Cristiandad” ABC Sevilla. July 13 1963, accessed April 6, 2013, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm

51 Montaño, interview.

52 See Lannon, 231. 54 54 intended to address the spiritual needs not only of “the isolated individual, for his own personal reform...but at the same time...[of] the conquest of an environment which would include everything and everyone.” 53 Over time, young people throughout Spain were drawn to the movement that sought to revive what Hervás called “mutilated Christianity.” 54 By 1970, this small movement had grown to at least 260,000 participants in Spain and 600,000 internationally.55 This growth is not insignificant considering each cursillo consisted of no more than thirty-five participants and typically required substantial time for training its leaders and for the intentional selection of participants by the clerical and lay organizers. They were not mass revivals, but retreats aimed at lay leaders who were in a position to make an impact in their local communities.

Controversy for Cursillos While the crisis experienced by Catholic Action in 1966-68 substantially diminished its presence in Spanish society, the controversy stirred up over Cursillos prior to 1960 failed to hinder its survival and propagation. As noted, there were concerns about the nature of the lay movement, particularly its unorthodox methods to promote the Christian life.56 Bishop Hervás’ successor in Mallorca actually suspended the courses temporarily in 1956, claiming that they were “divisive.”57 Even the progressive Archbishop Enrique y Tarancón recalls being unsure of its methods and hearing reports that some priests considered the

53 Hervás, Instrument, 65.

54 Ibid, 49.

55 “Ultreya Mundial de Cursillos de Cristiandad,” ABC Sevilla (Sevilla), March 4, 1970, accessed March 23, 2013, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm

56 Callahan, Catholic Church, 497.

57 Lannon, 231. 55 55 program to be “brainwashing.”58 Yet he concedes that almost all the laity as well as priests involved believed in the transforming effects of Cursillos on the Church.59 Tarancón would eventually come to support the movement describing the “blessings...granted” through the work of Cursillos in his own diocese, Solsona.60 Along with Catholic Action and Brotherly Christian Help (Fraterna Ayuda Cristiana), Cursillos played a part in “awaken[ing] the apostolic responsibility of more than a few men” and this was causing the environment of many parishes to be renewed.61 One potential cause for the perception that the movement was indoctrination or brain-washing may have stemmed from the requirement that no one could partially attend or simply observe the program.62 Hervás claimed that less than full participation would result in a distorted view of the movement, yet by making it appear somewhat secretive, Cursillos was accused of coercion and cult-like practices.63 The Cursillos movement invented special terminology that outsiders did not always understand, such as participants being called “cursillistas” and follow-up gatherings called “ultreyas.” A Sevilla newspaper writer named Urbina discredits these accusations in a full-page article in defense of the movement, stating that the movement does not need to be for all Catholics but that there is a need for laity that are “specialists” in spiritual formation for the benefit

58 Enrique y Tarancón, Vicente. Confesiones. (Madrid, 1996), 124-5.

59 Ibid, 124.

60 Hervás, Questions,18

61 “Los Seglares Deben Tomar Parte en la Administracion de la Parroquia, Incluso Modificando Las Estructuras Economicas.” ABC Sevilla. May 11, 1960, 21-22, accessed July 25, 2013, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm.

62 Hervás, Instrument, 35.

63 Lannon, 231. 56 56 of all within a Christian society.64 Hervás simply claims the real reason for those types of accusations is because of the dramatic transformation that occurs with all cursillistas.65 Despite these criticisms, Cursillos maintained the support of progressive Catholic Spaniards. While the above mentioned news article simply gives the author’s name as Urbina, this was likely a Spanish journalist whose full name was Fernando Urbina de la Quintana, who is referenced in work by Spanish historians and theologians.66 This defender of the Cursillos movement was indeed associated with more liberal elements of the Catholic clergy. In 1974 he would be fined 50,000 pesetas for violating “article 2 of the Press Law, regarding proper respect to the moral.”67 This violation consisted in publishing articles by “Marxist-leninist” priests in the magazine Pastoral Misionera started in positive response to Vatican II and of which he was the director.68 Fernando Urbina thus represents an advocate of Cursillos outside the conservative elements of the Church. In Urbina’s defense of the Cursillos movement he dismisses the “simplicities” uttered about the movement as stemming out of what he calls a “spirit of hostility.” According to Urbina, Cursillos is not “brainwashing” or “a placement agency” (i.e. a means of

64 Urbina, “Cursillos de Cristiandad.” ABC Sevilla, July 13, 1963, accessed March 23, 2013, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm.

65 Hervás, Instrument, 36.

66 See Cazorla-Sánchez, “Did You Hear the Sermon?,” 530, and Saiz Meneses, Josep Angel. “Génesis y Teología del Cursillos de Cristiandad.” (Thesis, Facultad de Teología de Catalunya, Barcelona, 1993).

67 September 8, 1973, Ministerio de Informacion y Turismo (El Jefe de la Oficina de Enlace), Multa a “Pastoral Misionera” AGA-C 107.2. This is from the government archives: Archivo General de la Administración (AGA), sección cultural. (Alcalá de Henares). Madrid.

68 September 5, 1973. Ministerio de Informacion y Turismo (Oficina de Enlace), Reservado. AGA-C 107.2. The accompanying reports (to the documentation of the fine) show the citation of articles by priests whose subversive record is detailed between various government offices within the Ministry of Information and Tourism and Office of the Press. 57 57 advancement) and it is not a means of “ecclesiastical domination.”69 His defense highlights the criticism that Cursillos received from “both extremes” in Spanish society.70 The movement was blamed for being too emotional or charismatic by many conservatives within the Church, in addition to being accused of brainwashing individuals into church service by those who distrusted the Church. The accusation of being too emotional or charismatic reveals the appeal that Cursillos seemed to have in Andalusia, a region known for its passion. The auxiliary bishop of Sevilla in the 1960s, José María Cirarda, was both an advocate of Cursillos and of the Second Vatican Council. Writing to the President of the National Board of Catholic Action in 1964, Cirarda emphasizes the importance of the Council and its advocacy of the role of laity in the Church. Cirarda participated regularly in Cursillos and the coinciding Convivencias for women and collaborated on articles for Catholic Action’s magazine, Ecclesia, to promote Vatican II.71 While the response from the Board President Pérez cited “disturbance” within many communities due to the Council, Cirarda went on to draft two articles, likely for Ecclesia, highlighting the pastoral, missionary, and open-minded nature of the Council. In these drafts sent to Pérez, he celebrates the diversity of the Catholic Church represented at the Council, generationally and in terms of nationality, and he affirms its purpose of being a bridge to the modern

69 Urbina, “Cursillos de Cristiandad.” ABC Sevilla, July 13, 1963, accessed March 23, 2013, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm.

70 Ibid.

71 See Records of Cursillos and Convivencias, Sevilla Cursillos de Cristiandad archives, San Juan Aznalfarache, Sevilla, Spain, for documentation of Cirarda’s participation in various retreats, and Monseñor José Maia Cirarda to Santiago Corral Pérez, February 4, 1964, Catholic Action Archives, Madrid, Spain, file 5.50 Juntas Diocesanas Sevilla, Correspondencia (1962-1971) for reference to Cirarda’s Ecclesia articles. 58 58 world.72 As auxiliary bishop of Sevilla, Cirarda represented the progressive elements of the Church hierarchy who celebrated the Council and supported Cursillos de Cristiandad as a lay movement in step with the Council within Southern Spain, namely Andalusia.

72 Cirarda, José María. “Vaticano II: Un Concilio Distinto.” Catholic Action Archives, Madrid, Spain, file 5.50 Juntas Diocesanas Sevilla, Correspondencia (1962-1971).

CHAPTER 3: CURSILLOS IN SEVILLA, ANDALUSIA

Sitting in a Sevilla bar in the summer of 2014, the president of Cursillos de Cristiandad in Sevilla, Fernando Parra Martín, sipped a beer and reflected on the impact of Cursillos in the lives of people he knew. The bar, owned by a fellow cursillista, sits across the narrow stone street from the Cathedral and its Colombian library and is adjacent to the Archbishop’s Palace, which also houses office space for Cursillos in Sevilla. Parra Martín pointed out an icon of Christ on the wall of the bar, which is common throughout Sevilla but not in other parts of Spain, such as Madrid. The architect and second-generation cursillista felt that Sevilla held onto its Catholic heritage and spirituality after the end of Franco and National Catholicism in ways that some other parts of the country have not.1 As always, many Catholics in Sevilla blended their faith with their culture, something that Parra Martín said that people who are not from Sevilla often don’t understand. But the Cursillos movement was particularly good at this type of adaptation as well. Just as the theme song “De Colores” was adapted from a folk song in the 1950s, Cursillos in Sevilla continues today to use popular tunes for its songs of faith. Through theological instruction, spiritual practices, and interpersonal relationships, Cursillos encouraged participants to take ownership of their faith through acts of piety and community service that reflected their own life circumstances and personal interests. The movement saw each layperson as a missionary who was to share their faith in the ordinary situations of their everyday life in ways that were relevant to those around them. This autonomy that was expected from Cursillos participants allowed Catholics in Sevilla to incorporate much of their regional and personal traditions in expression of their faith.

1 Fernando Parra Martín, interview with author, Sevilla, Spain, July 22, 2014. 60 60 Success for Cursillos in Sevilla The growth of the Cursillos movement in Andalusia, particularly in Sevilla, demonstrates the progressive and charismatic nature of the movement in Spanish Catholicism and its ability to facilitate a profound and authentic religious experience among a wide range of Catholic laity. Under the confessional and oppressive Franco regime and during the tumultuous 1960s, ordinary Sevillans claimed ownership of their Catholic faith through Cursillos. These Andalusian cursillistas expressed their faith personally and yet corporately, and not out of the indoctrination of National Catholicism. They forged ahead in step with Vatican II as the Spanish hierarchy reeled with the dramatic shift in the global Church. Class conflicts and political divisions did not define or lay claim to the spirituality or the community of these cursillistas. They were empowered to find their own voice in expression of their faith without abandoning the sanction of the Roman Catholic Church. Several factors paved the way for the success of Cursillos in Andalusia in the 1960s, particularly in the Sevilla archdiocese. First, much of the local hierarchy at that time was of the younger, progressive generation within the clergy. While the Spanish Church was divided on Vatican II and other issues of change, the hierarchy in Sevilla embraced Vatican II and Cursillos. Another factor was the flexibility of Cursillos to local needs, traditions, and culture. The leaders of the Cursillos movement held to Catholic doctrine but embraced spontaneity and the adaptation of its practices to fit the needs of the environment. Andalusia had often been considered unorthodox in Catholic practice and was ripe for the monumental changes ahead for the Catholic Church. Cursillos was designed to give its lay leaders freedom to use creative and sometimes popular means to remain relevant to its participants. The fact that Andalusia was 61 61

“unorthodox” in the eyes of the Spanish Catholic Church was not a challenge but an opportunity for the Cursillos movement. In addition, the charismatic and jovial atmosphere of Cursillos welcomed lay people of all classes and backgrounds. In issues of class and gender, Cursillos de Cristiandad was able to accommodate for the changing circumstances of the era while maintaining its agenda to guide its participants in a more genuine religious identity. The movement did not seek to alter views on the regime nor did it focus on social justice primarily. But as it sought to be relevant to its participants and to their circumstances, Cursillos adapted to many of the societal, political, and theological changes, which the Spanish Catholic Church at large had failed to accept.

Church Hierarchy in Sevilla Support Cursillos The leadership of the Church in the Sevilla archdiocese demonstrated enthusiastic acceptance Vatican II and engagement in social change. They in turn provided support to the Cursillos movement in Sevilla. The archbishop of Sevilla, Cardinal José María Bueno Monreal, was a well-known and vocal proponent of change, social justice, and the importance of the laity. During the Second Vatican Council, he worked on the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World and knew “necessity and urgency of a presence of seculars [laity] in the world.”2 Following the Council, the cardinal convened a synod for the purpose of adapting the practices of the Sevilla archdiocese in accordance with Vatican II.3 He also valued the contributions of Cursillos towards these positive changes in the

2 Escudero Herrero, interview.

3 Eusebio Torres Rodriguez de Torres. “Cursillos de Cristiandad de 1960 a 1980.” (n.d.), 9. This source is a personal account of the history of Cursillos in Sevilla written by former President of Cursillos in Sevilla, Eusebio Torres. It was shared with the author by the current President of Cursillos in Sevilla, Fernando Parra Martín in 2014 but the document itself is not dated. Eusebio Torres planned to have his account printed for local consumption. 62 62 archdiocese. According to Hervás, Archbishop Bueno Monreal acclaimed the impact of Cursillos, particularly in its “transforming” effects on Sevilla.4 It was this archbishop that ceded the facility that would be known as La Casa de Cursillos in San Juan Aznalfarache, across the river from Sevilla, to the Cursillos movement. According to one cursillista, Ignacio Montaño, Archbishop Bueno Monreal greatly supported Cursillos and was “open” and “progressive” like Cardinal Enrique y Tarancón.5 From his first encounter with the movement, the archbishop was impressed with the closing celebrations and the ultreyas, or post- cursillo gatherings.6 Former President of Cursillos in Sevilla, Eusebio Torres, commented that the only aspect of Cursillos that the Bueno Monreal did not like was the schedule as the retreats and closing celebrations often went into the early morning hours.7 These vigils showed the dedication of the participants. Given the hierarchical nature of the Church and its authority, the archbishop’s support was essential to the growth of the movement in Sevilla. In addition to his support of Cursillos, Bueno Monreal had advocated for more equitable distribution of wealth, particularly land, and favored the Council’s declarations of religious liberties.8 In 1964, he wrote for Catholic Action’s periodical, Ecclesia, about the third session of the Council in which he described the role of the laity and ecumenism, including religious liberty, as two of the most important topics of the Council.9 He demonstrated himself to be in favor of

4 Hervás, Questions, 15.

5 Montaño, interview.

6 Escudero Herrero, interview.

7 Torres, 9.

8 Brassloff, 16.

9 Sr. D. José María Bueno Monreal, “La Tercera Etapa del Concilio.” Ecclesia. No. 1202 (September 5, 1964): 9. 63 63 democracy and known for his relationship with labor syndicates that were anti- Franco.10 After the Asturian miner strikes of 1962, the archbishop of Sevilla condemned the poverty and abuse of the working class in Andalusia at the hands of the government.11 In 1967, Bueno Monreal called upon Catholics from across Spain to help the homeless in Sevilla as the government’s assistance was lacking.12 Such an advocate of the poor and of reform supported and praised the Cursillos movement, which welcomed all social classes. Yet in the murky waters of a confessional state led by Generalísimo Franco, the archbishop’s reputation as a reformer was complicated by his own public statements acclaiming Franco as “a ruler of deep Christian sense” who “tries to conduct the Nation in the ways of justice.”13 This statement was made when Franco was present at the inauguration of a seminary in 1961 and illustrates the precarious nature of the church-state relationship. Later, in 1965, a group of Spanish bishops led by Bueno Monreal expressed to an aging Franco, in person, their concerns about the future of Spain including the need for a “modern political configuration…along the lines of the European democracies.”14 Franco did not openly reprimand the bishops and he acknowledged the importance of a government supported by the people while still invoking the struggle of the Civil War against socialism. The Church was protected by the Concordat and given

10 Montaño, interview.

11 Callahan, Catholic Church, 504.

12 Bueno Monreal. “El gravísimo problema de la vivienda.” Ecclesia. No. 1330. (February 25, 1967): 19.

13 “Documento 45 – El Obispo Castán Lacoma y el Cardenal Bueno Monreal, 1961” in Guerra Campos, José, ed. Crisis y Conflicto en la Acción Católica Española y Otros Órganos Nacionales de Apostolado Seglar desde 1964. Documentos. (Madrid: Ediciones ADUE, 1989), 256.

14 Quoted in Callahan, Catholic Church, 501. 64 64 much power over society by the Franco regime, but there was constant pressure by the government for the Church (and all its clergy) to toe the line. In the 1960s, younger bishops like Bueno Monreal were willing to challenge the status quo but many older clergy and bishops, who remembered the intense anti-clerical policies and violence under the Second Republic and during the Civil War, would not relinquish the privileged and state-sanctioned protection. The willingness to depart from the past, including the standard of National Catholicism, and to embrace change, such as the reforms of Vatican II, were shared by Bueno Monreal and Cursillos. Notwithstanding the complicated church-state dynamic, Archbishop of Sevilla Cardinal Bueno Monreal was consistent in his support of Cursillos as well as in his advocacy for the Second Vatican Council, which many cursillistas believed embodied the heart of Cursillos. His auxiliary bishop, José María Cirarda, was also a fervent advocate of Vatican II (as noted in Chapter 2), of Catholic Action, and of Cursillos. Taking a decidedly active role in his support, Cirarda regularly served as the spiritual director (lead priest) in the Cursillos retreats in Sevilla while fulfilling his appointment in the archdiocese. In 1961, he would be the spiritual director of the first cursillo for women. Before being appointed auxiliary bishop of the Sevilla archdiocese in Jerez in 1960, he had been the director of the national secretariat of Cursillos, and a chaplain for both the Men of Catholic Action and for the Propagandists of Catholic Action.15 In Jerez, Cirarda would also lead cursillos and, according to one journalist, the auxiliary bishop affirmed that Cursillos “brings people to practice the wise accords of the

15 “Juramento Canonico Del Nuevo Obispo Auxiliar de Sevilla, Que Hoy Sera Consagrado.” ABC Sevilla, June 29, 1960, accessed June 4, 2015, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm. 65 65

Council.”16 Like Bueno Monreal, Cirarda not only supported Vatican II and Cursillos, but he called attention to the injustices of the Franco regime. In the late 1960s, in Bilbao, he stood up to the government over its repression of priests associated with Basque separatists.17 The support of progressive, local Church hierarchy, like Bueno Monreal and Cirarda, is just one factor that facilitated Cursillos to grow in Southern Spain and to provide an alternative religious identity to that of Franco’s National Catholicism.

Historical and Cultural Context of Sevilla The history and culture of Sevilla in Andalusia was another factor that provided fertile ground for the charismatic and “unorthodox” methods of Cursillos that included exuberant singing, theological discussions led by laity, and an emphasis on spontaneity. Amidst the changing social and religious landscape in Spain, the prominence of Cursillos in southern Spain in the 1960s was remarkable in light of its regional history. The region of Andalusia - - sprawling countryside with cities like Sevilla, Córdoba, Granada, and Málaga - - had been the last bastion of the Moorish rule of Spain. Córdoba had been the capital of the Muslim caliphate until 1031. Granada persisted as a Muslim kingdom until 1492 when it was captured by Ferdinand and Isabel, the so-called “Catholic monarchs” who united the Christian kingdoms of Spain under one crown. This period of Muslim North African rule left its cultural stamp on the region in everything from architecture to dance to cuisine to religion. The most famous landmark in Sevilla

16 “El Obispo Auxiliar Dirigio un Cursillo de Cristiandad en Jerez.” ABC Sevilla, November 8, 1966, 53, accessed March 23, 2013, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm.

17 Callahan, Catholic Church, 519. In 1971, Cirarda would be transferred back to Andalusia, this time to Córdoba, as a result of the regime’s desire to remove him from Bilbao in the Basque region. The Concordat did give Franco a role in the appointments of bishops and he influenced many within the Church hierarchy. 66 66 is the bell tower of its gothic cathedral that is in fact the medieval mosque minaret. North African gypsy culture permeates Andalusia along with the Moorish influence. Subsequently Andalusia was dominated by latifundios, or large plantations, dependent on peasant workers and supported in many cases by the Catholic clergy. This system persisted into the early twentieth century and resulted in great misery for the landless peasants, who were resentful of the landlords and of the Catholic Church that supported those landlords.18 Even the Counter-Reformation and the Inquisition in Sevilla did not dislodge these influences and challenges to Catholic Church orthodoxy. By the nineteenth century, Andalusia was known for a lack of devotion to the dogma and practices of the Catholic Church. It was considered to be one of the more difficult placements for new priests, who were often from other regions of Spain, and in some cases were stoned by peasants who were loyal to their own regional religious practices.19 These practices in Sevilla manifested themselves most dramatically in the Carnival and Semana Santa celebrations, to be discussed below. Leading up to and during the period of the Second Republic in the early 1930s, violent anticlericalism continued and estrangement from the church in Sevilla manifested in record lows for attendance at mass.20 Even under the banner of National Catholicism after the Civil War ended in 1939, the Catholic Church was still largely unable to rely upon the southern latifundio areas for new clergy. After twenty years of National Catholicism, clergy in Andalusia were “still lamenting low levels of observance” and

18 Lannon, 9.

19 Lannon, 12.

20 Callahan, Catholic Church, 341. The same cardinal estimated that even among women in Sevilla eighty percent did not attend Sunday mass. 67 67

“tremendous religious ignorance” where towns were without clergy.21 Between 1950 and 1965, attendance at mass for residents of Sevilla was as low as thirteen percent.22 The massive indoctrination efforts of Franco’s National Catholicism had not proven successful. Despite the dominance of the message of National Catholicism in school textbooks and its attempted enforcement through government decrees, local religious traditions persisted throughout the Franco period.23 In the 1960s Andalusia remained in many ways a hostile environment for the traditional modes of Catholic evangelization. It was the “unorthodox” methods of the Cursillos movement, such as the enhanced leadership role of laity and almost Protestant-like emphasis on personal salvation, which would make inroads in Andalusia. While Cursillos did encourage attendance at mass and other acts of religious observance as expressions of devotion, the movement focused on personal religious growth and evangelism. In addition to its poor reputation regarding Catholic practice, Andalusia was plagued by societal ills as well in the mid-twentieth century. Throughout southern Spain, literacy rates were among the lowest in the nation.24 Economic hardships, particularly in urban areas in and around Sevilla, were severe. The city of Sevilla, which would grow to over half a million by 1970,25 was particularly challenged by poverty, as the government did nothing to monitor urban growth throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. As discussed in Chapter 1, the

21 Ibid, 469.

22 Lannon, 102.

23 Domke, 128.

24 Domke, 31.

25 Censo de la poblacion de España, año 1970 poblaciones de derecho y de hecho de los municipios. (Madrid, 1971), 85. 68 68

Stabilization Plan of 1959 had disastrous effects on the Spanish economy, particularly for the urban poor. Adequate and affordable housing was scarce in many urban centers throughout Spain. Franco himself, visiting Sevilla in 1961 noted:

I saw in Sevilla, in the outskirts of the city, many shacks that depressed me greatly. They were built up against a cemetery and housed many families; each shack was shaky, damp, full of mold and water, and gave off a terrible odor…in no place in Morocco have I seen such a depressing sight.26 Some of this began to change in the 1960s, but slowly and with notable governmental abuses and corruption. This situation did not go unnoticed by Cardinal Bueno Monreal when he was archbishop of Sevilla. In 1967 the cardinal wrote in Ecclesia of the urgent need for financial support from around the nation to assist Christian organizations and the Church to house many homeless people in Sevilla. The archbishop’s palace and parish sanctuaries were being offered to the government to use as temporary housing because all of the city homeless shelters were full. In his essay, he dutifully acknowledges that “the authorities” have “undertaken” a solution, but he clearly felt that enough was not being done by the city housing office.27 He was careful to avoid overt criticism of the government as even Catholic newspapers were censored, but his appeal shows that he believed the government was not resolving the crisis in sufficient time. Thus in the 1960s, Sevilla was facing the modern difficulties of rapid urbanization, poverty, and increasing tension between the church-state relationship. Yet the Cursillos movement, dedicated to promoting Catholic renewal, found acceptance in such a seemingly hostile landscape. While local non-worker

26 Quoted in Radcliffe, 33.

27 Bueno Monreal. “El gravísimo problema de la vivienda.” Ecclesia. No. 1330. (February 25, 1967): 19. 69 69 chapters of Catholic Action in the 1960s were struggling to survive,28 Cursillos flourished even in Sevilla, where a growing urban class was often estranged from the Church. Local cursillistas tell stories of impoverished and illiterate participants whose lives were turned around due to their experience in Cursillos and the assistance of fellow cursillistas.29 The main goal of Cursillos was spiritual renewal of the laity in their daily lives, including acts of charity and social work organized by lay people. According to one cursillista, Ignacio Montaño, who first attended a cursillo retreat in 1955 in Sevilla, the movement was of the people, particularly the lower classes. Along with doctors and lawyers, he remembered many soccer players, bus ticket sellers, taxi drivers, beer distributors, and gypsies participating during the 1960s.30 In addition to the challenges of poverty, illiteracy, and traditionally low levels of Church participation, Sevilla had a reputation for passionate and sensual festivals, including the pre-Lent Carnival and Semana Santa (Holy Week). Sevilla had a long tradition of melding Catholicism with popular beliefs and traditions, particularly in public festivals. This was not unusual throughout Spain, in fact, but Sevilla had a particularly unorthodox reputation. Spain had long been divided religiously along regional lines and that was not altered under the Franco regime, as previously shown. Part of the local religious practice in Andalusia, and in Sevilla specifically, was the February Carnival before the beginning of the Lent season in Catholic tradition and the Semana Santa celebration. Both combined a religious holiday with less orthodox practices such

28 Montaño, interview.

29 Ibid.

30 Ibid. 70 70 as drinking and dancing, with roots in gypsy culture that is dominant throughout southern Spain.31 A Spanish version of Mardi Gras, the Andalusian Carnival, paradoxically blended tradition and rebellion. Anthropologist David D. Gilmore claims that it is in the “carnival-time” that Andalusia’s “internal contradictions” come to the surface in a public dialogue to be “worked out.”32 It was the public expressions of this paradoxical culture, in part, that many church leaders lamented. For years archbishops of Sevilla “fruitlessly pleaded with the people…not to abandon the Church’s official Holy Week ceremonies in favour of the dramatic street processions of the traditional brotherhoods.”33 The complaint by some priests of the “brash exuberance of participants in public religious acts [that] appeared indecorous” of Cursillos echoed the judgment placed upon the Holy

Week celebrations of Sevilla by the hierarchy throughout the twentieth century.34 The Cursillos movement taught Catholic doctrine in everyday language which some clergy viewed “as a danger to orthodoxy.”35 The jovial, unorthodox atmosphere of the Cursillos, where singing secular songs and telling jokes were common, seemed to be well suited to Andalusia. Local Cursillos leadership actively supported what the Hermandades de Trabajo (Brotherhoods of Work), an occupational fraternity, did for Semana Santa, even though it was the displays and parades coordinated by the local chapters that

31 Lannon, 26.

32 Gilmore, Carnival and Culture, 6-7.

33 Lannon, 25.

34 Callahan, Catholic Church, 497.

35 Ibid. 71 71 were often considered controversial by parish priests.36 In 1969 the President of Cursillos in Sevilla was reported by the local ABC newspaper in Sevilla to have spoken of the “values of the work of Semana Santa” to the men of the Hermandad de Trabajo.37 Cursillos leaders learned to embrace the popular traditions and encourage correct doctrine within them. This latitude created an atmosphere of authenticity for ordinary Andalusian Catholics to express their faith on their own terms. They were given opportunities to speak and share their experiences within a supportive small group and in larger reunion gatherings. This fostered genuine ownership of and control over their religious identity in contrast to the indoctrination coming from the National Catholicism model.

Diversity of Cursillos de Cristiandad Indeed, something within the Cursillos resonated with Andalusians. By 1965, there were already forty-four hundred men cursillistas and eleven hundred women cursillistas in Sevilla, out of a population of roughly half a million.38 In 1966, at the Sacred Heart Complex a new room was built to accommodate eight hundred people for the closing celebrations, which were open to all previous cursillistas, not just those finishing the current retreat.39 Between May 1969 and May of 1970, while Catholic Action was dwindling under the hierarchy’s

36 In 2014, the president of the Sevilla chapter of Cursillos affirmed the rich tradition of the brotherhoods during Semana Santa and expressed that it was a way to increase involvement in the Church. Parra Martín, interview.

37 “Hoy, disertación de don Julio Ferrand en las Hermandades del Trabajo.” ABC Sevilla. March 20, 1969, 33, accessed June 10, 2013, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm.

38 “Día de Acción Católica.” ABC Sevilla. June 3, 1965, accessed March 23, 2013, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm. Population estimate based on census data from the following sources: Censo de la poblacion de España, año 1970 poblaciones de derecho y de hecho de los municipios. (Madrid, 1971), 85, and Censo de la poblacion y de las viviendas de España, según la inscripción realizada el 31 dediciembre de 1960. Tomo I. (Madrid, 1963), XXIII.

39 Parra Martín, interview. 72 72 oppressive control, in San Juan Aznalfarache there were at least one hundred and eighteen cursillos for men reported by local newspapers.40 In the communities of Huelva and San Juan Aznalfarache, the work of Cursillos, while not without controversy, resulted in the building of Casas, or houses, de Cursillos. These structures not only housed the “little courses” and follow-up sessions, but other classes and meetings for the community, even ones directed by Catholic Action. Local newspapers praised the work of Cursillos, describing its importance and role in these communities.41 Bishops of Málaga and Sevilla noted the “transforming of parishes” due to the beneficial work of Cursillos.42 Participants in Cursillos de Cristiandad during the 1960s came from various walks of life, as previously noted. One article in 1964 praises the impact of the movement on a small town of Rota near Sevilla for “men of all social classes.”43 While the individuals available for interview for this study all represented middle class Spaniards in Sevilla, each of them had stories of participants from a variety of social strata. Ignacio Montaño, a government auditor controller, remembered the story of a particular cursillo that was attended by a deputy of the housing department for Sevilla and by a man, referred to as Paco, who lived in a one-room shack with his wife and several children. Upon learning of Paco’s situation, the deputy located and provided a more suitable house for Paco and his family. As Ignacio related the story, Paco later

40 ABC Sevilla. May 2, 1969 and May 2, 1970, accessed March 23, 2013, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm

41 Urbina, “Cursillos de Cristiandad.” ABC Sevilla, July 13, 1963, accessed March 23, 2013. http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm, and José María Jiménez Aguirre, ABC Sevilla. Edición de Andalucía, June 17, 1960, accessed March 23, 2013, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm.

42 Hervás, Questions, 15-17.

43 “Elogiosa campaña.” ABC Sevilla. March 15, 1964, accessed May 5, 2013, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm. 73 73 encountered a man with nine or ten children living on the street and was compelled to give this much larger family the house he had just been given.44 Other interviewees provided similar stories of interaction between social classes in the Cursillos and generosity of cursillistas. These anecdotes reveal the local community impact of the movement, as individual participants helped other people in their immediate proximity. While these acts of charity and generosity demonstrate a profound impact on individuals, a broader community experience is not clearly revealed. Thus, Callahan’s assertion that Cursillos was overly focused on individuals at a time when many inside and outside the Church were eager for large-scale change can be validated in some way based on the stories of cursillistas themselves. Participants in Cursillos will be the first to acknowledge that the purpose of the movement is not to change the political or economic system but to engage individuals in their faith in a way that affects change more as a ripple-effect.45 The Cursillos movement provided an opportunity for ordinary Catholics to discover and develop a personal sense of religious identity, which was rooted in Catholic doctrine but also which embraced new expressions of that faith. As noted in Chapter 2, Cursillos was often perceived with suspicion as a secretive or exclusive cult. Yet, the leaders of the movement wanted its cursillistas to be involved in various aspects of their local parish churches and communities. So while cursillistas had regular gatherings, they were discouraged from viewing Cursillos as “an association but a spiritual teaching method for Christian renewal.”46 Each cursillista completed “service sheets” to commit

44 Montaño, interview.

45 Hervàs, Questions, 8-9.

46 Hervás, Leaders’ Manual, 46. 74 74 themselves to acts of piety, including parish practices and charity. While the sheets were standardized, they fostered personal commitments to religious expression and devotion. In 2014, Rafaela Martín Romero still utilized these service sheets and had kept some of her earliest ones from the 1960s when she first participated in Cursillos. She preserved these to remind herself of her commitment to her faith and to serve her community. One of the first female cursillistas in Sevilla, Consuelo Ramos Cervera discussed the love that she felt for God and others that was awakened in Cursillos.47 Prior to this, her experience as a Catholic was one of duty and obedience out of fear of punishment. Afterwards, she participated in ecumenism and enjoyed learning how others expressed their Christian faith. In Sevilla, she attended a prayer group of Christians from different denominations. These women were devoted first to their faith, families, and communities and saw Cursillos as a way to improve their role in these areas of their lives. They described the 1960s as years of gold for Sevilla because of the impact of Cursillos in their communities. Yet, even as Cursillos provided a sense of religious identity to its participants, Bishop Hervás was wary of “cursillism” which allowed some to say “we have everything in the Cursillos” and thus avoided other Christian associations and organizations. Hervás affirmed that cursillistas should embrace other parts of parish and diocese work and not see Cursillos as “an end and not a means.”48 The point of Cursillos was to teach its participants how to change the way that they lived in their everyday lives by having a new in-depth understanding of their beliefs. Engaging the laity in deep theological discussion was a way to

47 Rafaela Martín Romero and Consuelo Ramos Cervera, interviews by author, Sevilla, Spain, July 22, 2014.

48 Hervás, Questions, 290-293. 75 75 empower them to construct a religious identity that was personal, authentic, and congruent with their overall identity. In this way Cursillos was revolutionary and ordinary at the same time. It broke the institutional tradition of clergy trying to enforce one version of Catholic piety and practice upon Andalusians and it embraced the Andalusian tradition of blending spiritual and everyday life. For example, the summer facility of the worker fraternity, Hermandad de Trabajo, in the coastal town of Punta Umbria in the Sevilla diocese, was used in winter for cursillos as well as other religious activities. This fraternity included workers from parts of government administrations such as Renfe (national railway), Telefónica (national telecommunications), Instituto Nacional de Previsión (national weather service), civil aviation, local administration, and from other various professions.49 The purpose of the association was to “bring Christ to the working people through social works” and the facility was used for various community events during the summer.50 It was not uncommon for Cursillos participants to work within the Franco government. Ignacio Montaño, a Sevillan cursillista, spent part of his career as an auditor for the government tax bureau and due to his cursillo experience he committed to treating everyone who came through his office with respect and doing what was in his power, legally, to help each one.51 Cursillos did not embrace National Catholicism but supported individual and community expressions of faith without seeking direct confrontation with the regime. It was able to accomplish this all without stepping

49 J. Calderon, “Residencia Veraneiga de las Hermandades del Trabajo de Sevilla.” ABC de Punta Umbria. July 16, 1964, accessed June 10, 2013, http://hemoroteca.abcsevilla.es.

50 Ibid.

51 Montaño, interview. 76 76 into the growing political fray that disrupted other Catholic associations and worker organizations.

Adaptability of Cursillos The Cursillos movement repeatedly made adjustments in its practice to respond to community needs and feedback from its participants. Much of its theology, particularly regarding lay spirituality and modernity, foreshadowed the theological reforms of Vatican II. It was a dynamic movement that offered laity a voice in developing their own sense of religious identity in the context of their everyday lives. This is reflected in the words of Bishop Hervás, who supported Vatican II, when he noted the three day structure of the retreat was one was of accommodating the “occupations and preoccupations of the modern man” while providing “a model and practical training” to achieve perseverance of faith.52 As noted in Chapter 2, many within the movement felt that Cursillos was ahead of Vatican II in much of its practice and language. In his pastoral letters, Bishop Hervás repeatedly emphasized the importance of the flexibility and spontaneity given to lay leaders to conduct the cursillos in authentic and relevant ways. In 1966, after the closing of the Second Vatican Council, a special open ultreya (post-cursillo gathering) was organized in Huelva and attended by the public to inform them about the Council. Unlike many within the church who were unsure or unsettled by the conciliar changes, cursillistas viewed the Council as an affirmation of what they were already doing and saying. Other adjustments and accommodations made by the movement in the 1960s included the inclusion of women in Cursillos. This was despite the male-dominated society and the

52 Hervás, Questions, 11. 77 77 continued concern among some Cursillos leadership that men were the ones most in need of being brought to faith and to the Church.

Cursillos and Gender The inclusion of women at a time when gender roles in Spain were in flux demonstrated the adaptability and progressive nature of Cursillos. The participation of women in the movement did not happen all at once, but gradually local chapters opened up to women. In fact, there was initially some resistance within the Cursillos leadership to include women. And while women began to be included in the movement in the late 1950s in some areas, men were the main focus of Cursillos. Women represented the majority of churchgoers in much of Andalusia, particularly in the rural communities, which make up the majority of the region. Men, on the other hand, were rarely seen in parish masses in the middle of the twentieth century, which was a trend throughout much of Spain. Church leaders felt more desperation to reclaim men, particularly younger men, to the Church and that was in fact part of the origin of Cursillos. As Archbishop Plá y Deniel reflected in 1960 in his endorsement of Cursillos in the prologue to Bishop Hervá’s pastoral letter, “if men abandon the Church, the Church will be languid and infirm.”53 It was due to this concern that Cursillos focused its efforts on reaching men, particularly young men, since its inception in the late 1940s. This was the case in Sevilla as well. The earliest cursillos held in Sevilla were at the residence halls of the local labor college, Universidad Laboral, in order to reach out to young men.54 Sevilla celebrated its 100th cursillo for men in 1963.55

53 Enrique Plà y Deniel, prologue in Hervás, Instrument, 18.

54 Montaño, interview, and Torres, 3.

55 ABC Sevilla, July 14, 1963, 69, accessed July 22, 1963, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm. 78 78

By 1970, the 191st cursillo for men had been celebrated in San Juan Aznalfarache and the 75th for women of all ages.56 So while men were the focus of the movement, the participation of women steadily increased in the 1960s. The inclusion of women in Cursillos shows the flexibility and responsiveness of the movement to the voices of laity, men and women. The early resistance of some clerical leaders abated in light of increased demand and visible benefit. In fact, Cursillos founder Bishop Hervás had actually discouraged the inclusion of women in the movement in the aforementioned pastoral letter, which was published again in 1963.57 According to Bishop Hervás, the purpose for including women in the first place (at their urging) was for the spouses of the cursillista men to support their husbands and to promote “family spirituality.”58 Hervás originally wanted women to attend the post-cursillo group reunions with their husbands, but conceded that separate gatherings just for women were “prudent” as long as they did not “jeopardize [women’s] role as wife and mother.”59 All of Spanish society was coming to terms with how gender roles were changing, partly as a result of the opening to a consumer economy after 1959.60 The Franco regime had reinforced the stereotype of the domestic woman as part of National Catholicism after the civil war. With the liberalization of the economy after 1959, the regime sought to maintain gender distinctions with a “consumer-

56 ABC Sevilla, May 2, 1970, and November 6, 1970, accessed March 23, 2013, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm.

57 Hervás, Questions, 383.

58 Hervás, Leaders’ Manuel, 322.

59 Ibid, 322-23.

60 Morcillo, 4. 79 79 housewife model.”61 By increasing the role and participation of women, the Cursillos movement demonstrated independence, once again, from post-war National Catholicism. The movement responded to the voices of women in local communities and removed traditional barriers to their involvement. Other Catholic organizations that included women also contributed to new ideas of “true Catholic womanhood” in the last years of the Franco regime. According to historian Aurora G. Morcillo, “gender difference constituted a source of empowerment for [them] as well as…in a chaotic world…represented…a basic personal reminder of the order of nature.”62 Catholic women throughout Spain were re-defining their roles in society. Eventually, Hervás did openly assert the need of Cursillos for women, although primarily in the context of marriage and family, but he noted its immense success even in the early years when he was skeptical of their inclusion.63 Don Publio Escudero Herrero of Sevilla felt that Hervás’ hesitancy to allow women was partly based on the criticism and reprimands that he had received from church leaders in the early days of Cursillos in Mallorca (when women were often included).64 Despite this, the participation of women grew, demonstrating the evolution of a movement not beholden to unyielding ecclesiastical control but adaptable to a changing society. In fact, the inclusion of women took place diocese by diocese, chapter by chapter within the Cursillos movement in Spain. The national secretariat newsletter reported the inclusion of women in 1967

61 Ibid.

62 Ibid, 5.

63 Hervás, Leaders, 317-318.

64 Escudero Herrero, interview. 80 80 throughout Spain as a positive and growing phenomenon with forty-seven dioceses conducting Cursillos for women. It was not based on a policy made at the top of the movement’s national leadership and filtered down to each chapter, but localities responded to the need and demand of women who wanted to participate.65 The national newsletters had been reporting cursillos for women since the mid-1960s.66 In Sevilla, newspapers reported the closings of the cursillos for women in the 1960s, but they were actually called “convivencias” at the time in order to distinguish them from the Cursillos for men. In fact, women began cursillos (convivencias) in Sevilla in 1961 and quickly found ways to take their Cursillos experience into their communities, not just their homes. Another city that began cursillos for women early on was Ciudad Real.67 There Bishop Hervás had been the director of the Cursillos movement in Spain before moving to Madrid to direct the newly created national Secretariat of Cursillos de Cristiandad in 1963. Indeed, Hervás himself praised the “collaboration with women” as welcome and necessary for Cursillos.68 He affirmed the success of the group reunions and ultreyas for women, which included women giving talks and testimonies to their peers.69 These provided unique opportunities for women to be leaders and have ownership of their faith outside the domestic sphere.

65 “España.” Cursillos de Cristiandad. Hoja Informativa del Secretariado Nacional. Madrid. No. 50 (December 1967): 7.

66 Cursillos de Cristiandad. Hoja Informativa del Secretariado Nacional. Madrid. No. 2 (June/July 1963): 5.

67 “Cursillos y cursillistas en España.” Cursillos de Cristiandad. Hoja Informativa del Secretariado Nacional. Madrid. No. 8 (February 1964): 6.

68 “España.” Cursillos de Cristiandad. Hoja Informativa del Secretariado Nacional. Madrid. No. 50 (December 1967): 7.

69 Ibid, 323. 81 81

In 1961, the priest who led Cursillos in Sevilla, Don Publio Escudero Herrero, began the “convivencias” (cursillos for women) initially for the wives and fiancées of the cursillistas so that they could understand and share in the experience with their partner. Many of these first female participants had been critical of the time their fiancées spent as part of Cursillos and the follow-up reunions and ultreyas, even causing some of them to talk about going to seminary (instead of getting married). Don Publio realized the need for them to be included and saw women embrace the movement as they were included in it.70 Some women saw their inclusion in Cursillos as challenging notions of gender roles and tradition. One of the female participants during the early years of Cursillos in Sevilla, Rafaela Martín, said that it was quite “radical” for fiancées (not just spouses) to be included in the “convivencias.” She participated in 1966, which was several years after her husband first became a cursillista. Her participation led to her teaching pre-marital courses to young women in her community, a leadership role she likely would not have assumed without her Cursillos experience.71 Over time, women would be given even greater roles in the movement and its leadership. The aforementioned Auxiliary Bishop José María Cirarda, newly appointed, served as the spiritual director for the first convivencia in 1961. In the early years of the cursillos for women, the spiritual director conducted the talks during the convivencias. This was typically Don Publio, who had been appointed in 1957 to lead Cursillos in Sevilla by Cardinal Bueno Monreal. In his own reflections, Don Publio was fully “converted” to the cause of women being

70 Escudero Herrero, interview.

71 Rafaela Martín Romero, interview by author, Sevilla, Spain, July 22, 2014. 82 82 included when he led the second convivencia just after his own mother had passed. In the midst of his own grief, he realized the importance of a mother (which most women cursillistas were) in the life of their families and so he believed women should participate in Cursillos.72 Later on, laymen began to give talks and then eventually women were allowed to be leaders in the Cursillos and give many of the talks.73 It was a process of allowing women to participate and then to lead Cursillos. As early as 1961, an obituary in Sevilla newspaper recognized a recently deceased woman as a leader in Cursillos.74 Nevertheless, despite this increasing role of women, men remained the main focus of the movement, in Sevilla and throughout Spain.

Leadership Development of Laity The role of lay leaders was essential to the Cursillos movement, for both men and women. During the three days of the Cursillos the participants heard fifteen lectures by priests and lay leaders. These sessions were serious in content, with topics like grace, piety, and “Christianity in Action,” but maintained an informal atmosphere in which the lectures were referred to humorously as “rollos,” a term typically used to refer to long, boring sermons.75 The leaders of the Cursillos (including the priests) served meals to the participants in order to promote community and equality among the cursillistas. Some of the criticism that Cursillos had received for being too unorthodox was due in part to the joking often involved. The earliest newsletters of the Cursillos movement often had

72 Escudero Herrero, interview.

73 Ibid.

74 ABC Sevilla, February 17, 1961, accessed April 24, 2013, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm.

75 Hervás, Instrument, 74. 83 83 jokes in the midst of theological articles.76 In addition, the movement’s song, “De Colores”, highlights the belief of God’s presence in nature and people’s hearts – beyond church walls. It was a popular folksong at the time of the first cursillo and was adapted to be the theme song of the movement.77 Today, as noted, the Cursillos movement in Sevilla continues to re-purpose popular songs for their retreats and reunions. All of these things contribute to an informal atmosphere that encouraged participants to feel at ease and to share their own ideas and experiences. The involvement and leadership of non-clergy was a central and significant part of the Cursillos movement from its inception and it continues to provide unique opportunities of its participants to develop skills in public speaking, theological discussion, and leadership. The recent scholarship of Pamela Beth Radcliff and Antonio Cazorla- Sánchez highlights the work of Catholics, both laity and clergy, as significant groundwork in preparing Spaniards for democratic citizenship.78 Radcliff’s research focuses on Madrid and establishes the role that parishes played in developing practices of association, which would later help the Spanish people make a relatively smooth transition to democracy after Franco’s death in 1975.79 These historians provide insight into the cultural impact of these lay organizations although they do not talk specifically about Andalusia or Cursillos. The Ultreya, or post-cursillo weekly gathering, presents a relevant example of how Cursillos,

76 Cursillos de Cristiandad hoja informative. Ciudad Real. No. 1 (October 1961): 7. The bound archived newsletters of Cursillos de Cristiandad’s national office obtained at the National Secretariat office in Madrid by author in July 2014.

77 “What is the origin of De Colores?” French-speaking Cursillo Movement of Canada, February 23, 2012, accessed February 8, 2016, http://cursillos.ca/en/faq/f12-decolores.htm.

78 Radcliff, and Cazorla Sánchez, Fear and Progress.

79 Radcliff, 69. 84 84 despite criticism, played into the growing demand for civil liberties, such as freedoms of speech and assembly, in the late Franco period. These weekly gatherings were intended to help support the cursillistas to persevere in the Christian life of “piety, study, and action” as they had learned during the courses.80 According to Hervás, these Ultreyas provided a “circle of friendship” in which “to share the living experience of fundamental Christianity.” 81 But these gatherings also provided regular opportunities for public expressions of personal thoughts, experiences, and beliefs. Primarily, a lay member, after consulting with a priest, led them and spoke on a topic relating to personal experiences of faith and life. The other cursillistas would comment and provide constructive criticism on the speaker. A priest was present to provide a reflection and summary of the conversation and to provide an improvisational topic for one lay member to discuss after five minutes of preparation. Hervás claimed this was intended to promote leadership qualities of confidence and public speaking.82 Thus, the Cursillos movement affirmed the importance of the individual within a community and the necessity of strong lay leaders in the Church. In response to criticism about a lack of theological content, lectures by priests were later included but not considered by Hervás a necessary component of the ultreyas.83 In fact, he stressed that the ultreyas must not digress into instruction in Catholic doctrine and thus repeat the original cursillo experience. He insisted that lay leaders maintain the central role in directing the meetings and that the

80 Hervás, Questions, 108.

81 Hervás, Instrument, 111.

82 Ibid, 112.

83 Hervás, Questions, 113-114. 85 85 atmosphere be that of friendship and support.84 So while the Cursillos were three- day sessions of about thirty or thirty-five participants, the Ultreyas could be much larger as they convened all cursillistas in a given community or parish each week or each month. These regular reunions that promoted openness and leadership resemble other community associations, noted by Radcliff, during that time which provided an outlet for the growing demand for citizen participation in Spanish society.

84 Ibid, 114-116.

CONCLUSION

Indeed, in the 1960s Cursillos participants in Sevilla had a renewed sense of their own religious identity that was distinct from the National Catholicism promoted by the regime, and these participants took their experiences into their communities, occupations, and circumstances. The local ABC newspaper reported about the closing of the 100th cursillo (for men) in July of 1963 for the Sevilla archdiocese at the Sacred Heart Complex in San Juan Aznalfarache. Over 300 “militantes” (or Catholic faithful) from all over Spain attended the closing celebration. Cardinal Bueno Monreal celebrated the mass as part of the closing and the article notes that many men of Sevilla showed the “mark” of Cursillos in their lives.1 Don Publio Escudero Herrero recalled the numerous community programs and charities supported or funded by cursillistas in Sevilla from the 1960s and beyond. Much of this development took place after Cursillos was officially separated from Catholic Action by the hierarchy and given its own leadership and autonomy.2 On the same hill as the Casa de Cursillos, which was part of a Sacred Heart complex, was a nursing home for the elderly, Regina Mundi, which was greatly supported by local cursillistas.3 The home was originally founded with the support of Cardinal Segura who also had supported the Cursillos movement and demonstrated independence from the regime even in the 1940s when he was the bishop of Sevilla. Cursillistas supported organizations that helped the infirm, the poor, those in and just out of prison, in Sevilla as well as

1 “Informaciones y noticias varias de Sevilla: Sevilla al día.” ABC Sevilla. July 14, 1963, accessed July 22, 2013, http://hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es/results.stm.

2 Escudero Herrero, interview.

3 Ibid. 87 87 international organizations such as Doctors without Borders.4 The experience and methodology of Cursillos helped equip and inspire Sevillans to find meaningful expressions of their faith during and after the Franco regime. One of the earliest participants in Cursillos in Sevilla, Ignacio Montaño, witnessed the enthusiasm the movement first stirred in Sevilla, resulting in multiple Cursillos occurring at the same time to accommodate the interest in the movement. Montaño first attended at the age of 22 in 1955, the first year of Cursillos in Sevilla, and he continued in the movement throughout his life. For the very first Cursillo in Sevilla, taxi drivers who drove participants to the closing ceremonies of Cursillos (which often were open to non-participants) were so excited by what they saw that many participated in the next cursillo. Montaño believed the movement filled a spiritual and societal need at the time. He was influenced by the biblical teachings of the movement to use his various government positions as an opportunity to help others. Despite his working for the state, Montaño never involved himself with politics and in that sense believes he was a proto-type for most Spaniards. Accepting that the Franco regime was part of the reality of the day, he reflected, “it was just the way it was.” 5 Montaño focused on expressing his Catholic faith in his own situation and position. Likewise, cursillista Rafaela Martín noted that she lived in peace with or without Franco.6 For her, Cursillos provided a sense of personal religious identity that was not National Catholicism. It was in this precarious context that these cursillistas found a more personal and relevant spiritual identity in the Cursillos

4 Ibid.

5 Montaño, interview.

6 Martín Romero, interview. 88 88 movement. It had a greater impact on their lives than the regime or even the increasing conflict in the Spanish Church over Vatican II. The Cursillos movement found notable success in Sevilla and other parts of Andalusia where traditional church methods of evangelism had proven difficult. The adaptability and charismatic tone of Cursillos was part of what allowed the movement to make inroads in that region. The popular culture with Moorish, gypsy, urban, and rural influences was not an obstacle to overcome but simply part of the environment in which lay Catholics lived, worked, and worshipped. Adapting folk songs, welcoming all social classes, engaging with the confraternities of the Semana Santa processions, encouraging lay leadership in parishes, and including women within the movement despite some opposition all demonstrate the ability of Cursillos to adapt and to be relevant to ordinary Andalusians. In the cursillo retreats, men and women of various backgrounds were engaged in the study of Catholic doctrine, in spiritual exercises of prayer, and in relationship with clergy and other laity. The purpose of this was to give laypersons the tools to make sense of their Catholic faith in the ordinary circumstances of their lives. They were encouraged to find meaningful ways to express their religious devotion and to serve and proselytize others in their communities. The movement did not seek uniformity or conformity to one version of Catholic identity and did not advance fascism, or socialism, or any other political ideology. Thousands in Sevilla welcomed this contrast to National Catholicism during the 1960s, including church bishops, taxi drivers, government officials, and the homeless. The significance of the Cursillos de Cristiandad in southern Spain during the 1960s is seen in the context of a rapidly changing landscape in Spain and around the globe, particularly for the Catholic Church. The acceptance of the 89 89 movement in areas like Sevilla may not have maintained at the same dramatic rates as in the 1960s and did not significantly alter the entire religious landscape in Andalusia. But for the individuals involved and for their local communities, there was a renewed sense of religious identity that superseded the state’s official confessional stance. It reflected a general coming to terms with modernity experienced by the Spanish Church, the Roman Catholic Church worldwide, and the global community. In light of the turmoil experienced by Catholic Action, the Catholic Church, and the Franco regime, the surge of Cursillos in Sevilla during the 1960s provides insight into the kind of Catholic spirituality that resonated with Andalusians. In 1985, attendance at mass was at seventeen percent in Sevilla, seeming to indicate a lack of substantial impact of the Cursillos movement or any other attempt at Catholic revival.7 In 1985, Spain had experienced ten years of liberation from authoritarian government and many were distrustful of the church due to its cooperation with Franco. However, it was under the Franco regime that attempted to force Catholic practices upon the people that the attendance at mass rate was lower (thirteen percent). The connection between Cursillos and that modest increase in the single category of religious observance is unclear. The movement did encourage attendance at mass but, as this study has shown, cursillistas in Sevilla expressed their religious identity in a variety of ways. Therefore, there is evidence to support popularity and the persistence of the movement Cursillos, which sought to engage individuals in meaningful ownership of their faith in everyday life. The second weekend in December of 2015, the local chapter in Sevilla convened its 737th Cursillo de Cristiandad in the midst of an increasingly secular

7 Callahan, Catholic Church, 641. 90 90 society. Córdoba, further north in Andalusia and the old Moorish capital, celebrated its 1000th cursillo in 2012. The movement continues in the current political context in which many are dismissive of Spain’s religious heritage. This fact is not lost on some of the participants of the 1960s, who lament the damage done to the Church by its collaboration with the regime and the indoctrination efforts by both.8 Many Spaniards are very cynical of the Church and even current cursillistas in Spain feel the hostility towards organized religion that is left over after decades of a confessional state.9 Through the 1960s, as divisions grew within Spain over the role of the Catholic Church and its relationship to the state and a more liberal interpretation of each was promoted by the Second Vatican Council, grassroots movements among the laity also struggled to establish themselves within the religious landscape of the nation, including Andalusia. Much of the reforms and doctrines established by Vatican II, particularly regarding the role of the laity in the mission of the Church, were embedded in Cursillos from its earliest days in Mallorca. As the decade wore on, the massive lay organization, Catholic Action, became increasingly controversial and thus experienced greater censorship and control. Meanwhile, Cursillos was devoted its mission of religious renewal of lay Catholics and refrained from seeking political objectives. After the restrictions imposed on Catholic Action by the hierarchy led to the mass exodus of its members, Cursillos continued to increase and spread. Within the movement, ordinary Catholics were given an active role in defining their religious identity and experience without being reprimanded or discouraged by clergy. The growth of

8 Ramas Cervera, interview.

9 Parra Martín, interview. 91 91

Cursillos may have been less dramatic than what Catholic Action had experienced prior to the crisis, yet it remained steady through the volatile ecclesiastical climate of the late 1960s. The movement steered clear of political questions, but nevertheless provided an outlet, particularly for the next generation, to give voice to the role of the individual within the Church and within a nation where conformity had long been imposed. Cursillos de Cristiandad remains a charismatic model in lay leader development within post-Vatican II Spanish Catholicism.

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Melody Diane Downie-Dack

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April 8, 2015

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