We know what the continental Spaniards did with their clergy during the Civil War.
Which Spaniards?
The Republic or the Nationalists?
The first lot, those allied with the USSR (note: the evil empire) massacred them. The other lot saved them, and they helped run Nationalist Spain (look up Opus Dei).
(Or the Basques, often forgotten.)
In any case, there is that evil empire thing to deal with.
Your Patriarch was a collaborator with the closest thing ever to approach Orwells “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.”
Every collaborator with that evil should have been shot decades ago.