Women who survived Spain's Franco-era centres disrupt Catholic apology

By Emma Pinedo and Silvio Castellanos

MADRID (Reuters) -Spanish women who were forced into rehabilitation centres during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco broke up a Catholic meeting held to offer them a apology and demanded more concrete reparation from the church and state.

Protesters - including survivors in their 60s and 70s, activists and relatives - held up banners marked "No" during the event on Monday night, threw the signs into the audience and forced organisers to suspend the meeting.

Thousands of girls and young women who were accused of perceived moral failings - from pregnancies outside marriage to left-wing activism - were put into state-run Catholic rehabilitation institutions for periods during Franco's rule, from the 1940s up to a decade after his death into the 1980s.

A Catholic body that includes most of the communities of nuns that helped operate some of the centres held a ceremony to ask the women for forgiveness in the Pablo VI Foundation auditorium in Madrid, the first event of its kind in Spain.

The President of the Spanish Confederation of Religious Entities (CONFER) read out an apology then invited survivors to come to the stage as a video of them describing their experiences was shown.

After the film, which was often drowned out by cheers and cries of "Yes, we can", people in the crowd jumped to their feet and started shouting "truth, justice and reparation," and "neither forget nor forgive".

CONFER officials turned on the lights, abruptly ended the event and later said they may issue a statement in response on Tuesday.

The confrontation underlined the depth of feeling over the Patronato de Proteccion a la Mujer (Board for the Protection of Women) institutes - part of the legacy of Franco's rule that is still haunting Spain almost 50 years after his death in November 1975.

'ACT OF JUSTICE'

Campaigners, including individual survivors and organisations such as the Banished Daughters of Eve, are demanding a response from the state, along the lines of Ireland’s 2013 apology and reparations for the abuses in its Magdalene Laundries.

Some are also asking for financial compensation to cover costs, including psychological support, and the work that they say they were made to do without pay in the centres.

At the event, before it was disrupted, CONFER chairman Jesus Diaz Sariego described the statement as one step towards a broader process of recognition and that the organisation would collaborate in the search for the truth.

"We are here to do what we consider necessary and right: to ask for forgiveness ... because this act is not just a formality, but a necessary act of justice. It is an exercise in historical and moral responsibility," he said.

After the event, Consuelo Garcia del Cid, 66, a survivor, dismissed that apology as a "facelift" and accused CONFER of removing some of the recorded testimonies and stopping women talking about babies that campaigners say were taken from unwed mothers at the centres.

Garcia del Cid, who championed the cause with several books and founded Banished Daughters of Eve, had earlier told the audience the Spanish government owed them, particularly for the 10 years the boards were kept running after Franco.

Spain's Democratic Memory Ministry - set up to tackle the legacy of Spain's civil war and Franco's regime - said last week it applauded CONFER's action and planned to hold its own ceremony later this year.

It declined to comment further on Monday. Equality minister Ana Redondo attended the event but did not make any comment.

(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, editing by Inti Landauro cand Andrew Heavens)