Word: garrisoned
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This is the wry conclusion of Winfred Ernest Garrison, Spanish-speaking literary editor of the Christian Century, who went to Spain last August for the undenominational Protestant weekly. In last week's issue, Dr. Garrison concluded a series of four articles on his findings...
Side Streets Only. How many Protestants are there in Spain? According to Editor Garrison, they are "no negligible minority." Official Spanish sources have asserted that among Spain's 28 million people there are no more than 2,000, but Garrison puts the figure "probably not much below 20,000 . . . about the same fraction of the total population that the Quakers have in the United States." One source of uncertainty about the total, he says, is the Roman Catholic custom of counting anybody who has been baptized a Catholic, even though he may have since joined a Protestant church. This...
Spanish Protestants do enjoy some liberties, e.g., they may organize churches, preach in them as they please, train their ministers and print literature for circulation among themselves. However, reports Dr. Garrison, "they cannot lawfully do anything that would be regarded as the public practice of their religion...
Protestant churches may not bear any external symbols to show that they are churches at all. They are not found on the main thoroughfares, but stick to narrow side streets. (However, "many narrow side streets in Spanish cities are very nice streets," writes Garrison. "Moreover, the narrower the streets, the more dense the population.") No public signs or announcements of services may be made, no church literature may be generally circulated, no new churches may be opened without special permission, and no Protestant schools for children are allowed. "For Protestant children the only choice is between Catholic schools and public...
...Sowers of Evil." Occasionally even these meager rights have been violated by mob action. Six weeks after one such episode, reports Garrison, "the periodical El Iris de Paz ('the Rainbow of Peace'!), by its own description 'a fortnightly magazine of information and guidance, Marian and Catholic'-answered a real or imaginary inquirer who asked: 'Is it lawful to enter into chapels or meeting places of Protestants . . . with the sole idea of disturbing and of destroying the furniture and other articles?' The answer was in three parts: 1) as to 'disturbing...