Integrism
Encyclopedia
Integrism is a term coined in early 20th century polemics within the Catholic Church, especially in France
, as an epithet to describe those who opposed the "modernists
", who sought to create a synthesis between Christian theology and the liberal philosophy
of secular modernity. The term was originally used by dissidents during the time of Pope St. Pius X, whose papacy was between 1903 to 1914, in attacks on Catholics who upheld his encyclicals such as Pascendi Dominici Gregis
and the most significantly a document entitled the Syllabus of Errors
, which specifically condemned the modernist position.
Those who were called "integrists", or regarded themselves as defenders of Sacred Tradition
, contrary to the modernists sought the continuation of traditional Catholic truths, which they claim, have always been taught. Some critics have framed this within a sociopolitical context of a general opposition to the secular modernity of the Western world
. As represented chiefly by the Revolution in France
of 1789 and the ascent in society of a secular bourgeoise leadership caste, who were often cosmopolitan
, republican
and anti-clerical in worldview. By the late 20th century, these elements were strong critics of the "spirit of Vatican II
", emerging from the Second Vatican Council
, including the suppression of the Tridentine Rite and some of the Council itself.
The term "integrism" is largely restricted to French sociopolital parlance, while the term traditional Catholics has become more prominent in recent times and is generally the most common term used in the Anglosphere
to describe anti-modernist elements. The term has also been borrowed in some cultures to describe elements within non-Catholic religious movements who are also opposed to the radical end of Western liberalism, such as Protestant fundamentalism or Islamism
.
Arboleya y Martínez put it in his famous analysis in 1933, the dimensions of the problem were those of "mass apostasy
, especially among the urban working classes."
Devout Catholics
participated in an enormous number of religious rites separate from the minimal obligations of orthodoxy; processions and devotions connected with statues and shrines, for example. In some public religious rituals, the question of whether the ritual was primarily religious or political became an issue. The Jesuit campaign to spread the cult
of the Sacred Heart
was "inextricably linked in the early 20th century with the integrist values of the extreme Right of the Catholic political spectrum." Its publication, Messenger of the Sacred Heart, was anti-liberal
, anti-Semitic,and campaigned for the enthronement of the Sacred Heart in offices, schools, banks, town halls, and city streets. Statues were erected in hundreds of towns and villages. Seen as symbols of Catholic conservative intolerance the statues were 'executed' by some anarchists and socialists in the early months of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.
The municipal elections of 1931 that triggered the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic
and the Spanish Constitution of 1931
"brought to power an anticlerical government" and began 'the most dramatic phase in the contemporary history of both Spain and the Catholic Church.' The dispute over the role of the church and Catholics' rights were one of the major issues which worked against the securing of a broad democratic majority and "left the body politic divided almost from the start." Prime Minister Manuel Azaña
asserted that the Catholic Church was responsible in part for what many perceived as Spain's backwardness and advocated the elimination of special privileges for the Church. The writer Frances Lannon
asserts that "Catholic identity has usually been virtually synonymous with conservative politics in some form or other, ranged from extreme authoritarianism through gentler oligarchic tendencies to democratic reformism." The Republic's electoral policy had stated: "[We] will not persecute any religion" which was accepted by many Catholics and formally by the Catholic Church hierarchy hoping for continued special rights and privileges from the Concordat of 1851
.
The Republic instituted a reformist program, including agrarian reform
, right to divorce, voting rights for women
, reform of the Army, and autonomy for Catalonia
and the Basque country
. It also established free, obligatory, secular education for all and "separation of the church and state
". Article 26 of the 1931 Republican constitution, and subsequent legislation, halted state funding for the Catholic Church, banned clerics from all teaching in schools, banished the crucifix
from schools, appropriated the properties of the Catholic Church and banned public manifestations of religions, such as processions and religious statues. These strictures helped to alienate a large mass of the Catholic population. The Carlist militias, long confined to their Navarrese heartlands, were training in the mountains as early as 1931." The Right’s defeat in 1931 left some prepared to give the new regime a chance, "but many more ... accepted the rules of the democratic game only as a means to destroy the former republic." Official or organized opposition did not exist at the beginning.
Two weeks after the government of the Republic had announced its intention of freedom of religion
and separation of church and state
, archconservative Cardinal (and Primate of Spain) Pedro Segura y Sáenz
of the Archdiocese of Toledo
published a pastoral letter
against the "religion-destroying administration" and defending the former King. The "most integrist of all prelates," he was opposed to religious toleration
, especially towards Protestants
, and condemned the belief "that all religions are equally acceptable in the presence of God
". He likewise opposed giving the vote to the 5,000,000 women in Spain over the age of 21. The Catholic press followed his lead with "the monarchist daily, ABC, aligning with the most traditionalist positions." This in turn sparked political uprisings, attacks against both sides, general strikes, and further fracturing and morphing of political movements across the spectrum in Spain, including a revived anarchist
movement and new reactionary
and fascist groups, including the Falange
and a revived Carlist
movement.
Segura was forced into exile by the Republic in response to this document, and soon resigned his office. After his return to Spain in 1937, Segura was appointed Archbishop of Seville. While in that office, he described the Spanish Inquisition
(1480 - 1820) as "meritorious", and prohibited Sevillian Catholics from attending movies
and dance
s.
The Spanish Civil War
(1936–1939) began after a military coup
, led by a group of conservative generals under the authority of Francisco Franco
, and supported by Nazi Germany
, Fascist Italy
, the conservative Confederation of the Autonomous Right
, monarchists known as Carlist groups and the Fascist
Falange
went against the elected Republic. The initial coup was only partially successful, so General Franco began a protracted and ultimately victorious war of attrition
, replacing the Republic with a conservative dictatorship
led by him and fusing all right-wing parties into his structure. Some features of the war later played a significant part in World War II
(1942) including tank warfare tactics
and the terror-bombing
of cities from the air. The war was dubbed "the first media
war," with several writers and journalists wanting their work "to support the cause"; foreign correspondent
s and writers covering it, as well as most international observers, supported the Republic, with some, such as George Orwell
, participating directly in the fighting.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, as an epithet to describe those who opposed the "modernists
Modernism (Roman Catholicism)
Modernism refers to theological opinions expressed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but with influence reaching into the 21st century, which are characterized by a break with the past. Catholic modernists form an amorphous group. The term "modernist" appears in Pope Pius X's 1907...
", who sought to create a synthesis between Christian theology and the liberal philosophy
Modern philosophy
Modern philosophy is a type of philosophy that originated in Western Europe in the 17th century, and is now common worldwide. It is not a specific doctrine or school , although there are certain assumptions common to much of it, which helps to distinguish it from earlier philosophy.The 17th and...
of secular modernity. The term was originally used by dissidents during the time of Pope St. Pius X, whose papacy was between 1903 to 1914, in attacks on Catholics who upheld his encyclicals such as Pascendi Dominici Gregis
Pascendi Dominici Gregis
Pascendi dominici gregis was a Papal encyclical letter promulgated by Pope Pius X on 8 September 1907.The pope condemned Modernism, and a whole range of other principles described as "evolutionary", which allowed change to Roman Catholic dogma...
and the most significantly a document entitled the Syllabus of Errors
Syllabus of Errors
The Syllabus of Errors was a document issued by Holy See under Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1864, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, on the same day as the Pope's encyclical Quanta Cura.- Format :...
, which specifically condemned the modernist position.
Those who were called "integrists", or regarded themselves as defenders of Sacred Tradition
Sacred Tradition
Sacred Tradition or Holy Tradition is a theological term used in some Christian traditions, primarily in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox traditions, to refer to the fundamental basis of church authority....
, contrary to the modernists sought the continuation of traditional Catholic truths, which they claim, have always been taught. Some critics have framed this within a sociopolitical context of a general opposition to the secular modernity of the Western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
. As represented chiefly by the Revolution in France
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
of 1789 and the ascent in society of a secular bourgeoise leadership caste, who were often cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality. This is contrasted with communitarian and particularistic theories, especially the ideas of patriotism and nationalism...
, republican
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
and anti-clerical in worldview. By the late 20th century, these elements were strong critics of the "spirit of Vatican II
Spirit of Vatican II
By the spirit of Vatican II is meant the teaching and intentions of the Second Vatican Council interpreted in a way that is not limited to a literal reading of its documents, or even interpreted in a way that contradicts the "letter" of the Council...
", emerging from the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
, including the suppression of the Tridentine Rite and some of the Council itself.
The term "integrism" is largely restricted to French sociopolital parlance, while the term traditional Catholics has become more prominent in recent times and is generally the most common term used in the Anglosphere
Anglosphere
Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...
to describe anti-modernist elements. The term has also been borrowed in some cultures to describe elements within non-Catholic religious movements who are also opposed to the radical end of Western liberalism, such as Protestant fundamentalism or Islamism
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
.
Ties to Spanish Civil Wars and Carlism (early 1900s)
Spain entered the twentieth century a predominantly agrarian nation marked by uneven social and cultural development between town and country, between regions, within classes. In the south, less than 2 per cent of all landowners had over two-thirds of the land, while 750,000 labourers eked out a living on near-starvation wages. Moreover, whilst all Spain was Catholic by formal definition, in practice Catholic identity varied, affected by factors that ranged from region, to social strata, to the ownership of property, to age and sex. General patterns were ones of higher levels of Catholic practice throughout much of the north and low levels in the south, and higher levels of Catholic practice amongst peasant smallholders than landless peasant labourers. The Church and its affairs were simply alien to urban working-class culture. As the Rev. CanonCanon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
Arboleya y Martínez put it in his famous analysis in 1933, the dimensions of the problem were those of "mass apostasy
Apostasy
Apostasy , 'a defection or revolt', from ἀπό, apo, 'away, apart', στάσις, stasis, 'stand, 'standing') is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy is known as an apostate. These terms have a pejorative implication in everyday...
, especially among the urban working classes."
Devout Catholics
Lapsed Catholic
A lapsed Catholic is a person who has ceased practicing the Catholic faith, in the sense of attending Mass. Such a person may still identify as a Catholic.-"Lapsed Catholic" and "ex-Catholic":...
participated in an enormous number of religious rites separate from the minimal obligations of orthodoxy; processions and devotions connected with statues and shrines, for example. In some public religious rituals, the question of whether the ritual was primarily religious or political became an issue. The Jesuit campaign to spread the cult
Cult (religious practice)
In traditional usage, the cult of a religion, quite apart from its sacred writings , its theology or myths, or the personal faith of its believers, is the totality of external religious practice and observance, the neglect of which is the definition of impiety. Cult in this primary sense is...
of the Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart
The Sacred Heart is one of the most famous religious devotions to Jesus' physical heart as the representation of His divine love for Humanity....
was "inextricably linked in the early 20th century with the integrist values of the extreme Right of the Catholic political spectrum." Its publication, Messenger of the Sacred Heart, was anti-liberal
Anti-liberal
Anti-liberal philosophies:*Authoritarianism*Communism*Fascism*Revolutionary Socialism*Conservatism*Traditionalist School...
, anti-Semitic,and campaigned for the enthronement of the Sacred Heart in offices, schools, banks, town halls, and city streets. Statues were erected in hundreds of towns and villages. Seen as symbols of Catholic conservative intolerance the statues were 'executed' by some anarchists and socialists in the early months of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.
The municipal elections of 1931 that triggered the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
and the Spanish Constitution of 1931
Spanish Constitution of 1931
The Spanish Constitution of 1931 meant the beginning of the Second Spanish Republic, the second period of Spanish history to date in which the election of both the positions of Head of State and Head of government were democratic. It was effective from 1931 until 1939...
"brought to power an anticlerical government" and began 'the most dramatic phase in the contemporary history of both Spain and the Catholic Church.' The dispute over the role of the church and Catholics' rights were one of the major issues which worked against the securing of a broad democratic majority and "left the body politic divided almost from the start." Prime Minister Manuel Azaña
Manuel Azaña
Manuel Azaña Díaz was a Spanish politician. He was the first Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic , and later served again as Prime Minister , and then as the second and last President of the Republic . The Spanish Civil War broke out while he was President...
asserted that the Catholic Church was responsible in part for what many perceived as Spain's backwardness and advocated the elimination of special privileges for the Church. The writer Frances Lannon
Frances Lannon
Dr Frances Lannon, FRHS is a British academic and educator. She is Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.She was educated at Lady Margaret Hall and at St Antony's College...
asserts that "Catholic identity has usually been virtually synonymous with conservative politics in some form or other, ranged from extreme authoritarianism through gentler oligarchic tendencies to democratic reformism." The Republic's electoral policy had stated: "[We] will not persecute any religion" which was accepted by many Catholics and formally by the Catholic Church hierarchy hoping for continued special rights and privileges from the Concordat of 1851
Concordat of 1851
The Concordat of 1851 was an concordat between the Spanish government of Queen Isabella II and the Vatican. Although the concordat was signed on March 16, 1851, its terms were not implemented until 1855. The concordat remained in effect until it was repudiated by the Second Spanish Republic in 1931...
.
The Republic instituted a reformist program, including agrarian reform
Agrarian reform
Agrarian reform can refer either, narrowly, to government-initiated or government-backed redistribution of agricultural land or, broadly, to an overall redirection of the agrarian system of the country, which often includes land reform measures. Agrarian reform can include credit measures,...
, right to divorce, voting rights for women
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
, reform of the Army, and autonomy for Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
and the Basque country
Basque Country (autonomous community)
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....
. It also established free, obligatory, secular education for all and "separation of the church and state
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
". Article 26 of the 1931 Republican constitution, and subsequent legislation, halted state funding for the Catholic Church, banned clerics from all teaching in schools, banished the crucifix
Crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
from schools, appropriated the properties of the Catholic Church and banned public manifestations of religions, such as processions and religious statues. These strictures helped to alienate a large mass of the Catholic population. The Carlist militias, long confined to their Navarrese heartlands, were training in the mountains as early as 1931." The Right’s defeat in 1931 left some prepared to give the new regime a chance, "but many more ... accepted the rules of the democratic game only as a means to destroy the former republic." Official or organized opposition did not exist at the beginning.
Freedom of religion
Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any...
and separation of church and state
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
, archconservative Cardinal (and Primate of Spain) Pedro Segura y Sáenz
Pedro Segura y Sáenz
Pedro Segura y Sáenz was a Spanish Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Toledo from 1927 to 1931, and Archbishop of Seville from 1937 until his death...
of the Archdiocese of Toledo
Archdiocese of Toledo
This is a list of Bishops and Archbishops of Toledo . They are also the Primates of Spain. It was, according to tradition established in the 1st century by St. James the Great and was elevated to an archdiocese in 313 after the Edict of Milan. The incumbent Archbishop also bears the title Primate...
published a pastoral letter
Pastoral letter
A Pastoral letter, often called simply a pastoral, is an open letter addressed by a bishop to the clergy or laity of his diocese, or to both, containing either general admonition, instruction or consolation, or directions for behaviour in particular circumstances...
against the "religion-destroying administration" and defending the former King. The "most integrist of all prelates," he was opposed to religious toleration
Religious toleration
Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow”. It has also been defined as "to bear or endure" or "to nourish, sustain or preserve"...
, especially towards Protestants
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
, and condemned the belief "that all religions are equally acceptable in the presence of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
". He likewise opposed giving the vote to the 5,000,000 women in Spain over the age of 21. The Catholic press followed his lead with "the monarchist daily, ABC, aligning with the most traditionalist positions." This in turn sparked political uprisings, attacks against both sides, general strikes, and further fracturing and morphing of political movements across the spectrum in Spain, including a revived anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
movement and new reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
and fascist groups, including the Falange
Falange
The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....
and a revived Carlist
Carlism
Carlism is a traditionalist and legitimist political movement in Spain seeking the establishment of a separate line of the Bourbon family on the Spanish throne. This line descended from Infante Carlos, Count of Molina , and was founded due to dispute over the succession laws and widespread...
movement.
Segura was forced into exile by the Republic in response to this document, and soon resigned his office. After his return to Spain in 1937, Segura was appointed Archbishop of Seville. While in that office, he described the Spanish Inquisition
Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
(1480 - 1820) as "meritorious", and prohibited Sevillian Catholics from attending movies
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
s.
The Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
(1936–1939) began after a military coup
Pronunciamiento
A pronunciamiento is a form of military rebellion or coup d'état peculiar to Spain and the Spanish American republics, particularly in the 19th century...
, led by a group of conservative generals under the authority of Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
, and supported by Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, Fascist Italy
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
, the conservative Confederation of the Autonomous Right
Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right
The Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right was a Spanish political party in the Second Spanish Republic. A Catholic conservative force, it was the political heir to Angel Herrera Oria's Acción Popular and defined itself in terms of the 'affirmation and defence of the principles of Christian...
, monarchists known as Carlist groups and the Fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
Falange
Falange
The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....
went against the elected Republic. The initial coup was only partially successful, so General Franco began a protracted and ultimately victorious war of attrition
Attrition warfare
Attrition warfare is a military strategy in which a belligerent side attempts to win a war by wearing down its enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and matériel....
, replacing the Republic with a conservative dictatorship
Spanish State
Francoist Spain refers to a period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975 when Spain was under the authoritarian dictatorship of Francisco Franco....
led by him and fusing all right-wing parties into his structure. Some features of the war later played a significant part in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
(1942) including tank warfare tactics
Armoured warfare
Armoured warfare or tank warfare is the use of armoured fighting vehicles in modern warfare. It is a major component of modern methods of war....
and the terror-bombing
Strategic bombing
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating an enemy nation-state by destroying its economic ability and public will to wage war rather than destroying its land or naval forces...
of cities from the air. The war was dubbed "the first media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
war," with several writers and journalists wanting their work "to support the cause"; foreign correspondent
Foreign correspondent
Foreign Correspondent may refer to:*Foreign correspondent *Foreign Correspondent , an Alfred Hitchcock film*Foreign Correspondent , an Australian current affairs programme...
s and writers covering it, as well as most international observers, supported the Republic, with some, such as George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
, participating directly in the fighting.