SIR, — All right, I, as a Catholic, protest against the persecutions
of my co-religionists in Spain, -and I should like to think that your peqbag contains protests from Cardinal Godfrey, the Abbot of Down- side, Fr. Martin D'Arcy and others—but I fear it won't.
Having made my protest in the columns of the Spectator, I'm not quite sure how this will affect the fate of the imprisoned Christian Democrats in Spain. I could, of course, collect some signatures from my friends, and forward the list to the Apostolic Dele- gate, who could then decide whether he should send the list to General Franco. He might decide to send it to the Pope, but alas, John XXIII has not the army that Julius H had. I don't suppose the Pope regards the Government of Spain as ideal, but the concern of the Church is to preach the word of God and administer the sacraments to the faithful, not to overthrow despots.
I think the only practical thing one can do is to respond to Salvador de Madariaga's appeal in the same issue of the Spectator. I have also written to a Catholic paper and suggested that they send a journalist out to Spain to report on the social and political conditions obtaining there. Sometimes it happens, as in the case of the reports of the police action at Blantyre, that a false or distorted picture
has been presented—and then one looks a goon for having responded to every appeal submitted.
Lastly, might I suggest that the Spectator show the same degree of indignation at the appalling per- secution of the Church in China and to a lesser extent in parts of Europe behind the Iron Curtain? —Yours faithfully,
12 Broom Close, Hatfield, Herts
BRUCE M. COOPER
(All Christians, and indeed all sections of the community here, except the Communists themselves, deplore religious persecution in Communist coun- tries, but there is no way in which the weight of that opinion can make itself felt; whereas in Spain it might be effective--if it were given a chance. Un- fortunately the State Department on the one hand and the Roman Catholic Church on the other have been too busy trying to shore up Franco's dictator- ship to condemn its ugly tyrannies—even when it has been Roman Catholics who have suffered.— Editor, Spectator.]
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