DEBATE, EL. — Spanish Catholic daily newspaper, founded in 1910 in Madrid by a fervent convert, Sebastiano de Luque, it initially led a rather difficult existence for lack of support, with a circulation of barely 4,500 copies. The following year it was acquired by the National Association of Young Propagandists, a genuine Catholic Action movement, which had been established in 1908 to combat a senseless anticlerical campaign, but owing to financial difficulties was at first unable to achieve its intended purpose.
Toward the end of 1912, D. Angelo Herrera, a capable organizer and master of Spanish Catholic journalism, joined its management. Until February 1933, when he was called by the ecclesiastical hierarchy to direct Catholic Action, he devoted all his fervent and intelligent activity to the daily, succeeding in making it one of the finest and best-edited newspapers. To achieve this result, he created an independent Catholic society that would itself safeguard editorial independence, and he ensured the newspaper’s Catholic character by inserting into its statutes a clause granting the Spanish metropolitan archbishops and the bishop of Madrid the authority to intervene, when necessary, not only by replacing the editor and any member of the editorial staff, but even by suspending the daily for a period of two months. Thus protected against every possible deviation, D. lived in the spirit of Catholic Action and worked in the political field to bring Catholics to exercise a positive influence on government, in accordance with Spain’s great religious traditions.
The newspaper’s circulation, under Herrera’s direction, continually increased until it reached 200,000 copies daily. Its contributors included the finest figures in the country’s intellectual life, among whom may be mentioned in particular Calvo Sotelo, who died tragically in 1936, and Gil Robles, both of whom were editors of D. until they entered political life. Since 1936, D. has ceased publication.