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National Catholicism (Spanish: Nacionalcatolicismo) was part of the ideological identity of Francoism, the dictatorial regime with which Francisco Franco governed Spain between 1936 and 1975. Its most visible manifestation was the hegemony that the Catholic Church had in all aspects of public and private life. As a symbol of the ideological divisions within Francoism, it can be compared to National syndicalism (nacionalsindicalismo), an essential component of the ideology and political practice of the Falangists.
History
In the 1920s France, Édouard Castelnau's Fédération nationale catholique advanced a similar model. Although it reached one million members in 1925, it was of short-lived significance, subsiding into obscurity by 1930.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Ante Pavelić's Croatian Ustaše movement espoused a similar ideology, although it has been called other names, including "political Catholicism" and "Catholic Croatism". Other countries in central and eastern Europe where similar movements of Franquist inspiration combined Catholicism with nationalism include: Austria, Poland, Lithuania and Slovakia.