Popular Catholic education in Spain: From charity and assistance to social commitment (1953-1967)

Popular Catholic education is associated with Catholic propaganda as a neutralizer of the secular school, as a model of socialization and moralization of the popular classes within the framework of the Catholic movement. The first Franco regime gave the Church control over education. The Catholic school of the 1950s and 1960s appears associated with the middle classes, and holds a notable presence in free primary school. Beginning in 1945, different sectors of Catholicism chose to intensify their social immersion and popular education grew under that commitment. Education will be a fundamental piece in an increasingly social and effective pastoral model. The popular educational practices of Catholicism pass from charity and welfare to the terrain of social commitment, with the aim of reaching the weakest and most distant. These practices have a social face that is reflected in new commitments in specialized education, leisure, emancipation of women and adult education.