Harrowing documentary uncovers the cruelties of Franco’s paedophile priests

By
Barry Duke
– August 25, 2009Posted in: Catholic Church, Religious child abuse, The Freethinker

A MUST-SEE documentary on BBC2 at 10.30 tonight uncovers the story of how some 30,000 Spanish children were forcibly removed from their parents and given to childless pro-Franco couples – or put into Catholic Church-run institutions where they were brainwashed and cruelly abused.

Sue Lloyd Roberts’ film features Uxenu Ablana who lives in Pravia, northern Spain. He says his life came to an end in 1936 when, at five years old, he was taken from his parents.

Uxenu Ablana

Uxenu Ablana

His father had been a government driver and was imprisoned. When his mother died, Uxenu spent 12 years in four different orphanages run by the Church and by the dictatorship.

In the film Uxenu revisits his first orphanage where he was called “son of a red” by the priests, whom he says had a fanatical hatred of anything left wing. He tells about

The priest who, when we were sitting at the table, either eating or writing, had a cane and he would whip us on the neck if we used our left hand. On two occasions as he leant over, a gun fell out of his robes and fell to the floor and we realised that he had a weapon he could kill with.

He was interned with his three brothers, all of whom died of tuberculosis.

The priest in charge, he says, used to abuse them sexually:

The priests collaborated completely with the Falangists who had overthrown the government. They were paedophiles and they converted me to atheism – they were bad and I refused to believe a word they said.

Uxenu says that at the Auxilio Social orphanage he would endure serious punishments and go for up to 15 days without a meal at night.

I complained, I cried, but there was no-one who cared. I never received any affection.

But Dr Felix Morales, Vice-President of the Francisco Franco Foundation, insists people like Uxenu are lying:

These people can say what they like, but it is not true. I don’t know anything about these stories about what the priests and nuns did or any such nonsense.

Morales claims he has testimonies from children looked after by the Auxilio Social who went on to do well in life. And he claims that Franco’s effect on Spain was positive:

In 1936, when the war began, Spain was a poor country. I am old and I remember. It was a backward country. Franco left a different country – the eighth most industrialised in the world with a proud middle class.

Earlier this year, Morales said the his foundation intended mounting a legal bid to have a statue of the fascist dictator Franco restored in Madrid. It had been removed in 2005.



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