The anti-Jesuit campaign was fierce after the implementation of the Republic. The construction stopped in 1910 with the expulsion of the Jesuits, in the year of the proclamation of the Portuguese Republic. Most of the population, including the wealthy conservative families, and the traditionalist and also conservative fishermen supported the clergy, even after the April 20th 1911 Law that separated the State and the Church and caused the nationalization of the Church's wealth.