Survivors of Catholic moral rehabilitation institutes in Spain, where thousands of women and girls endured harsh treatment during Francisco Franco's dictatorship and beyond, are seeking recognition and a national apology for their suffering as the country marks the 50th anniversary of the dictator's death.

Madrid

Survivors of Spain's Catholic rehabilitation centers, which operated from 1941 to 1985, are calling for recognition and a national apology for the abuse and psychological trauma they endured. These state-run institutions, established under Franco's regime, housed thousands of girls and women accused of deviating from strict Catholic morals, often subjecting them to forced labor, religious indoctrination, and psychological abuse.

A recent ceremony by the Spanish Confederation of Religious Entities marked the first formal request for forgiveness from the Catholic community involved in these centers. While Spain's Democratic Memory Ministry welcomed this gesture, many survivors, including Consuelo Garcia del Cid, say that true healing and acceptance of forgiveness remain elusive due to the lasting impact of their experiences.

Survivors of Spain's Catholic rehabilitation centers seek recognition

It was a completely sinister place with extreme religious indoctrination. It was worse than a prison. It was horrible. It was horrible. It's 1974 in Spain. Consuelo Garcia del Cid was 16, and her family were worried about her rebelliousness after she joined demonstrations against Francisco Franco's dictatorship. Little did she know, the teenager was about to be sent to one of the country's Catholic Rehabilitation Centers. I was sleeping. It was very early, and suddenly my mother and the family doctor came into my room. He was the one who had given us vaccines since childhood. They grabbed my left arm, and I felt a needle in my vein, and that's it. I don't remember anything else. Then I wake up in a room I don't recognize at all. My tongue felt like sandpaper, and my head hurt a lot. These state-run institutions housed thousands of girls and women up to 25 years old, accused of deviating from strict Catholic moral standards. Many were sent there after being reported by priests, neighbors, or family members. The centers were set up by Franco's Justice Ministry in 1941, and overseen by the Board for the Protection of Women. They were active until 1985, 10 years after the dictator's death. The aim was to rehabilitate them, these women say, through forced work and teachings. Life was reduced to working, scrubbing, and praying. My main goal was killing myself. And self-harm was also common, cutting veins, everything. In fact, I self-harmed. I was crying so much that my body was asking for physical pain to cover the psychological pain for a few days. This terrace is where Garcia del Cid says she tried to kill herself. As the country marks the 50th anniversary of Franco's death on Thursday, survivors of these centers are now seeking recognition and a national apology for their suffering. Out of the blue came the humming of General Franco's bombers. Franco rose to power through a military coup in July of 1936, which unleashed a three-year civil war. Madrid, the heroic capital of the Spain of yesterday, has surrendered to the forces of General Franco. His rule brought censorship, repression of minorities, and totalitarian indoctrination. His wife, Carmen Polo, chaired the board, which oversaw the Catholic centers. Pilar Iglesias is a historian. There is a construction, a vision of women in Francoism that is not original to Francoism either. You have to go a while back. Practically, we have to go back to the Greek world, from where a very misogynistic vision of women's body was constructed, always as inferior beings, as weak beings, bringing evil into the world. Explorers hope their stories will shed light on this often-overlooked chapter of Spain's past. María J. López was placed in a center from 1965 to 1970. The board for the protection of women was the bureaucratization of the moral death of women and was the most serious thing that has happened in this country against women. López described the psychological toll of those years. You tell a girl of that age that she is worth nothing. You tell her she is abnormal, that she's an idiot, clumsy, bad. You tell her that the highest value is the homeland, to serve the homeland and God. And you teach her what sin is, which is almost everything. And when that girl reaches adolescence, her mind is absolutely shattered. The Spanish Confederation of Religious Entities is a Catholic body that includes most of the communities of nuns that helped operate some of the centers. Earlier this year, it held a ceremony to formally ask the women for forgiveness, the first event of its kind in Spain. Jesús Díaz-Sariego is the president of CONFER. On the one hand, it helps the survivors in order to live that moment of healing and liberation. And on the other hand, it helps us as congregations also to improve our way of dealing with these realities. We would not want this to exist in the present or in the future. The Spanish Conference of Bishops referred Reuters' questions to CONFER, saying the Confederation was an independent body. The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Spain's Democratic Memory Ministry, set up to tackle the legacy of Franco's regime, said it applauded CONFER's decision to ask for forgiveness. But many women say they still feel ashamed of what they endured. García del Cid attended the CONFER event. She says it's a step towards being recognized as victims of Franco's regime. But for her, accepting forgiveness will not come easily, and is not guaranteed. I will be buried with this. It was the greatest atrocity Spain has committed against women.

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