DEBATE, EL. - Spanish Catholic daily newspaper, founded in 1910 in Madrid by a fervent convert, Sebastiano de Luque; at first, for lack of support, it had a rather struggling existence with a circulation of barely 4,500 copies. It was purchased the following year by the National Association of Young Propagandists, a true Catholic Action movement, which had been formed in 1908 to combat a senseless anticlerical campaign, but owing to financial difficulties it could not at first achieve its intended purpose.
Toward the end of 1912, Don Angelo Herrera, a capable organizer and master of Spanish Catholic journalism, joined the paper's editorial direction. Until February 1933, when he was called by the ecclesiastical hierarchy to the direction of Catholic Action, he devoted all his fervent and intelligent activity to the daily, succeeding in making it one of the best and best-edited newspapers. To achieve this result he created an independent Catholic company that would in turn safeguard editorial independence, and he wished the newspaper to be assured of a guarantee of Catholicity, inserting in the statute a clause that grants to the Spanish metropolitan archbishops and to the bishop of Madrid the faculty to intervene, when necessary, not only by changing the director and any editor, but even by suspending the daily for a period of two months. Having thus secured himself against any possible deviation, the D. lived in the spirit of Catholic Action, and worked in the political field to bring Catholics to a positive involvement in government, in accordance with the great religious traditions of Spain.
The newspaper's circulation, under Herrera's direction, kept increasing continuously until it reached 200,000 copies daily. The best elements of the national culture collaborated on it, among whom one may recall in particular Calvo Sotelo, who died tragically in 1936, and Gil Robles, who were editors of the D. until the day they entered political life. Since 1936 the D. has ceased publication.