Pleasant Words for Franco

Spain's Nazi-loving Dictator Francisco Franco took a tighter grip on his war-scarred country last week. Before El Caudillo in Madrid's El Prado Palace stood four Roman Catholic prelates, the Bishops of Barcelona, Ciudad Real, Jaen and Salamanca. They were there to do what none of their predecessors had done since medieval days: take an oath of fealty to the head of the Spanish State.

To the dictator's ears came the pleasant words of the oath: "Before God and the Holy Gospel, I swear and promise, as bents a Bishop, fidelity to the Spanish State.

"I swear and promise to respect and make my clergy respect the chief of the Spanish State and the government established according to Spanish laws.

"I swear and promise moreover not to take part in any agreement nor to take part in any meeting which may prejudice the Spanish State and public order, and I will make my clergy observe similar conduct.

"Occupying myself with the welfare and interest of the Spanish State, I will endeavor to avoid all evil which may threaten it."

This oath, as well as Franco's right to nominate new Bishops, is part of the accord which Franco made with the Vati can in 1941. The four bishops, the first nominated under the agreement, are also the first to swear the oath.

At first glance, such an oath--practically making each Bishop a local Franco agent--would seem superfluous in Catholic Spain. But people in the Basque and Catalan provinces (hotbeds of Loyalism during the Civil War) still dislike El Caudillo, show it openly now & then. To whip these malcontents into line, Franco has adopted the age-old custom of giving the Church a role to play in his political drama.

Having lined up the Bishops, who in their oaths promise to line up the lesser clergy, he has cleared the way for lining up the people. On the surface the idea looks politically solid. But poverty, hunger and thousands of Loyalists rotting in Franco's prisons may prove it flimsier than it appears, may also be a strain on Bishops' oaths.

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