THE CHURCH IN SPAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 122, 19 November 1938, Page 8

THE CHURCH IN SPAIN

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I am pleased to find myself in accord with the greater part of Mr. Rollings's response to my second letter. Especially do I agree with his admiration of the Spanish character, and thank him for his acknowledgment of the good services to education and welfare work rendered by the Jesuits. It seems, however, that your correspondent and I must part in disagreement on the question of the wealth of the Church in Spain. I readily admit that a "belief"—as your, correspondent cautiously terms it — does exist among" "masses of people" and many writers, possessed of a leftwing outlook (and only a cursory knowledge of affairs Spanish), that "The Jesuits in Spain (did) control everything—industries, shipping companies, public utilities, finance." May I point out, Sir, that "masses of people" and many "writers of note" believed the various "atrocity" stories which were concocted and used to arouse national hatred during the Great War. The fact that this "belief" about the Church in Spain has been flatly denied, not only by innumerable Spaniards of high repute, but by the foremost English authorities, Allison Pears and Sir Charles Petrie, who have devoted long years (not merely months, following the crisis in 1936) to the personal observation and study of Spain and its peoples, does not induce us to rank it above the category of an "atrocity" story. Our conviction in this regard is heightened by the failure of your correspondent to produce an authority who can name a single bank, shipping company, or any other public utility "owned" by the Church in Spain.—l am, etc., G. J. MURRAY.