el águila y La sotana: Iglesia durante primer franquismo (1936 1945): 108

The Church as a fundamental pillar of Francoism. When Franco presented the Spanish Civil War as a crusade for faith and fatherland, the Catholic Church embraced his narrative with few reservations. From that moment on, religion and power walked hand in hand. In 1939, Pope Pius XII celebrated the "victory of Catholic Spain," sealing an alliance that consolidated the power of the Francoist regime. From then on, the Church did not merely legitimise the new State: it became one of its fundamental pillars. In The Eagle and the Cassock, Julián Chaves reveals how the ecclesiastical hierarchy actively participated in the construction of early Francoism, exerting decisive influence over education, censorship, public morality, and the mechanisms of social control that shaped the post-war years and gave rise to Francoist National Catholicism. The result of rigorous research based on previously unpublished archival sources, this book traces the crucial years from the end of the Civil War to 1945, showing how the alliance between Church and regime moulded Francoist ideology and shaped the daily lives of millions of Spaniards. The Eagle and the Cassock is an essential work for understanding how Francoism was forged and the central role the Church played in its origins.