Catechismi patriottici e devozionari militari. Il nazionalcattolicesimo spagnolo tra sacralizzazione della politica e politicizzazione della religione

It is widely believed that, by proposing an ultimate foundation to political power of otherworldly nature, Catholicism could protect the society from a possible totalitarian slip. It is also known that some Catholics have been very sensitive in perceiving the danger of the new political ideologies which arose in the first half of the XX century and their religious dimension. However, it is also true that part of the Church reacted to the formation of such a new forms of religion through adapting the contents of Catholic faith and thus contributing to the rise of ultra-radical movements. In this paper the author will study the transformations of Catholic religion in the age of sacralization of politics, analyzing the military prayer books written by Spanish priest in the first quarter of the XX century alongside the patriotic catechism developed by Spanish military. In the reminder of this paper two processes will be considered: the feedback between the politicization of religion and the sacralization of politics and the construction and diffusion of nazionalcatholicism.