Franco's ghosts Church says 'tepid' sorry for decades of abuse of women

As the members of the Catholic organisation wrapped up their speech with an appeal for forgiveness, the auditorium in Madrid exploded in rage.

- Ashifa Kassam

For decades, many in the audience had grappled with the scars left by their time in Catholic-run institutions; now they were on their feet chanting: "Truth, justice and reparations" and – laying bare their rejection of any apology – "Neither forget, nor forgive".

It was an unprecedented moment in Spain, hinting at the deep pain that lingers over one of the longest-running and least-known institutions of Francisco Franco's dictatorship: the Catholic-run centres that incarcerated thousands of women and girls as young as eight, subjecting them to barbaric punishments, forced labour and religious indoctrination.

The centres operated under the direction of the Women's Protection Board, a state-run institution revived in 1941 and helmed by Franco's wife, Carmen Polo. They aimed to rehabilitate "fallen women" as well as others deemed to be at risk of deviating from the narrow path marked out for women during the dictatorship.

Survivors, however, describe a reality that was far more brutal. Consuelo García del Cid, who was drugged by a doctor at her home in Barcelona and taken to a centre in Madrid at the age of 16, said: "It was the greatest atrocity Spain has committed against women."

In her case, her family had branded her rebellious after she attended rallies against the dictatorship. "In Franco's Spain, a fallen woman could be anyone," she said. "If you were poor, an orphan, if your family faced hardship, if you were a bad student or wore a miniskirt or kissed your boyfriend in a cinema or danced too close – anything was enough."