From 1959 to 1961, the first three "Conversations of Intellectuals in Poblet” took place. These were organized by the "Catalonia and Balearics Section of the Menéndez Pelayo Association", which borrowed its name from a XIXth century Spanish writer who became a symbol of Francoist ideology and erudition. Those “Conversations” brought together religious figures and renowned scientists in the Santa Maria de Poblet Monastery, in Catalonia (Spain), with the "intention of achieving a Catholic body of doctrine and thought about science issues which presented problems of compatibility with Catholic dogma", as they were presented in the press at the time. The very first one, in 1959, was devoted to the origin of life and the possibility of biological synthesis in the laboratory. The second one, in 1960, addressed the issue of evolution. And the third one, in 1961, dealt with the origin of man.
At a time when the media offered very little coverage of the topics addressed in these conversations, because of Franco’s regime strong control policy on the public sphere about dogma-threatening ideas, the most important personalities in religion and science created a closed space for religious-scientific debate. Who were these characters? How were such issues treated? Did they achieve any kind of consensus? To what extent science and religion modelled each other? The analysis of different kinds of sources (internal documents, specialised journals and general press) reveals three levels of communication. Although debate about those topics did not have room in the general press, the success of these meetings was reported by some of the most read newspapers in the country where the initiative was presented as new and crucial. Was it only a propagandistic success?