The Cristeros - Catholic Soldiers of Christ

Admin
Senior Member

Posts: 5,838

The Cristeros - Catholic Soldiers of Christ Jan 12, 2018 19:00:47 GMT

Post by Admin on Jan 12, 2018 19:00:47 GMT

THE CRISTEROS CATHOLIC SOLDIERS OF CHRIST

20th Century Mexico’s Catholic Uprising

Olivier Lelibre

The 20th century was the bloodiest century in history, the "century of massacres,"¹ "hell's century,"² the century of martyrs-just like all the others? No, not just like all the others; it was the great century of martyrs, infinitely more than the others....Never had there been so many martyrs in the space of 100 years, not even in the space of 1,000 years.³ And these tens of millions of Christians, the victims of a century in open revolt against God, remain unknown and unsung. Today I would like to recall for you the Mexican Catholics who, some 70 years ago, rose up against Freemasonry for the social reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were called the Cristeros.

A Century of Religious Persecutions

From the time its independence was declared in 1821, Mexico had a troubled history: civil wars, dictatorships, coup d’états, revolutions (1876-1911)....Maximilian's Empire (1863-67) was but a brief and very imperfect⁴ parentheses in the persecutions endured by the Church once the Spanish left: property despoiled, priests imprisoned, assassinations plotted, bishops expelled....Why so many misfortunes? A proverb provides the answer: "Poor Mexico! so far from God and so close to the United States..." The United States did not want a great Catholic power at their door. At the time of Mexican independence, they worried about this potential rival whose land mass roughly equaled their own, and whose population, though less numerous (6.5 millions of inhabitants versus 9.5 millions) had become, thanks to a very lively Catholic faith, a true nation, while the United States remained, and remains even now, the "Salad Bowl."⁵

In the 1830's, war broke out. Betrayed by Masonic generals,⁶ Mexico lost its northern territory, California, Texas, New Mexico (1848), and was placed under United States political and economic hegemony.⁷

The puppets successively made presidents of Mexico were all corrupt Masons who immediately enforced the orders issued from Washington to "defanaticize" the country, that is, to destroy its Catholicism which dated from the 16th century when the Spanish (especially the Franciscans⁸), had evangelized Mexico; the order also demanded defiling the memory of its European heritage by exalting the pre-Columbian era⁹ and the "marvelous" Aztec civilization where the wheel and the vault were unknown, but where slavery, human sacrifice and cannibalism were practiced on a grand scale even in the 16th century!¹⁰

Here are just two examples of this policy: The first official act of President Juarez was to transform St. Francis of Mexico Church into a Protestant temple (1867),¹¹ and the publication of Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Humanum Genus (1884) was prohibited (it condemns Freemasonry) even in the seminaries!¹²

In 1914, President Carranza, put in place by the US, inaugurated a period of open persecution: priests were massacred (160 were killed in Mexico in February, 1915). John Lind, one of Woodrow Wilson's advisors, rejoiced over the news: "Great news! The more priests they kill in Mexico, the happier I shall be!" An American pastor, indignant about the outraging of the nuns in Vera Cruz, received this reply from Wilson's personal representative: "After prostitution, the worst thing in Mexico is the Catholic Church. Both must disappear!"¹³

Calles's Offensive

In 1924, Plutarco Elias Calles became President. For this descendant of Spanish Jews,¹⁴ a 33rd degree Mason, "the Church is the unique cause of all Mexico's misfortunes." For him, too, she had to disappear.¹⁵ With the complicity of a Masonic priest, Fr. Perez, proclaimed by the government "Patriarch of the Mexican Catholic Church," Calles founded a schismatic "patriotic Church," as the Communists were to do later in China.¹⁶ The wine used in the Mass was replaced by mescal. But the maneuver was met with widespread contempt. The government could finance the opening of 200 Protestant schools and Calles could smooth the way for heretical sects (already well financed by the US), but the Mexican people remained stubbornly attached to Rome!

In 1926, the president and his clique launched a new offensive which they hoped to be definitive: "Now there must be a psychological revolution," Calles declared. "We must penetrate and take hold of the minds of the children and the youth because they must belong to the revolution." The Catholic schools were shut down, the congregations expelled, Christian trade unions forbidden, numerous churches confiscated and profaned (turned into stables or halls) or destroyed. Public school attendance became mandatory, atheism was officially taught, and religious insignia (medals, crucifixes, statues, and pictures) were forbidden, even at home. God was even chased from the language! The use of such expressions as Adios, "If God wills," or "God forbid," was subject to a fine. Lastly, the priests were "registered": some states (Mexico is a federal republic) required them to swear not to proselytize, others tried to command them to marry if they wished to continue in their function! Msgr. Carvana, the Apostolic Nuncio, protested; on May 12, 1926, he was expelled. Throughout the country, Catholic public figures were assassinated, girls coming out of church were kidnapped, imprisoned, raped. Msgr. Curley, the Archbishop of Baltimore, vented his indignation: "Calles persecutes the church because he knows that he has Rome's approval. Our government has armed Calles's killers. Our friendship has encouraged him in his abominable enterprise: to destroy the idea of God in the minds and hearts of millions of Mexicans."¹⁷

On May 28, Calles received the Masonic medal of merit from the hands of the Great Commander of the Scottish rite in Mexico. On July 12, the following communique appeared in the press: "International Masonry accepts responsibility for everything that is happening in Mexico, and is preparing to mobilize all its forces for the methodic, integral application of the agreed upon program for this country."¹⁸

On July 26, an elderly shopkeeper was coldly struck down by two policemen in civilian clothes. His crime? In his shop he had posted a sign reading Viva Cristo Rey! Long live Christ the King! The Mexicans peacefully reacted to the persecution: they boycotted state-owned enterprises (tobacco purchases and railroad traffic were reduced by 74%, and in just a few weeks, the national bank suffered a 7 million peso loss), and they also circulated a protest petition signed by 2 million (out of a population of 15 million).

But Christians have something even better than that, they have prayer, and the country was crisscrossed by gigantic penitential processions: 10,000, 15,000 faithful, barefooted, crowned with thorns, implored God for their country. The powers that be could not tolerate that; their heavy machine guns dispersed the processions, and the first martyrs fell, singing.

Public Worship Suspended

On July 24, 1926, Cardinal Gaspari sent a telegram from Rome to the Mexican episcopate: "Under no condition we will accept the registering of priests." The bishops decided to suspend public worship throughout the land starting July 31: all the places of public worship would be closed, there would be no Masses offered nor sacraments administered throughout the country except in private chapels. This was an unheard of, inexplicable decision, unless by it they intended to push the Mexicans to revolt, for the one thing they could not bear was to be deprived of the sacraments. During the final days of July, people thronged the churches day and night, going to confession, getting baptized, marrying...

People began to come to put their consciences well in order even though it was already time to begin working in the fields. With each passing day more and more peasants streamed into the village from the neighboring hamlets, their pale faces and sorrowful eyes bespeaking their anguish. There were three priests in Tlalte-nango parish, not enough to confess so many people. Despite being in the confessional from dawn to dusk, with no time to eat or rest, still they could not confess all who came... How surprising to see someone estranged from the sacraments come to receive forgiveness of his sins; and others who lived in concubinage come to seek out the confessor, asking to be united in marriage....¹⁹

And then the terrible hour came...

This day, there was to be a Mass at midnight and by the end of Vespers the church could no longer contain the immense multitude of the faithful. One after the other, the faithful would go on their knees from the door to the altar; no one wanted to see this most dolorous moment arrive, but God was going to permit it to come to pass. At 11:30 pm, the bells dolefully tolled the hour of the Mass. The nocturnal adorers, the pious associations and the Catholic social organizations with their groups and their banners were there, as were all the faithful. At midnight the Blessed Sacrament was exposed and the Mass began. After the Gospel, our dear Fr. Gonzalez mounted the pulpit. He had barely gone up when all the people gathered at the foot of Jesus-Host began to cry. The broken words that the father spoke, full of sorrow, were interrupted by sobs. After Communion, at the end of holy Mass, we were given the benediction with His Divine Majesty. Finally, the father, divested of his ornaments, knelt at the foot of the altar, his eyes fixed on the image of Our Lord of Mercies; silently he took leave of him and went out through the midst of the faithful. Christ and his minister had departed.²⁰

From the first days of August, the Mexican people, deprived of their priests (only 200 remained with their faithful) and of their bishops (only 1 remained out of 38) used force to resist the inventorying of the closed churches and the accompanying sacrileges. Their rallying cry was that of the Mexican shopkeeper: "Long live Christ the King!" To keep from hearing it, the soldiers had only one solution: cut out the tongue of those whom they were going to kill, of those whom, because of these cries, they named the Cristeros. One of them wrote before dying: "We are going to perish. We will not see the victory, but Mexico needs all this blood for its purification....Christ will receive the homage which is due Him." Blood flowed....Ireland broke its diplomatic relations with Mexico....No other state followed suit.

On September 18, 1926, Pius XI published the encyclical Iniquis Afflictisque:

In narrating this, Venerable Brothers, we can scarcely keep back our tears, some of these young men and boys have gladly met death, the rosary in their hands and the name of Christ King on their lips....What a beautiful spectacle this, that is thus given to the world, to angels and to men!

In October the Holy Father declared: "The blood of martyrs has always been the seed of blessings from heaven." How could one fail to understand that one year after Quas Primas, the Cristeros were signing with their blood this text on the social reign of our Lord Jesus Christ? Freemasonry understood it, and in its American journal The New Age of December 1926, it expressed its stand:

The Catholic Church has perverted the Mexicans for 400 years. Calles's merit is to have delivered them from ignorance and superstition. That is why he can count on our understanding and on North America's support.²¹
The Rising

In January 1927, Catholic Mexico rose: 20,000 combatants (30,000 by the end of the year, and 50,000 in 1929); few arms (a few rifles and carbines, but mostly hatchets, machetes, and sometimes simply sticks); few horses; but all the people supporting them, offering them their money, and necessaries. A Cristero peasant recounted how they set out with songs and prayers on their lips:

We were 1,000, then 5,000, then more! Everyone set out as if to go to the harvest....We firmly intended to die, angry or not, but to die for Christ.

The old men and children, unarmed, followed behind the troops, in the hope of martyrdom. "The parents of Nemesio and Isidro Lopez did not want to see them depart for the war for fear that their flesh would go to feed coyotes and eagles; but they replied, "The coyotes may indeed eat our flesh, but our souls will ascend straight to heaven."²² Against them were 100 mobile columns of 1,000 men each, veritable "infernal columns" financed by the US (light armored cars, tractor-drawn artillery, combat aircraft...). The first clashes were bloody massacres. An officer of Calles wrote: "They are more like pilgrims than soldiers. This isn't a military campaign, it's a hunting party!" The president himself predicted: "It will be wrapped up in less than two months."

But when a pilgrimage takes up arms, it becomes a crusade! The Cristeros were able to equip themselves from the adversary, profiting from their cowardice or their corruption. The "Federales" were more like pillagers, drunk on tequila and marijuana, rather than soldiers worthy of the name. On March 15, 1927, they were defeated at San Julian; at Puerto Obristo, they left 600 dead. In November, the military attache of the US began to worry about the success of the "fanatics," 40% of whose troops were now equipped with excellent Mausers recuperated from the enemy. How was it possible?

The Miracle

The Cristiada was a succession of miracles. One was when the consecrated hosts flew into the sky before the very eyes of the squad that was getting ready to shoot them; it led to the conversion of the Masonic officer who commanded it, and who ended the war as a Cristero general. But there are very many more: God does not let Himself be outdone in generosity. I will just recount two.

A Christian general told how he arrived with 350 men who had been fasting for two days in a miserable hamlet of only 11 straw huts. He retired to write his report. Coming out, he saw his soldiers eating with gusto and an old woman with tears in her eyes saying over and over; "I just had a few biscuits, and yet there is enough for everyone, and what is left over is more than I had to begin with!"

A Cristero spy had spoken with the Federales:

They are sorcerers, and the one who commands them is a very valiant general mounted on a white horse, and he is accompanied by a woman. When we open fire on them, it has no effect, and when they approach us, we cannot do anything to them. They command the mist to conceal these accursed Cristeros.

The spy added:

There is no white horse, and there is no woman in our army. In truth, we believe that St. James and the most Blessed Virgin accompany us, and if we cannot see them, it is because we do not deserve to.

Marvelous Cristeros! While the Federal army recorded an average of 30,000 desertions annually, they did not experience a single case of treason. A cobbler, become sector chief, was contacted by the enemy who offered to spare his life and make him a colonel, answered: "I am not fighting for a rank. I am fighting for the Church and for Christ the King. As soon as the victory is won, I shall return to my shoes." He was killed in combat in March 1928.

With diabolic tenacity, Calles's men tried to make their prisoners apostatize, but in vain. Fr. Reyes was tortured for three days and two nights. This pastor of Totolan, born in very poor circumstances (as a child he hawked newspapers) had decided to remain at his post. That was enough to unleash the hatred of the Federales, who tormented him with fire. "You say that God descends into your hands, well then, let Him descend and deliver you from ours!" his torturers taunted. They finished him off with bullets on the evening of Holy Wednesday. One of them testified: "We had already lodged three or four bullets in him when he roused himself to cry out once more: 'Long live Christ the King!'" Sabás Reyes Salazar was canonized on May 21, 2000.23

Valencia Gallardo, a Cristeros leader, was tied to a stake and tortured but only cried out throughout: "Long live Christ the King!" They tore out his tongue; he freed one of his hands from the bonds and pointed to heaven. They cut it off, and then split open his skull with their rifle butts.

Admirable Cristeros! The Cristiada was not a counter revolution with its share of exactions: it was the opposite of a revolution. Read the order of the day of one of its generals (killed in combat in 1927):

Disciplinary measures affecting the southern division:

The division chiefs of the South of Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit and Western Michocan of the National Liberation Army have adopted the following measures:

1) To render an official, public, and solemn homage to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, sovereign King of our army, and to humbly and lovingly consecrate to Him all the works and all the persons of this division;

2) To never omit, under any pretext, the daily group recitation of the rosary to the Blessed Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, and to accord this observance the same priority as a strict disposition of military regulation;

3) Whenever possible, to arrange things to allow all the leaders, officers and soldiers to officially fulfill the precepts of Sunday worship, confession and Communion;

4) To guarantee divine protection during the battles by making the army and the Catholics prepare themselves by humble, confident prayer, and by recommending making acts of perfect contrition.²⁴

Their awareness of the supernatural character of their fight did not lead the Cristeros to neglect temporal realities: "Fight and organize; fight and moralize" was one of their mottoes. In the liberated territories, "administrators" were appointed, Catholic schools were opened (more than 200), public sins (drunkenness, prostitution) were suppressed.

Universal Resistance

Who were these new crusaders? They were the people. As one Federale wrote: "We run no risk of making a mistake (by massacring one and all): they all resist." They were 95% rural folk: peasants, artisans, miners, muleteers, or rural landholders. There was, for instance, Luis Navarro Origel, with a degree in philosophy and a third-order Franciscan: in 1926, he took the lead of the men of the village where he was mayor. He declared: "I am going to kill for Christ those who kill Christ, and perhaps die for Him if need be; I am going to offer the blood of redemption." He fell at the head of his troops on August 10, 1928, at the age of 30.

The city folk who joined them were especially students and the women involved in the St. Joan of Arc Brigades. Some of these 25,000 heroines were only 14 years old. They acted as liaison agents or scouts, nurses, collectors of money or munitions in the arsenals where they infiltrated as workers! Woe to those who fell into the clutches of the Federates' hardened soldiers....But they never betrayed any information.

Beautiful youth of Mexico. José Sanchez was 13. In February 1928 he was surrounded by the Federales. He gave up his horse to the group leader who was wounded and covered his retreat. Running out of ammunition, he was captured. "Know it well," he said, "I am not surrendering, I have merely run out of ammo." He was slaughtered. A note was found in his pocket: "My dearest Mom: Here I am a captive, and they are going to kill me. I am happy. The only thing that troubles me is that you are going to cry. Don't cry. We shall meet again." Signed, José, killed for Christ the King.

Tomasino was a member of the executive committee of the ACJM (Mexican Catholic Youth Association) and prefect of the congregation of Mary. Arrested, he was offered his freedom if he talked. "Really, you would be making a mistake: free, I would continue to fight for Christ the King. For us, the fight for our freedom of worship is not optional." In August 1927, he was hanged. He was 17.

Manuel Bonilla, a student, kept a daily diary:

I well know that, to do great things, God uses littler ones, and that help does not come whence we were expecting it...I trust in God's goodness: all these sacrifices will not be in vain.

He was shot at 22 years of age, on Good Friday, 1927, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. In 1942, his body was discovered perfectly intact.

The Mystery of Iniquity

The year 1928 was terrible: the infernal columns had received the order to deport the rural population to "concentration camps"²⁶ where famine and epidemics decimated them. At the least show of resistance, the Federates would massacre them. Harvests and flocks were seized, grazing land burned, and villages destroyed by the thousands. Despite this scorched earth policy, the Cristeros stood fast like latter-day Machabees.

In 1929, the government renounced its policy of governing the countryside. Three-fourths of inhabitable Mexico was in the hands of the troops of Christ the King, victory was in reach especially as the riffraff in Mexico were fighting each other, and in the United States Hoover, who was not a Mason, was elected! Then they learned that the secret negotiations between the Mexican government and the Vatican had resulted in an accord. On June 21, the Mexican episcopate (except for one of its members, His Excellency Jose de Jesus Manriquez y Zarate) signed a "resolution" of the conflict with the ruling power on bases "negotiated" by a US Jesuit, a Fr. Walsh. The accord provided for: (1) immediate, unconditional cease fire; (2) the resumption of public worship beginning the next day (June 22).

That was all. It restored them to the same situation that prevailed in 1926 with all the anti-Catholic laws then in effect, including the registration of priests! In the text, the Cristeros are called fanatics directed by a few third-rate priests; their revolt was an error, an imprudence, even a sin: they must lay down their arms under pain of excommunication...

Jésus Degollado, commander in chief of the Cristeros, addressed his troops, his voice breaking from sorrow:

His Holiness the Pope, by the intermediary of the most excellent Apostolic Nuncio, has decided, for reasons which are unknown to us but which, as Catholics, we accept, that public worship will be resumed tomorrow without the law being changed...This arrangement...has wrested from us that which is most noble and most holy on our flag, at the moment when the Church has declared that she will resign herself to what she has obtained...Consequently, the National Guard assumes responsibility for the conflict....As for ourselves as men, we have a satisfaction that no one can take from us: the National Guard does not disappear defeated by its enemies, but rather abandoned by the very ones who were to be the first to receive the fruit of our sacrifices and abnegation! Ave, Christ! Those who for You are going to humiliation, to exile, and, perhaps, to an unglorious death,...with the most fervent love salute You, and once more proclaim You as King of our country.

Six thousand Cristeros obeyed, and were immediately massacred. In three years, they had only lost 5,000 men in combat! The Mexican episcopate decreed the excommunication of the Cristero priests, but those who had not been killed during the war (180) had already been martyred...All was lost.

The new president, the Masonic lawyer Fortes Gil, rejoiced. At the summer solstice banquet, he acknowledged his astonishment at the unconditional capitulation of a victorious army, and his intention to continue the fight: "The fight did not begin yesterday. The fight is eternal. The fight began 20 centuries ago." Indeed, but the novelty was that the Vatican was not on the right side. Freemasonry, condemned by all the popes from the 18th century (Clement XII, in 1738) to the end of the 19th (in 1892, Leo XIII equated Freemasonry with Satanism), had infiltrated the Church at the highest levels of the hierarchy: Were not G. della Chiesa (the future Benedict XV) and A. Ratti (the future Pius XI) the "proteges" of Cardinal Rampolla? In 1926, was it not Pius XI who condemned Action Frangaise in accordance with the sect's desires. In 1928, was not Fr. Vallet expelled from Spain and his work suppressed by a hierarchy that preferred to favor the Opus Dei.²⁸

When, from 1934 to 1937, a new Cristiada was launched, Pius XI let the Mexican episcopate excommunicate the Cristeros and then waited until they were all dead before daring to write (in his Letter to the Mexican Episcopate, 1937):

When power rises against justice and truth,...one cannot see how one could condemn the citizens who unite to defend the nation and themselves-even by the use of arms-against those who, by means of the state's power, devise their misfortune.

The same year, in Divini Redemptoris, he blamed Communism for the atrocities perpetrated against the Christians of Mexico...but he did not mention Freemasonry.

Another Vendée

The saga of the Cristeros reminds us of the famous rising of the Vendée during the French Revolution, and the two epics have many points in common:

1) The refusal of priests to take an oath of loyalty to the state;

2) The creation by the state of a schismatic church;

3) Religious persecution;

4) Part of the episcopate's indifference to the suffering of the flock;²⁹

5) The character of the country folk at arms, poor, unequipped, unprepared and undisciplined, yet courageous, joyous, generous even towards the enemy, and profoundly Christian. This letter from a colonel to his regiment embodies this spirit of the crusaders:

Beloved in Christ:

It is not merely a question of a few flatterers who can be doubted, but of a very widespread belief that our regiment is the best in the region, either because its leaders and followers are motivated by the right intentions or, considering the numbers involved, because of the order and especially the solid piety responsible for urging its men to unashamedly frequent the sacraments. For better or worse, those in the other regiments see this.

I render thanks to our Lord for such a beautiful thing, and I believe that you, too, do as much, and that you have the real desire to continue brandishing on high the flag of your people for the glory of Christ the King, and that your honor will know how to efface the black mark that your compatriots have cast upon your people.

Knowing your sincerity and human misery, I put you on guard against a danger that would vanquish you without remedy, that of vain glory, the dear daughter of the pride that manifests itself under the name and sentiment of self-love.

Far from falling into such a great evil, my beloved in Christ, remember often, and in all of your actions, that everything good in you belongs to God alone, and what evil there is in your regiment belongs to you; to God all the glory, all the good, all the triumph, because you are vile instruments.

Show yourselves, then, to be always faithful and subject to your king Jesus Christ our Lord. Never forget the rosary, recommend yourselves to our Lord morning and evening. Love your soldiers as your sons and be fathers to the neediest. Treat all with charity, but never let justice suffer. Never speak well of yourselves unless there is good reason and then do so with modesty. Do not denigrate the men of the other regiments and do not criticize their faults. Keep a right intention. Live united. Never let your rank of colonel, major, captain, etc., go to your head. Remember death and the rigorous judgment that you will undergo according to your works; keep Christ always present and imitate Him in everything. Be faithful sons of Mary your good Mother, the most holy Virgin of Guadalupe. Do not misuse what little you have, for your families live in misery, and remember those of others. This is what I always ask of our Lord for you, and many other things as well which I do not mention in order not to lengthen a letter which is becoming a journal. May His Divine Majesty hear our poor supplications.³⁰

6) The role of women: wives who encourage their husbands (and, if need be, chase them back to the fight with blows), and mothers who have understood that martyrdom is the crowning of a truly Christian education. Dona Guadalupe, mother of Luis Navarro Origel, would say: "I offered the life of my four boys to Christ; but the Lord came up short: He only took two!"

7) The conflict's apocalyptic dimensions, of which both camps were aware: The one side's admirable religious fervor corresponded with other side's satanic mania for sacrilege and spiritual destruction. (Viva el Demonio! was the Federates' rallying cry.)

8) The ultimate betrayal of the Catholic troops...by the religious authorities.

These similarities should not, however, mask an essential difference: the sole motive of the Cristiada was religious. The defense of the faith was not mixed with any other cause, be it political, social, economic, or particular (as the refusal of the draft by the Vendée).

The army captured them and the general commanding the Place d'Arandas asked them for whom they had taken up arms to create such disorder. They replied that it was not to create disorders that they had taken up arms, but to defend Christ the King, who was no longer on the altars. They were shot immediately.³¹

This single-mindedness explains the remarkable homogeneity of the Mexican counter-revolutionary movement, its purity and its efficacy. It is a lesson worth meditating on.

The Kingdom of Our Lady of Guadalupe

More than 70 years after the epic, what remains of the Cristeros? Until July 2000, Mexico lived under the yoke of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) founded by Calles. Despite the backing of Messrs. Clinton and Gore, he was defeated in the elections, a victim of scandals and divisions between different Masonic obediences. Since the beginning of the 1990's, relations between the powers that be and the episcopate were the best: the "government's tribune" dominates the sanctuary of the new basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and, in 1995, its rector, Fr. Shulembrum³² publicly declared the apparitions of 1531 to be false. The Mexican "miracle" is that this scandal prompted millions (which some estimate at a dozen) of pilgrims to come from all parts of the country, often on foot, sometimes on their knees, in reparation. It is well to briefly recall the facts, whose supernatural character was recognized by Benedict XIV in 1754, when he declared: "Non fecit taliter omni nationi-Not with every nation has He dealt thus."

On Saturday, December 9, 1531, Juan Diego, an Indian peasant of 57, recently converted, was on his way to Mass. At the foot of Tepeyac hill, a maiden of marvelous beauty appeared to him in a cloud of light: "I am truly the perpetual and perfect Virgin Mary, holy mother of the true God...and mother of those who have confidence in me." She asked him to go and find the bishop and ask him to have a church built. He did, but was shown the door. The same evening a new apparition reiterated the same request. On December 10, the bishop, troubled, requested a sign. On the 12th, there was a new apparition: "Climb to the top of the hill and gather the flowers." Nothing grew on the hilltop, especially in December! But Juan Diego obeyed, and filled his tilma...with Castilian roses! Overjoyed, he ran to the bishop's house, opened before the bishop his tilma full of flowers, and revealed beneath them the portrait of the Virgin, the only portrait of our Lady which has not been made by human hands! At the same time, our Lady appeared to the seer's uncle, who was dying, cured him, and told him the name by which she wished to be honored: Tequantlaxopeuh, that is, "she who crushes the serpent." The Spanish would hear this as "Tequatlasupe" and would associate it with Our Lady of Guadalupe in Extremadura, Spain (apparition in 1323). One can imagine the devotion the Mexicans have towards this miraculous image which, like the Holy Shroud, reveals its marvels progressively to the scholars of every age. Here are just the principle inexplicable aspects of the image:

1) The cloak's fabric (made of the fiber of the maguey cactus) should have decomposed in 20 years; 470 years after the apparition, it is in perfect condition.

2) The back of the tilma is rough (which is normal), but the side with the image is as soft as silk.

3) The colors are as vibrant today as on the first day, despite the effects of time, light, candles, handling, attacks (acid, an explosion in 1921...), etc.

4) The colors are of an unknown origin (conclusion of Dr. Kuhn, winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry).

5) It is not a painting. NASA declared the image to be "incomprehensible" in 1979.

6) Finally, digitization of the image has enabled researchers to peer into the eyes of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and to discover there the scene that occurred on December 12, 1531: the bishop, the Indian, a servant and some Franciscans who were there when Juan Diego opened his tilma. One can readily understand the devotion of the Christians of Latin America to Our Lady of Guadalupe, "Queen of Mexico, Empress of the Americas."

An Army of Martyrs

In 1988, Miguel Pro (a Jesuit) was the first Cristero to be beatified. Born in 1891, he was obliged to take refuge in France in order to continue his studies. He was ordained at Amiens in 1925. Having returned clandestinely to Mexico in July 1926, he was shot on November 23, 1927, along with his brother who was also a Cristero, while crying out: "Long live Christ the King!"

On the Feast of Christ the King, 1992,33 Pope John Paul II beatified 26 other Cristeros (22 of whom were priests). Let us name some of them: Salvador Lara Puente, employee, killed in 1926, aged 21; Atilano Cruz Alvadaro, ordained on Sept. 14, 1927, and killed July 1, 1928; or Manuel Morales, born in 1898, Catholic trade unionist, married and the father of three young children, who said before his execution: "I die, but God does not die; He will take care of my wife and children." "Dios no muere."...These were the last words of Garcia Moreno, President of Ecuador, assassinated by the Freemasons in 1875.

In October 1997, Matteo Elias Del Socorro Nieves was beatified. The son of peasants, the young Matteo heard God's call early, but his father having been assassinated, he had to support his mother and brothers; he became a priest at 34 years of age. Pastor of a village in the mountains of Culiacan, he refused to take refuge in the city and go underground. He spent 14 months in a grotto from which he only came out at night to exercise his priestly office. He was shot at 46, while crying out: "Long live Christ the King!"

On May 21, 2000, the Pope canonized 27 Mexicans, 23 of them from the Cristiada era (20 priests and 3 laymen). The press only mentioned the name of Fr. Cristobal Magallanes, pastor of Totatiche, martyred in 1927. Documentation Catholique did not deem it newsworthy enough to publish the text of the ceremony; yet 20,000 Mexicans converged on St. Peter's Square, for until then their country only had one canonized saint (St. Philip of Jesus, martyr of Japan), and the memory of the Cristiada remains strong there.

Five of those canonized were martyred by reason of hatred of the faith, as they had not participated in the resistance: Cristóbal Magallanes Jara (1869-1927), pastor; Luis Batis Sáinz (1870-1926), pastor; Augustín Caloca Cortés (1898-1927), seminary prefect; Mateo Correa Magallanes (1866-1927), pastor; Margarito Flores García (1900-1927), vicar.³⁴

The other canonized priests had gone underground, and were leading lives worthy of the "refractory" priests of the Vendee.

O admirable Blessed and Sainted Cristeros, known or unknown, pray for Mexico!³⁵ Pray for us, You luminous examples of humility, who, without bitterness or revolt, accepted the terrible trial of persecutions in a spirit of penitence and expiation for your sins and those of Mexico. Obtain for us from God an unshakeable faith while today, more than ever, the Masonic beast, to whom repentance is unknown, furiously wars against God.

"The great power of our enemies," wrote Blessed Miguel Pro, "is based on money, arms, and lies; it will crumble one day soon like the statue that Daniel saw collapse under the shock of a pebble falling from heaven. "

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This is the transcript of a lecture given in 1997 at the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary School located in the Vendee in western France. It was translated by Angelus Press from the Sel de la Terre (Summer 2001). The unidentified quotations are mostly from Hugh Keraly's Les Cristeros [Grez-en-Boulere: DMM, 1986]. For readers unfamiliar with the history of the French Revolution and the resistance of the Vendee, a province in Western France where the people rose up against the regicide Republicans, Michael Davies's book For Altar and Throne [available from Angelus Press. Price: $13.95] provides a brief summary of the events and a moving tribute to those heroes and heroines.

The author M. Olivier Lelibre is a young father of a family and a high school teacher in the Vendee region of France.

1. Eugenic Corti, La Responsabilite de la culture occi-dentale dans les grands massacres du XX'' siecle, Atlantide, Europe No. 2, L'Age d'Homme (Lausanne, 1998). By "Western culture," the author means the "Enlightenment."

2. French title of the book by Gustave Corçao, O Seculo do nada.

3. Jean Madiran, preface to Siècle de I'Enfer (Ed. Sainte-Madeleine, 1995), p.5.

4. Maximilian, who became a Freemason as early as 1864, readily showed toleration to Protestantism and Judaism.

5. "The Salad Bowl": a simile used by geographers to show how the different "ingredients" of the population are juxtaposed without blending. It would be useful to study the role of Protestantism in maintaining this state of affairs.

6. A. Sanders, "La preuve par le Mexique," Présent, July 19-22.

7. A. Sanders (article cited, July 22, 2000) lists the masters of the Mexican economy in 1914: Rockefeller (rubber), Goblentz (textiles), Guggenheim (mines), Hearst (alias Hirsch) who owned 3 million metric arces, and the Kuhn-Loeb bank, which financed Lenin.

8. Beginning in 1529, the Franciscans opened eight colleges for the young Indians, as well as upper level technical schools. Financed by the king of Spain, in 1536 they opened, for the Indians alone, the Superior College of Holy Cross in Mexico (Latin, rhetoric, philosophy, music, medicine). In 1551, the University of Mexico was founded, open to Indians as well as Spanish. See La Vraie contro-verse de Valladolid by Jean Dumont (Paris: Criterion, 1995), pp. 130-131.

9. Cardenas, president of Mexico from 1934-1940, named his son Cuauhtemoc, after the name of the last Aztec emperor. Having become a politician like his father, he was named the "Aztec sphinx" by the leftist media.

10. Human sacrifices were offered almost daily. The number of victims, who had their hearts cut out still beating before being dismembered and eaten, have been estimated at 20,000 a year on the average (more than 50 a day!). The inauguration of the temple at Mexico was the occasion of massacring 20,000 victims in four days (some sources speak of 80,000). See "Croisades, Inquisition...: Faut-il demander pardon?" Savoir et Servir 60, 73-74.

11. A. Sanders, art. cit. July 21 and 22 , 2000.

12. Ibid.

13. A. Sanders, art. cit., July 26, 2000.

14. Ibid.

15. A. Sanders names Calles's entourage: Aaron Saenz, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Moses Saenz, Vice Minister of Education; the US advisor Habermann (an agent of the Soviet GPU); Hirschfeld, Master of the Mexican Grand Lodge (art. cited, July 27, 2000).

16. According to M. Reboul (Monde et Vie, Oct. 19, 2000), 15 priests and 1 bishop of the Chinese "Patriotic" Church visited seminaries and parishes in France and Belgium in 1994. They concelebrated Mass with the priests and even bishops of the places visited without provoking the least protest (p. 14). Cardinal Etchegarray is also reported to have concelebrated with the functionary-priests of the Patriotic Church last October in the Marian sanctuary of Sheshan (Libre journal, Oct. 27, 2000).

17. A. Sanders, art. cit., July 27, 2000.

18. La Tribuna, July 12, 1926, quoted by F. M. Algoud, " 1600 Young Saints, Young Martyrs," 1994.

19. J. Meyer, Apocalypse et Révolution au Mexique, 1926-1926 (Archives Gallimard-Julliard, No. 56, 1974), pp.54-55.

20. Ibid.

21. A. Sanders, art. cit., July 28, 2000.

22. J. Meyer, Apocalypse et Rèvolution, p. 175.

23. The biographical information on the Mexican saints comes from the internet site www.sanctus.com/Paginas/SanctosMexi-canos.html

24. J. Meyer, ibid., p. 172.

25. Most of the 20 martyred priests of period (canonized in 2000) were of rural origin, and half of them of very humble circumstances (shepherds like St. Atilano Cruz Alvarado; newspaper hawkers like St. Sabas Reyes).

26. J. Meyer, "Les Cristeros," L 'Histoire, 86, February 1986.

27. A. Sanders, art. cit., July 29, 2000.

28. N. Dehan, in Sel de la terre, 11 (1994-1995), 126.

29. The letter of Msgr. de Mercy, Bishop of Lucon, in exile in Italy, deserves mention. On June 1, 1793, he wrote: "For a long time I hoped to be able to save the furniture I left...at Luçon. I might have...but the troubles in the Vendée harmed my cause, even though I do not take their side." Quoted by X. Martin, Sur les Droits de I'homme et laVendée (DMM, 1995) p.75, n.269. Absent from his diocese from 1789, he only returned from exile in 1802, and was named Archbishop of Bourges....

30. J. Meyer, Apocalypse et Révolution, pp.173-174.

31. Ibid.,p.175.

32. He was dismissed. See the Madrid daily ABC, Dec. 14, 1996.

33. Thursday, Oct. 22, 1992, was, in fact, close to the Sunday of the Feast of Christ the King (Oct. 25) according to the traditional calendar (for, in the new rite, it was the 30th "Ordinary Sunday." The new calendar has moved the Feast of Christ the King to the Sunday "of the End of Time," which closes the liturgical year, as if one thereby wished to signify that Christ's kingship is purely "eschatological."-Ed.)

34. The first one named had even condemned the Cristero movement insofar as they had recourse to arms; he offered his life "for peace." One might wonder why exactly he was chosen to head the list of the Cristero martyrs? [Ed. note.]

35. Was it, perhaps, due to their intercession? Last Oct. 1, abortion, which had been tolerated in Mexico in the case of rape, was forbidden. The law states: "As legislators, we must consider not only the injury and pain of the mother who was violated, but also the greater evil constituted by the death of an innocent minor" (Fails et Documents, Nov. 15, 2000

Source

Last Edit: Jan 12, 2018 21:00:17 GMT by Admin

"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Archbp. Lefebvre 1980

Admin
Senior Member

Posts: 5,838

The Cristeros - Catholic Soldiers of Christ Jan 12, 2018 20:56:02 GMT

Post by Admin on Jan 12, 2018 20:56:02 GMT

The Six Martyrs of Leon
Hugh O’Reilly

Many persons who saw the movie For Greater Glory understandably marveled at the courage of the young martyr José Sánchez del Rio, age 13. There were hundreds of similar episodes, however, in the epopee of La Cristiada in Mexico from 1926 to 1929, which records the names of many Cristeros who died crying out “Viva Cristo Rey!“

One of those episodes took place in the city of Leon in the State of Guanajuato, one of the most Catholic regions of Mexico and an early Cristero stronghold. It is the story of the six martyrs of Leon, who died together on the same day. Their names are José Valencia Gallardo, Salvador Vargas, Ezequiel Gomez, Nicolas Navarro, José Agustín Ríos and José Gasca.

Martyrs of Leon Cristeros

Not pictured are Agustin Rio and Jose Gasca
The youths were members of the ACJM - Catholic Association of Mexican Youth, a national organization that sought to defend the rights of the Catholic Faith. José Valencia Gallardo, the leader of the group, had founded a newspaper in Leon that they called The Voice of the People, which denounced the many atrocities committed against the Church by the Masonic and anti-clerical Calles government.

Enforcing the violently anti-clerical 1917 Constitution, President Plutarco Elias Calles launched an open persecution against the Church and Catholics in 1926. Foreign priests were expelled, Catholic churches and institutions were closed, convents and monasteries were banned.

In The Voice of the People Valencia Gallardo spoke out fearlessly against these atrocities and made calls to rally faithful Catholics to action. He wrote:

"It is time that Mexican Catholics wake from that shameful lethargy into which we have fallen. It is time for us to throw off the ignominious yoke imposed on us by a group of unscrupulous persons who have taken advantage of our cowardice. They have taken advantage of our passivity, but the fault is ours for sitting idly by instead of defending our most sacred rights."

Passive Resistance Changes into Fight

At first, the ACJM and other clergy-led Catholic organizations in the cities reacted peacefully to the persecution: They organized a boycott against state-owned enterprises to put financial pressure on the government and to make it bend and allow the free practice of the Catholic Religion. They also circulated a protest petition against these unjust laws signed by 2 million Catholics (out of a population of 15 million).

By November 1926, Valencia Gallardo could clearly see that the boycott had not produced the desired effect. To the contrary, the efforts of the peaceful resistance had served to increase the fury of the government’s persecution. Some groups of Catholics, mostly peasants, had already taken up arms in various parts of the country to defend the Church and their families against the oppressive tyrant. Valencia Gallardo and five of his ACJM companions also decided to follow their example and join the Cristeros who had organized along the outskirts of Leon.

Thus the six young men, José Valencia Gallardo, Salvador Vargas, Nicolás Navarro, Ezequiel Gómez, Antonio Romero and Agustín Ríos, all in their 20s, prepared to take up arms in defense of the cause of Christ.

When Nicolás Navarro, age 21, the only one of the group who was married, took leave of his young wife who held their small son in her arms, she said to him, “How can you have the heart to leave me and your son?” The future martyr answered, “When my son grows up, tell him, ‘Your father died for his Religion! I must go even if I leave my son an orphan. What matters to me is to defend the cause of Jesus Christ!”

Saying goodbye to his mother, Ezequiel Gomez, age 24, told her, “I am ready to die if Our Lord wants my blood to save our country.”

The Group is Betrayed

In early 1927, the resistance was especially strong in the Catholic northeast region where there were mass uprisings. For the federal army, this seemed to offer an advantage – the possibility of concentrating their strengths in one region. But the generals soon realized that any victories were short-lived. What they conquered one day was recovered by the Cristeros later when the army marched on.

Cristero Banner - Brigada

In Guanajuato, a series of uprising took place linked to those of the neighboring State of Jalisco. On December 27, the delegates of diverse places met secretly in Leon and decided on the date of January 3 for the uprising in that city and surrounding villages, and not January 1 as previously planned.

However, due to the lack of centralized command and organization, not all the towns could be advised of the change. So the Cristeros entered and successfully took the towns of Jalpa de Cánavas and San Diego de Alejandria on January 1, and then proceeded on to enter triumphantly into San Francisco del Rincón, an important village of the State. However, the federal government was now forewarned and alert to new attacks in the area.

In León, seven young Cristeros led by journalist José Valencia Gallardo tried to convince Domitilo Flores, the police chief of the region of Coecillo, to join the Cristero cause, toward which he appeared to be favorable. But at the last moment, Flores betrayed them and delivered them to General J. Trinidad López.

On the night of January 2, they were imprisoned and sentenced without a trial to die the next morning. At first light, they were taken from the prison to be tortured and executed by gunfire.

Nicolas Navarro, who cried out "Courage, my brothers, remember the cause we stand for!" was beaten in the face to break his teeth. After mangling his body with sword cuts, the federals shot him. He died, crying out, "Yes, I die for Christ, who never dies! Viva Cristo Rey!"

Seeing this, the youngest of the group, 20-year-old Agustín Rios, began to sob. José Gallardo strongly rebuked the executioners, and then exhorted his companion to die bravely for Christ and the Virgin of Guadalupe. Gallardo was beaten in order to silence him. When he responded with the cry of Viva Cristo Rey, they cut out his tongue, and sarcastically said, “Now speak.” Gallardo, who had freed one hand from the ropes that bound him to a stake, raised it and pointed his finger to Heaven as a confession of his Faith. The infuriated federal soldiers cut the hand off, and then split open his skull with their rifle butts.

Then they shot Jose Vazquez, Agustin Rios, Salvador Vargas and Ezequiel Gomez. Only one of the seven survived, Juarez Isabel.

A Lesson That Backfires

The executioners hoped to make a lesson of these six martyrs and took the corpses of the six martyrs to the main square of Leon across from the Government Palace to expose them to the eyes of the people.

When Doña Martina Gallardo the mother of José Valencia Gallardo demanded that the executioners give her the remains of her son, they refused. She responded, “It does not matter if you refuse to hand over the body of my son to me, for this morning (January 3, 1927) I offered his soul to the Sacred Heart.” When they finally agreed to hand over his remains, she kissed his mutilated feet and exclaimed, “A martyr! Thank you, my Mother, for he was yours!”

Standing before the body of her son, the mother of Ezequiel Gómez said these words, “O my son, pray for your mother and your brothers and sisters so that we can follow your example. You are certainly in Heaven!”

Hours later, 200 Cristeros entered the city. With nothing more than some rifles, the Cristeros rushed to the barracks, attacked the government soldiers with strong fire and disbanded them. The city of Leon held grand funerals for the six who were killed. Today they are commemorated as the Six Martyrs of Leon.

A new group of martyrs of Christ the King! Young, generous, authentic heroes of the Mexican nation, who died defending a noble ideal, giving their lives for the cause of the Kingdom of Christ in society and to protect the Church from a Masonic persecution.

“Better to die than to stand by impassively before the evils taking place in our Country,” José Valencia Gallardo and his companions said when they took up the Cristero cause. The six martyrs of Leon joined hundreds of other Mexicans who preferred to give their lives than see the Catholic Faith compromised.

Six Martyrs of Leon Cristeros

Commemorating the six Cristero martyrs of Leon in the State of Guanajuato

Bibliography

Orozco Luis Alfonso, Madera de Héroes, El Arca, México 2005
Jean Meyer, La cristiada, la guerra de los cristeros, Coyoacán: Siglo XXI editores, 1973

Source

"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Archbp. Lefebvre 1980

Admin
Senior Member

Posts: 5,838

The Cristeros - Catholic Soldiers of Christ Jan 16, 2018 14:16:41 GMT

Post by Admin on Jan 16, 2018 14:16:41 GMT

The Masonic Agenda against the Church

Fr. Denis Fahey, C.S.Sp.

Fr. Fahey was writing Secret Societies and the Kingship of Christ in 1927, while the Calles government was striving to wipe out the Catholic Church and her influence from Mexico. He recorded the important role of Freemasonry in generating this Revolution, citing original documents from Masonic journals.

Given the new momentum of the Cristeros War (1926-1929) acquired today, we selected some excerpts from chapter V of Fr. Fahey’s book focusing on how Freemasonry was operating in Catholic countries. We took the liberty to slightly adapt the text by including some of Fahey’s footnotes in the article. - TIA

The forces that control Masonry proceed slowly and cautiously, resulting in the acceptance of the so-called "progressivist" ideas. At a point when the people are completely blinded and powerless, those leaders considered to be moderate and who figured on the stage during the period of preparation disappear. More fanatically progressivist leaders replace them to serve their turn. …

During the years of preparation, Masonry aims at getting a hold on key governmental staff positions. Thus, even the good men who become ministers find themselves very frequently powerless. Needless to say, divisions among Catholics who should stand for the Kingship of Christ permit this staffing process to go on unheeded and unchecked.

Masonic Decisions of 1906

At the 1906 General Convention of Latin-American Lodges, held in Buenos Aires, it was resolved, among other things, that religious persecution should be initiated and carried out zealously by every possible means. The following Articles, taken from the minutes of the Convention in question, embody the program of action:

“Art. 5. Latin-American Masonry shall oppose by every possible means clerical propaganda as well as the establishment and development of religious communities. It shall, in addition, do all in its power to get these communities banished from the different countries under its jurisdiction. Accordingly, Masons shall not send their children to be educated in Catholic educational establishments, and shall use their influence over their wives and children to keep them from going to confession;

“Art. 6. Masons shall try to stir up the zeal of the members of the different political parties for Masonic ideals: the separation of Church and State, the expulsion of religious communities; civil marriage and divorce, purely secular education, the exclusion of religious from hospitals, the suppression of military chaplains.”

“Art. 10. Masonry shall strive to get the representative at the Vatican withdrawn, thus showing that the Papacy is no longer considered an International power.”

The Example of Mexico

Mexico is a typical example of the rapidity with which the closing stages of the process of disruption may be carried through.

President Plutarco Calles, center, came to power to execute the Masonic plan to destroy the Church

Mexico was ripening for the Masonic harvest, according to A. Preuss in his October 15, 1913, article in Fortnightly Review. The distinguished writer, in describing the state of religion in Mexico, pointed out that the Indians never lost the faith taught them by the first Spanish missionaries. Similarly, the Mexican women were devout and pious. Mexican men of the so-called educated classes, in contrast, were mostly Masons.

Preuss added that he had often assisted on Sundays at the sad spectacle of men accompanying women to the door of the church, but then lighting a cigar and sitting down outside until the end of Mass. Doubtless, he commented, it would be wrong to say that all the men behave in this way, but the number of those who did so was considerable. They were the “liberal” as opposed to the “fanatical” Catholics. In its August 1926 issue Masonic Tidings those men and their works were extolled in flattering terms were described as having a “strong character.”

Persecution Catholics Mexico

The world ignored the Calles' government massacre of Mexican Catholics

Persecution Catholics Mexico

According to the English review, The Patriot (November 25, 1926), Masonry in Mexico is particularly under Jewish control. The R.I.S.S. (Revue Internationale des Societés Secretes - International Review of Secret Societies) always speaks of [Mexican President] Plutarco Elias Calles as a half-Jew.

The press of the world, after having made no attempt to inform its readers of the real causes of the events chronicled about Mexico, nor of the lengthy preparations for them, discreetly lets the curtain fall on yet another country from which Our Lord has been expelled, at least so far as human legislation can do it. ...

The majority of Mexican Catholics would have laughed incredulously a century or so ago if told that such a state of affairs was coming in their country. There were clouds on the horizon even then, for anti-clericalism was rife; but the present-day systematic uprooting of the Catholic Faith and the cutting off of the minds of the coming generations from all contact with it would have then seemed impossible. Could we not say that the lack of Catholic understanding by Catholics of the aim and methods of Masonry has contributed greatly to the present cataclysm?

As the final stage in the attack on the Kingship of Christ in Mexico was accelerated by the Masonic Convention of Buenos Aires in 1906, it may be of interest to note that an International Convention of delegates of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was announced for the same city in 1927. Representatives from the Supreme Councils of the following countries would be in attendance: England and Wales, Ireland, Scotland, France, Belgium, Low Countries, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Poland, Serbia, Rumania, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, San Domingo, Panama, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Chili, Ecuador, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela.

What fresh advances in the path of progress had the representatives of Ireland the happiness of decreeing there?

[Note: Ireland was the only country that broke diplomatic relations with Mexico in response to the atrocities committed by the Calles’ government against Catholics.]

Calles Is Supported by the U.S. & Russia

The assassination of General Albaro Obregón (Calles’ sucessor) on July 17, 1928, has again drawn attention to Mexican affairs. Due to Obregón's death, the result of a clandestine plot, the civilized world condescended for a moment to take notice of the thousands of Catholics who have been killed and tortured for months [in the Cristeros war] by the Masonic Sect in control.

US Ambassador Morrow bows to Calles in Mexico in 1927

But now the Society of Nations has again returned to its hypocritical work of turning out high-sounding phrases about Humanity, the right of peoples to dispose of their destinies, and the protection of racial and religious minorities. …

Moscow and Mexico represent today, each in its own fashion, two culminating points in the eternal war of religion. … The workings of these two countries stand out as crimes knowingly accepted and willed by the world.

The differences between the two countries are evident to us. The coup d'etat in Central America has not yet developed to the extent of the Russian Revolution, but we have proved the Jewish plot against Russia a hundred times. Indeed, the man who would declare himself unable to see the hand of Masonry in the misfortunes of Mexico must be very blind. They are two triumphs of the same hidden forces. …

Out of the 3,696,000 Masons spread over the world, 3,000,000 are to be found in North America. They are characteristically rich, enterprising, seek to take control of their Protestant country, and are ever prepared to secretly assist the attacks of the 18,000 Masons of Central America against the traditional Latin order of the countries. Such is the explanation of the revolutions which periodically devastate those large countries…

Short-sighted politicians, concerned exclusively with secular or lay interpretations of the Freemason's historic work, will never understand the condition of affairs. Moreover, they do not want public opinion to acquire even an inkling of the key of this mystery. There is, however, no other explanation. All the convulsions of martyred Mexico form only one phase of the struggle of the Yankee Masonic Leviathan against the old Catholic Spanish Civilization of the South. …

Calles’ persecution of the Church

Plutarco Elías Calles is a Mason, and one of the chief agents of Masonry. This has been denied because the Blue Mexican Lodges are not recognized by the Great Lodges of America. … but Calles is a member of the Scottish Rite in the most conventional fashion. He has received the 32nd degree, according to the Trestle Board. As such, his initiation allows him two jurisdictions: the Northern and the Southern halves of the United States. The Masonic Chronicler even goes so far as to affirm that he has now received the 33rd degree.

At any rate, as we have already remarked, he has received a gold medal from the Supreme Council of the Order in recognition of his services. The High Unknown Superiors could not find a more worthy recipient for such an honor.

Persecution Catholics Mexico Cristeros

A routine execution of a Cristero (1927); below, villagers view bodies massacred by federal troops

Massacre of Cristeros

Having been dissatisfied with the massacre of the Catholics capable of offering opposition to the systematic de-Catholicization of their country, Calles, from the very first day, skillfully began to prepare for the future by organizing the ‘Massacre of the Innocents.’ He closed the free schools (in which religion could be taught) and opened an immense number of secular schools, evening classes and clubs for youth, etc., all destined to bring young souls under the yoke of Free Thought.

The Masonic Trestle Board of February, 1928, enlightens its readers as follows:

Mexico - The efforts of the Calles Government to regulate educational questions are giving the most satisfactory results, and official statistics show us that the country is already in possession of 5,479 schools, with 1,183,333, pupils. The schools are divided as follows: 378 kindergarten schools, 136 agricultural schools, 4,467 primary schools, 67 secondary and preparatory schools, 65 normal schools, 57 professional schools, 22 colleges, and 287 commercial or technical establishments, maintained by the States as well as by the Federal Budget.

Of course, no mention is made of the number of ecclesiastical or religious establishments that have been closed or confiscated in order to establish this enormous machine designed to pervert consciences, all under the 'eye' of Masonry. Already, under the present dictatorship, the number of Masons has doubled, according to William L. Vail, Commander of the Scottish Rite.

The progress is especially noticeable, as might well be anticipated, in the political world, the universities and the army. Besides the President, three of his chief Ministers are members of Lodges, as of September, 1927: Aaron Saenz, Minister of Foreign Affairs, which explains the Jewish effrontery of some diplomatic denials of the atrocities; Louis Montes de Oca, Minister of Finance; and Adalberto A. Tejeda, Minister of Home Affairs. …

Most of the brutalities committed by the police and the soldiers bear the mark of satanic hatred of God. Specifically, the parish-priest of Tarnazula was arrested by emissaries of Calles who, with the avowed intention of rendering him forever incapable of offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, burned his two hands.

Thus the Masonic seal is affixed to the regime… (1)

Lindbergh – Masonry’s ambassador

In May, 1927, American aviator Col. Charles Lindberg made the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean . The Masonic Trestle Board (January, 1928), gave the following account of another voyage of the Atlantic conqueror later that year – this time to Mexico as ambassador of the United States:

Ambassador Morrow, Lindbergh, Mexico

Lindberg, at right, greeted by Ambassador Morrow and Gen. Alvarez on his arrival in Mexico, 1928

When Brother * Ch. A. Lindberg landed the other day in Mexico and received the fraternal Latin embrace of Brother * Elias Calles, President of the Southern Republic, the invisible but all-powerful ‘hand of fidelity’ reached at last through the close network of distrust and misunderstanding that has reigned for years between the two great American Republics.

The ‘ambassador of good-will,’ as the newspapers have called him, confiding in the Great Architect rather than in the weak material of his airplane, has brought to the Mexican people a true pledge of friendship and of brotherly union.

The exploit of Brother ‘Lindy’ is, in fact, significant for all those who have received Masonic initiation and who know that misunderstandings always arise from lack of light. ‘Lindy' has dispersed many of the clouds that veiled the image of Mexico in the minds of Americans … the fog and darkness cast upon Mexico by Romish propaganda in a despairing effort to overthrow the work of Brother * Elias Calles.

Mexico is winning back the confidence of the world, for it has, in recent years, moved forward rapidly towards real independence. Its youth are now being brought up in schools free henceforward from the influence of Popish agents, and we can even now predict, without fear of error, that the Mexico of tomorrow will be the ideal and the example of the other Latino-American Republics, in which the discontent provoked by the autocracy and obscurantism of Rome has progressed by leaps and bounds.

We wish an ever-increasing success to Brother * ambassador Lindberg and to his fellow-visitor to Mexico, Brother * ambassador W. Rogers. (2)

Behind the triumphal reception of the famed aviator, we can see, the secret alliance between the Masons of the two countries to carry on the war of persecution and calumny against the Catholic Church in Mexico.

Russia’s hand is also clearly seen in the Mexican revolution shaking that country today. The workers in Mexico are dominated by the C.R.O.M. (in Spanish, Confederación Regional de Opreros Mexicanos, or Regional Mexican Workers Confederation).

The relations of the C.R.O.M. with Moscow are obvious, and were proclaimed with brazen effrontery on the occasion of the arrival in Mexico of Russian Minister Pethowski. The C.R.O.M. organized a grandiose reception, and Calles declared the day a public holiday at their request. In a Manual of Popular Readings drawn up for Mexican schools, Lenin's portrait figures prominently, and in it he receives the highest praise.” (3)

1. The Diario del Paso (El Paso, Texas, n. 692, April 7, 1928), states that the President of the Jewish organization of the B’nai B’rith has confirmed the information given to the press that 20,000 Jews will settle in Mexico during 1928, with the authorization of the Government. … (Article by Roger Duguet in R.I.S.S., Sept. 16, 1928.)
2. This account has been translated from the French of the R.I.S.S. {Revue Internationale des Societés Secretes - International Review of Secret Societies) of July 15, 1928, p. 658
3. R.I.S.S., July 22, 1928, pp. 163-164

Adapted from: Here and here

"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Archbp. Lefebvre 1980

Admin
Senior Member

Posts: 5,838

The Cristeros - Catholic Soldiers of Christ Jan 31, 2018 13:27:51 GMT

Post by Admin on Jan 31, 2018 13:27:51 GMT

Standing on the side of the road, Father Luis Batiz Sainz was given the opportunity to save his life.

The federal soldiers, armed with guns, told him all he had to do was acknowledge the legitimacy of the virulent anti-Catholic, Mexican government.

The priest refused and was shot on the spot, on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 15, 1926, in the desolate mountains of Chalchihuites, Zacatecas.

VIVA CRISTO REY!

Source

"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Archbp. Lefebvre 1980

Admin
Senior Member

Posts: 5,838

The Cristeros - Catholic Soldiers of Christ Feb 1, 2018 13:20:47 GMT

Post by Admin on Feb 1, 2018 13:20:47 GMT

"I am innocent, and I die innocent. I forgive with all my heart those responsible for my death, and I ask God that the shedding of my blood serves toward the peace of our divided Mexico," said Father Cristóbal Magallanes Jara, as he faced his executioners and absolved them before they shot him to death, on May 25, 1927.

During the Cristero War, the Christian uprising against the oppressive anti-clerical Mexican government that persecuted Catholics, Father Cristóbal Magallanes Jara was arrested on his way to say Mass. For being a priest, he received a death sentence.

VIVA CRISTO REY!

Source

"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Archbp. Lefebvre 1980

Deleted
Deleted Member

Posts: 0

The Cristeros - Catholic Soldiers of Christ Feb 1, 2018 15:52:19 GMT

Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2018 15:52:19 GMT

Thanks admin. Too often we forget what the world is really like. The reason we do not have bloodshed in the streets today is there is no longer a distinction between faiths. Only some muslim countries make it clear and stand what they believe in. Wrong and barbarous as it is.

Last Edit: Feb 1, 2018 15:53:34 GMT by Deleted

Admin
Senior Member

Posts: 5,838

The Cristeros - Catholic Soldiers of Christ Feb 5, 2018 15:04:44 GMT

Post by Admin on Feb 5, 2018 15:04:44 GMT

An "illegal" underground Mass on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 15, 1929, when the Holy Mass and the Sacraments were outlawed and priests became enemies of the State during the Cristero War (1926–29), a civil revolt in Mexico against the anti-Catholic policies of the Mexican government, which enacted, under President Plutarco Elías Calles, a statute to enforce the anti-clerical articles of the Mexican Constitution of 1917, which sought to eliminate the power of the Catholic Church. Countless faithful were martyred and 4,000 priests were martyred in or exiled from Mexico for offering the outlawed holy sacrifice of the Mass.

VIVA CRISTO REY!

Source

"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Archbp. Lefebvre 1980

Admin
Senior Member

Posts: 5,838

The Cristeros - Catholic Soldiers of Christ Feb 13, 2018 16:31:09 GMT

Post by Admin on Feb 13, 2018 16:31:09 GMT

"I am here with my people, live or die," Father Justino Orona Madrigal told his parishioners worried for his safety during the Cristero War (1926–29).

The civil revolt by the Cristeros (Soldiers of Christ) was against the anti-Catholic policies pushed by Plutarco Elías Calles, who enforced the anti-clerical articles of the Mexican Constitution of 1917, which sought to eliminate the power of the Catholic Church through persecution and execution.

Father Justino Orona Madrigal served his parishioners from Las Cruces (The Cross) ranch, where he and another priest, Father Atilano Cruz Alvadrado, prayed the rosary together and discussed their pastoral duties.

But then, on July 1, 1928, 40 federal soldiers swarmed Las Cruces, at dawn.

When his door slammed open, Father Justino Orona Madrigal shouted "Long live Christ the King!" as soldiers gunned him down.

VIVA CRISTO REY!

Source

"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Archbp. Lefebvre 1980

Admin
Senior Member

Posts: 5,838

The Cristeros - Catholic Soldiers of Christ Feb 14, 2018 17:44:27 GMT

Post by Admin on Feb 14, 2018 17:44:27 GMT

Father Pedro Esqueda Ramirez was severely tortured after his arrest, on November 18, 1927, for being a practicing Catholic priest during the Cristero War (1926–29), when the Church was outlawed and Catholics were persecuted and executed by the Mexican government.

"Now you must be sorry for being a priest," one soldier said to him after a horrendous beating.

"No, not a moment, and I have but a little time before I see Heaven," the priest answered serenely.

Dragged from prison to his place of execution, on November 22, 1927, the priest was surrounded by Catholic children, distraught about his fate.

"Do not stop studying the catechism, nor leave the Christian doctrine at all," the priest repeated to those who walked beside him to the outskirts of Teocaltitlán, Jalisco, where he was shot with three bullets that ended his earthly life and began his eternal life.

VIVA CRISTO REY!

Source

"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Archbp. Lefebvre 1980

Admin
Senior Member

Posts: 5,838

The Cristeros - Catholic Soldiers of Christ Feb 15, 2018 18:53:56 GMT

Post by Admin on Feb 15, 2018 18:53:56 GMT

Father José Isabel Flores Varela was arrested after a reward was issued by Jose Orozco, the mayor of Zapotlanjejo, for the capture of any priest during the Cristero War (1926–29), when the Church was outlawed and Catholics were persecuted and executed by the Mexican government.

After imprisoned for three days, without food or water, the priest was dragged to a nearby cemetery, where a noose was placed around his neck. He was repeatedly tortured by being lifted by his neck, but lowered before he died.

When one of the soldiers, who had been baptized by the priest, refused to participate in the torture, he was shot.

After the guns jammed and did not fire in a failed attempt to shoot the priest, commander Anastasio Valdivia took a knife and slit the throat of Father José Isabel Flores Varela, in the early morning hours of June 21, 1927.

VIVA CRISTO REY!
Source

"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Archbp. Lefebvre 1980

Admin
Senior Member

Posts: 5,838

The Cristeros - Catholic Soldiers of Christ Feb 19, 2018 14:54:01 GMT

Post by Admin on Feb 19, 2018 14:54:01 GMT

A priest ordained only three years earlier, Father Margarito Flores Garcia requested to be sent to a parish where priests were being persecuted.

It was during the time of the Cristero War (1926–29), the civil revolt by the Cristeros (Soldiers of Christ) against the anti-Catholic policies pushed by Plutarco Elías Calles, who enforced the anti-clerical articles of the Mexican Constitution of 1917, which sought to eliminate the power of the Catholic Church through persecution and execution.

Not long after arriving in the village of Atenango del Río, he was arrested, roped, and then dragged to be presented to the general, in Tulimán, where the order was given to execute the priest because of odium fidei, hatred of the Faith.

Before the firing squad, Father Margarito Flores Garcia requested permission to pray, kneeled briefly, kissed the ground and stood. The guns fired, blasting his head, which was destroyed, on November 12, 1927.

VIVA CRISTO REY!

Source

"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Archbp. Lefebvre 1980

Admin
Senior Member

Posts: 5,838

The Cristeros - Catholic Soldiers of Christ Feb 23, 2018 23:35:20 GMT

Post by Admin on Feb 23, 2018 23:35:20 GMT

When the Mexican government ordered the closing of Catholic churches and outlawed the religion and its practictioners, Father Roman Adame Rosales continued his ministry in private homes.

Eventually, he was captured and tortured by federal soldiers. Tied to a post without water or food, after several days, he was taken to an open grave. There he was executed by a firing squad, on April 21, 1927.

One of the soldiers, Antonio Carillo, refused to shoot the priest, so his fellow soldiers shot him, too.

VIVA CRISTO REY!

Source

"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Archbp. Lefebvre 1980