For the most part , the Catholic Church has always highlighted its role as a victim in the 1936-39 war . The most famous happening of the joint assembly of bishops and priests in September 1971 however , saw the passage by a majority , but not the requisite two-thirds majority for formal acceptance , of the statement that ; " We humbly recognise and ask pardon that we did not know how , when it was necessary , to be true '' ministers of reconciliation '' in the midst of our people torn by a fratricidal war . " In November 2007 , Bishop Ricardo Blázquez , head of Spain ’s Episcopal Conference , said that the Church must also seek forgiveness for “ concrete acts ” during the strife-torn period . “ On many occasions we have reasons to thank God for what was done and for the people who acted , but probably in other moments . . . we should ask for forgiveness and change direction , ” In 2009 the bishops of Guipuzcoa , Alava and Vizcaya issued a public apology for the " unjustified silence of our official Church media " regarding indiscriminate killings and executions of the Francoist regime . However , despite repeated papal visits to Spain in recent years so far no apology from the Vatican has been forthcoming . Vatican authorities are evading the question of the historical complicity with a dictatorship that came to power after a bloody Civil War , supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy , as well as with the atrocities of the White Terror phase . While the Vatican has recently beatified religious victims of the Red Terror , it has denied beatification to the many Spanish republican religious victims of the White Terror . Thus , by still taking sides , it has not initiated so far a process of reconciliation in Spain
White Terror
White Terror (Spain)
Catholicism in the Second Spanish Republic