Calls for Catalan secession have contributed to instability in the countrySpanish society is again fracturing into the divisions that marked some of the worst periods of its history, the country’s Roman Catholic bishops have warned. “Confrontations are growing and it seems as if we are seeing an artificial resurgence of ‘the two Spains’,” the association of bishops said in a 95-page document setting out the challenges facing the Spanish church and its strategy for the next four years. SponsoredThe document does not mention the 1936-39 civil war but the phrase “the two Spains” is often used to invoke the conflict in which the right-wing forces of Franco seized power from the left-wing troops defending the elected Republican government. The phrase originated with the poet Antonio Machado, who wrote in 1912: “May God take mercy on

Source: The Times August 03, 2021 14:46 UTC