Adults’ Schools and Mobile Libraries (1913): the reaction of the Spanish ecclesiastical hierarchy. Files from the Apostolic Vatican Archives

Authors

  • Pere Fullana Puigserver Universitat de les Illes Balears. GEDHE-IRIE

Keywords:

education, Catholicism, adults’ schools, mobile libraries, Spain.

Abstract

The management of Rafael Altamira as Director-General of Primary Education in the Ministry of Public Education (1911-1913) generated the publication of a series of decrees related to the implementation of teacher training, schools for adults and the running of mobile libraries. The policies introduced by Altamira will be considered by the integrationist and conservative sectors as a paradigm of a model of public and secular education. The reaction of the religious press (El Siglo Futuro and El Debate, above all) and the hostile attitude of the Catholic hierarchy against this liberal educational model prompted the intercession of the papal nuncio Francesco Ragonesi. On this occasion, I present a small information file, compiled in 1913, from the Nunciature Archives in Madrid, kept in the Vatican Apostolic Archives. Through these documents the mechanism of control of the Church in the field of public education can be clearly seen.

Key words: education, Catholicism, adults’ schools, mobile libraries, Spain.

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Issue

No. 36 (2020): juliol-desembre

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