El clero navarro ante el euskera en los años de entreguerras

Abstract

An historical approximation to the attitude of the Navarrese clergy to the Basque language in the troublesome Twenties and Thirties of the XX century. The information forwarded, mainly taken from ecclesiastic sources and a few studies performed during the period under study, aims to clarify the role played by the Catholic Church in the loss of the Basque language in a significant part of Navarrese territory. Rhetoric favouring Basque as a barrier to modernisation and the abandonment of the language in the pastoral work performed in many localities in which Castilian was taking an ever-increasing hold, in turn denounced by some sectors of the clergy, converged in this attitude. It is, therefore, a complex question, the clarification of which is of the utmost importance when it comes to fully understanding the enormous social influence of the Navarrese clergy.