ABSTRACT
The Catholic Church played a key role in the so-called third wave of democratization that started in April 1974 with the Portuguese “Carnations Revolution.” In the Spanish case, the politics of consensus that allowed for the successful pact-making model of the transition to democracy was clearly and strongly favored by the Church’s attitude (Brasslof 1998; Callahan 2000). It was then that, for the fi rst time, the ecclesiastical authorities endorsed the people to embrace a fully democratic regime. However, forty-three years earlier it had only taken one month for popular violent anticlericalism to reemerge in Spanish politics after the proclamation of the Second Republic. In May 1931 eleven religious houses were set alight by unruly mobs in Madrid. The attacks were sparked by the opening of an Independent Monarchist Circle in the city center that was perceived as nothing less than “sheer provocation” by radicalized Madrilenians who for this act decided to punish the clergy. The reasons behind the attacks were the traditional monarchical leanings of the Church and, more precisely, for its close links with the overthrown dictatorship (Pérez Ledesma 2001, 247). What happened between 1931 and 1978? How and why were the ecclesiastical authorities perceived in such a different way? Why did they change their political allegiance towards modernity and democratization to such an extent?
