The massacres of Catholic priests from 1936 to 1939 were a strategic plan to dismantle the Catholic Church, which they saw as an enemy to be destroyed, writes the priest Jorge López Teulón (ReligionELibertad, 18 December).
The decapitation of the enemy elite, for example, was one of the reasons for the Katyn massacre perpetrated by the Soviets in 1940.
The existence of a strategy to physically eliminate a social group is in line with the definition of the crime of genocide in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 6 of which defines as such 'the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such', citing in particular the killing of members of the group.
Of the 292 murdered priests of the Archdiocese of Toledo (48% of the total diocesan clergy), only about twenty were prominent in the social and political field.
The majority of the murdered priests were parish priests of the rural population.
Another example are the 51 Claretian martyrs of Barbastro, beatified in 1992.
They were members of a seminary which, on 20 July 1936, consisted of 9 priests, 39 seminarians and 12 missionary brothers. A total of 60 members. Fifty-one of them were murdered: the 9 priestly formators, 37 theology students and 5 brothers.
Seven of the friars survived because they were away from home, and two students were released because they were Argentinean. The vast majority were young men between the ages of 21 and 25.
These are their names and ages (according to the date of their assassination):
2 August 1936
Father Felipe de Jesús Munárriz Azcona (61 years old)
Father Juan Díaz Nosti (56 years old)
Father Leoncio Pérez Ramos (60 years old)
12 August 1936
Father Sebastián Calvo Martínez (33 years old)
Father Pedro Cunill Padrós (33 years old)
Father José Pavón Bueno (35 years old)
Father Nicasio Sierra Ucar (45 years old)
Seminarian Wenceslao Claris Vilaregut (29 years old)
Brother Gregorio Chirivás Lacambra (56 years old)
13 August 1936
Father Secundino Ortega García (24 years old)
Seminarian Javier L. Bandrés Jiménez (23 years old)
Seminarian José Brengaret Pujol (23 years old)
Seminarian Antolín Calvo y Calvo (23 years old)
Seminarian Tomás Capdevila Miró (22 years old)
Seminarian Esteban Casadevall Puig (23 years old)
Seminarian Eusebio Codina Millas (21 years old)
Seminarian Juan Codinachs Tuneu (23 years old)
Seminarian Antonio Dalmau Rosich (23 years old)
Seminarian Juan Echarri Vique (23 years old)
Seminarian Pedro García Bernal (25 years old)
Seminarian Hilario Llorente Martín (25 years old)
Seminarian Ramón Novich Rabionet (23 years old)
Seminarian José Mª Ormo Seró (22 years old)
Seminarian Salvador Pigem Serra (23 years old)
Seminarian Teodoro Ruiz de Larrinaga García (23 years old)
Seminarian Juan Sánchez Munárriz (23 years old)
Seminarian Manuel Torras Sais (21 years old)
Brother Manuel Buil Lalueza (21 years old)
Brother Alfonso Miquel Garriga (22 years old)
15 August 1936
Seminarian José Amorós Hernández (23 years old)
Seminarian José Mª Badía Mateu (23 years old)
Seminarian Juan Baixeras Berenguer (22 years old)
Seminarian José Blasco Juan (24 years old)
Seminarian Rafael Briega Morales (23 years old)
Brother Francisco Castán Meseguer (25 years old)
Seminarian Luis Escalé Binefa (23 years old)
Seminarian José Figuero Beltrán (25 years old)
Seminarian Ramón Illa Salvía (22 years old)
Seminarian Luis Lladó Teixidor (24 years old)
Brother Flaviano Manuel Martínez Jarauta (23 years old)
Seminarian Luis Masferrer Vila (24 years old)
Seminarian Miguel Masip González (23 years old)
Seminarian Faustino Pérez García (25 years old)
Seminarian Sebastián Riera Coromina (22 years old)
Seminarian Eduardo Ripoll Diego (24 years old)
Seminarian José Ros Florensa (21 years old)
Seminarian Francisco Roura Farró (23 years old)
Seminarian Alfonso Sorribes Teixidor (23 years old)
Seminarian Agustín Viela Ezcurdia (22 years old)
18 August 1936
Seminarian José Falgarona Vilanova (24 years old)
Seminarian Atanasio Viadaurreta Labra (25 years old)
Since 1931, priests and religious in the "Second Spanish Republic" had been uncertain about their future. Hostility and harassment were constant.
The Claretians of Barbastro were very aware that they could become martyrs, and they prepared themselves for martyrdom.
Source: Gloria.tv
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