Seminarista brillante, medalla de ouro en dereito canónico pola Universidade Gregoriana na Roma do Concilio, capelán obreiro na Galicia do desenvolvemento industrial, promotor inicial do Concilio Pastoral de Galicia e presidente da Asemblea Rexional do clero galego. A singular travesía de Xosé Ramón Barreiro Fernández no seo dunha Igrexa galega liderada entón polo cardeal Quiroga Palacios permite interpretar mellor non só a súa vida e obra, senón tamén a da historia de Galicia entre os anos 50 e 70 do pasado século.

The transatlantic religious networks promoted by Americans after World War I not only delivered human and financial resources but they also brought about significant changes in religious and political thought and practice in Europe. The experiences, networks and narratives created through two world wars equipped Europe with an ideological arsenal, which it marshalled against the Soviet threat during the cultural Cold War and which provided the European integration process with resources and legitimacy. The invocation of ‘spirit’ proved an extremely effective way of legitimizing the European project: it identified materialism as the seed of destruction of civilization; it promoted an interfaith narrative that was acceptable to different churches and religious sensibilities; and it represented human rights as the historical legacy of Christianity. Salvador de Madariaga's life reflects the evolution of the role of religion in the twentieth century, especially with regard to non-denominational Christianity. He was a committed missionary of ecumenist global civic conscience and a crusader for freedom of conscience against totalitarian interference. His defence of liberalism and his repeated calls for a cultural construction of Europe were rooted in his conviction of the intrinsically spiritual nature of all human beings, his identification with the legacy of Christianity and his desire to guarantee universal freedom of spirit. This article analyses documents from Madariaga's personal archive and other archives in Europe and America in order to chronicle his spiritual journey and to understand his crusade to create a ‘Europe of the spirit’.

After Spain lost its overseas territories, Spanish priests increased their presence in Africa. From an analysis of the bibliography and the press of the time as well as of the different documents issued by the nunciature of Madrid, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith and the Secretariat of State of the Vatican, it is possible to draw some significant conclusions about the evolution of Spanish missions in the Protectorate of Morocco and Spanish Guinea in the four decades which separate the so-called Disaster and the propagandistic myth of the Crusade represented by Francoists – and Africanists – during the Civil War.

After Spain lost its overseas territories, Spanish priests increased their presence in Africa. From an analysis of the bibliography and the press of the time as well as of the different documents issued by the nunciature of Madrid, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, and the Secretariat of State of the Vatican, it is possible to draw some significant conclusions about the evolution of Spanish missions in the Protectorate of Morocco and Spanish Guinea in the four decades that separate the so-called Disaster and the propagandistic myth of the Crusade represented by Francoists – and Africanists – during the civil war.