 And welcome everybody back to Steve Cunnion with the Wismer of Fowler series continuation with Fowler Daniel Heenan The priest of attorney is st. Peter down in Mexico south of the border and before we start off Fowler welcome back But can you lead us off in the Regina chelie, please? Yes, of course No, me patris. If it is if you do something man Regina chelie le tarre alleluia Qui aqua me re we steep or tarre alleluia Resurrection Alleluia Or a promovies deum alleluia Gauria le tarre virgo Maria alleluia Qui asorexit dominoes veri alleluia. Oremos deus qui peres erexion infilii tui domino nostri esu christi Mundum le tificare diniatus es Presta cuesum osu pereius genitrici in virgina maria Perpetua e capiamos gauria vitae Periunim christam domino nostrom Amen No, many patris at fidea at speedy du sangti. Amen Just for those for edumication for people at home. We say that during This time period right at Easter between Easter and Pentecost, right? Yeah, that's right. It takes the place of the the angeles usually That we say at six noon and six in the rest of the year but during Easter season we change to the Regina chelie So you can always come here and learn something everybody Actually liturgically the you know the church has a different marian antiphon That is associated with the divine office for different seasons of the of the year You know, so it's not only the Regina chelie. So we also sing it at the end of complyn for instance and Formerly even more often but In other times of years. It's the the salve Regina or the ave Regina chelorum There's a variety of marian antiphons that enrich the liturgical life of the church That's awesome. Yeah, most people I think everyone just thinks to do the angeles or the salve at the end and never thinks about the change And that was I think we branched in a couple weeks a week ago with another priest that that was the the ending of it was Pope St. Gregory at a great Wrote that last part During the plague during a procession Of the salve or of the Regina chelie. Oh, yeah, I didn't know that Yeah, there was a really great article on ratae about that Talking about I can't remember where it came from golden book is translated People were literally dropping dead in the procession Uh, blow. Oh, yeah off the sword of st. Michael. It was reading it was I mean It wasn't actually probably not cool to see and all that but Makes you a little bit more. Wow. This was wasn't like a clean blade going in and sunshine and lollipops. It was People were dropping dead during the walk Wow, yeah intense So we're going to talk about another time when the masses were or the bells were silenced was the laracustiata or the casteros Some of you might have been familiar with the movie greater glory And palahinan's right smack dab in the middle of ground zero where the the resistance was where the casteros Basically was born. Would that be the right way? Yeah, um We're here in in halisco where guadalajara is It was one of the the hot spots where um, there were more martyrs. In fact Um, I heard several years ago. I don't know if it's still true But they said they say that uh, the state of halisco in mexico has more canonized saints Than all of the rest of the americas combined as a result of the the cristiana and it's amazing because this horrible religious persecution and Broke out not so long ago, right So just a little bit less than a hundred years ago and just south of our borders And many people don't know much about I remember reading that they were still finding them in the 50s and killing them in the states Going up into states and finding them Yeah, well, uh, in fact, um, more people died. There were more martyrs After the conflict officially ended because they They they made a truce and they made all the cristairos turn over their weapons to the government And then they went over they went around and rounded them up and killed many of them But be careful Yeah, you got that what happened in the vande. They could have they could have taken paris They didn't put down the weapons They got a basically exterminated saint sterilists Obedience is a tough thing That's right Definitely. So how did that come about though? It was the it was the constitution before Uh president kaiyes was before that that it led up to all this or was it Decades in the making Well, first of all, I'll just preface this and say i'm i'm not an expert in in in this just kind of a fan. So, um Uh, there's there's some great studies. For instance, um, there's a book by uh, john mire That I highly recommend if you want to later read more of the the details I'm still kind of learning Because it's just something that's so so interesting, but uh the book by john mire that has some great photos Is outstanding uh because the the man came to mexico to to study the the cristillada As an atheist and he left as a catholic the testimony of what he what he found Converted him so the the history of mexico is Is really quite a convoluted history um of very so many different interests Of people that is very catholic, you know the our lave butta lupe appeared here and uh, The people have the catholic faith in their heart But there's also a long history of a government that has been anti-anti-catholic And the the origins really go back to the colonial period a conflict between What turned into royal enlightenment interests when the french came to the to the spanish throne And uh enlightenment ideas about rationalizing the the faith and too many feast days and need to be more productive and all this kind of stuff that um led to Eventually the independence of of mexico that had a lot of religious Overtones because many people thought Well, it was time for you know the mexico to come of age Leave leave the mother country thank her for all that she gave us, you know and become independent because They wanted to defend the purity According to sun at least the purity of the catholic faith So if you look on the the mexican flag and the the colors The red the white and the green they say traditionally that the white is for the purity of the the catholic faith But there was mixed in with all that The seeds of of a great conflict because many people suspect that a lot of the first Revolutionaries were masons or had masonic influence Uh, they're a great hero. Miguel Adalgo Was a priest but not a very good priest who's uh condemned of heresy He was a womanizer and There's some studies that suggest that he was probably a mason himself And so he rallied the the poor to this this cause But not always with the purist of of intention so Right from the from the beginning of of mexico as an independent nation There was a conflict between the the church and and the state and It came to it it went Started increasing. Um, you can probably point to benito Juarez um in the Later half of the 19th century Who's who's like the george washington of of mexico every town has at least a hundred things named after him Um, and and he's famous because he was indigenous and he's looked at as the great reformer Okay, but he was also many ways a trader to his country According to more traditional minded people because he sold a lot of Mexico to the united states and oil interests and railroad interests and he also started persecuting the church He confiscated a lot of church land Um, he had to pay for his wars Uh to solidify his power and so, uh, he said well We're going to confiscate all the wealth that the the church has from the colonial period and we're going to pay off the war debts and uh We're going to give land to the the common people Well, actually that didn't happen because I forget the exact numbers, but it's if we want to Make an estimate. It's like he confiscated something like 40 million dollars in those days of church wealth And like half a million of that went to actually pay off debts and veterans and everything the rest went to his cronies Okay, so a common a common, uh, thread in in the story of persecution of the church, right? Henry VIII paid his cronies with land confiscated from the church and Benito Juarez started doing things like he made it illegal for the church to educate So he kicked the the church out of the of the schools the Jesuits had already gone, right? That was a Bad point in history in terms of them abandoning all the universities and everything But now the rest of the religious couldn't run schools the the church couldn't for example, um He separated the church marriage and the civil marriage something we still have to to to this day um Where mexicans like like the french and other countries have this this laosized anti clerical society that says um, you have to go get married before justice of the peace and If you want a sacramental wedding you have to go to the church now The interesting thing is benito Juarez who made that rule when his daughter got married Um, he didn't even allow her to have a civil marriage. She said civil marriages are for prostitutes and so He uh, he procured a uh a religious wedding for his his own daughter, right? So a little A bit of a double center there So the constitution uh, the reforms he made okay were one step and then there there was a new constitution Made in i think it was 1917 in in uh in mexico that put in more anti clerical provisions and then for a while they weren't enforced very much They kind of looked the other way because you have this big problem of the It's one thing to say it But to actually do it you're going to have a revolution on your hands because of the fact that the church is Is is more present to people in the in The rural areas of the country, you know than the government, right? They respect much more the government of the church than the government so you have to tread tread carefully, but It getting into the the the 20s and With uh with well kaiyes in particular, but also oberagon and and others The the restrictions on the church became more and more severe and the first step Actually, there's a couple of Encyclicals that pope pious the 11th Wrote addressing the situation that um are quite interesting to read because he he laments That this is amongst he says I think in one of them Since the apostolic time since the early persecutions in in rome We haven't seen things so terrible as what we're seeing in in mexico right now and so the the the church asked permission of the pope to basically Put the whole country in under interdict although To clarify they said it's not it wasn't an interdict because the sacraments kept being celebrated But but the the church took the decision. Okay, we can't operate under these conditions Because the government was saying things like Okay, uh in certain regions you can only have so many priests right and and the proportions were horrible You know, it's like one priest for every 50,000 people, you know Or or in other places are saying You can only have this percentage of priests and the only priests that can work are those who are married, right? So basically making it impossible So they said we can't work under these circumstances. So we're going to pull all the priests out of the churches Okay churches are we're giving them to the the care of the faithful And the priests can't be there anymore so that the people rise up against this unjust government So More as things change more to stay the same, right? I remember what was it the there's I got quite a few books I got myers book on it, but one of them goes up poor mexico so far from rome so close to united states Yeah, they have some they they have a uh They have a saying here something like You know when when the united states gets the gets a cold mexico gets gets the flu or something like this I even heard president coolidge Was siding with the the mexican government during this well, yeah and and that's a interesting tale of intrigue Because the role of the united states had for a long time with with the mexican government has been rather complicated There was a great fascination on the part of the early mexican liberals With everything in the united states when they made their first constitution they wanted to be Like the french revolution and like the american revolution So it was you know a few decades later the mexico gained its independence 1812. I believe And and they wanted to imitate everything In the united states so just so that there's a there's a tale about The american ambassador arrives And and one of the is the first one of the first mexican presidents has made this great room in one of the palaces and They in this in this huge dining room where all these european dignitaries are and everything on one end of the room There's a big portrait of george washington and on the other end of the room. There's some portrait of a of a greek god Um, and this was sort of their idea of of liberalism, right? And yeah, so The the american government ended up siding for instance with benito fuarez because they they thought Benito fuarez was going to restore order and in a cert You can kind of it's easy to judge from in retrospect Okay The history of mexico was horrible. They had you know, so many different changes of presidents and leaders and murderers and all this stuff and Benito fuarez brought a certain amount of uh, like order and stability ruled for a long time and then even after him Um with porfirio dies who had an extremely long presidency running always on the the um the The platform of no reelection They said after me after I get everything in order there'll be no reelection So the united states saw them as adding stability, which was in their interest and also benito fuarez sold them lots of land and everything so Um, when it came to the to the cristiata Yeah, the american government ended up selling uh weapons to the forces of kaiyes To put down this supposed rebellion, which was really an uprising to defend basic rights of being able to Have chirp have mass That was the weird part because silent cow was one that when they asked him about putting a phone in the white house Told them just to walk down the street. He wasn't going to put a phone in the white house thought it was an overreach Yeah, let's send them a bunch of weapons Yeah, on the other hand the knights of columbus Uh had a positive uh had a helpful role because when they became aware probably Cheating the call of uh payas the 11th who brought brought the attention of what was going on in mexico to the rest of the world The knights of columbus came to the came uh to help the the cristairos and their in their effort Yeah, there's a there's a march in dc where the kkk is protest and then the the knights of columbus bringing in refugees during the time but uh It was like they had an underground group down in mexico to helping out before they basically got unified with uh Yeah, so so the idea was At first the you know the idea wasn't to take up arms But to to to do a boycott. So another great figure um is uh blasted anacleto gonzales flores who We need to do uh, we need a project to translate his works Because he is uh an outstanding figure Uh martyred i think at the age of 27 um, but he started something like 30 different newspapers and and Before he died a martyre. So he was an intellectual and um wrote, uh, for instance, there's one book Um, uh, it's called to seras ore you will be king and it's a call to the youth and and he's got this this stunning Compelling rhetoric where he says, you know, the youth are always looking for something adventurous You know, they have this natural instinct to give yourself to to something right and our age Demands that we we be ready for martyrdom because the our nation depends on on you You know, you have to come to the rescue of the cause of of of the faith And he goes on to explain how um, you know, every age has uh Been defined by its heroes those who are willing to risk the most For a cause that's greater than than themselves. Oh wow And he did exactly that so he went to mass daily. He was a lawyer I think he he's married with two daughters if i'm not mistaken um, and he's organized this catholic action league um Trying first a boycott. So they wanted to collapse the economy um by uh Saying that, you know, the catholics are only gonna buy the most minimal things to show the government that We're not happy with with all this um, and it started to it started to work actually, but um, the the government came back with Greater greater restrictions and it became evident that they weren't going to be able to to do anything unless they uh, they take up arms How many days or weeks or months they did the boycotting before they said, you know We got it. We got to do it I'm not uh Yeah, I'm not sure exactly how long that lasts I'd have to look I'd have to look that up But it lasted it went through different phases too where they they Try and increase what they were boycotting and he was um, uh They would send up balloons for instance with these pamphlets to so and so they would Scatter all over the the city so people would um know what they were being asked to do but um eventually um The peaceful uh protest was was not going to be It's not going to be sufficient. Uh, the government became more and more obstinate in their uh attack on the church And as that was honorable of them, right? It was just worth 30. They got try every option before violence yeah, yeah um And uh and and as a and as a last resort right to to to mobilize the the peasants really it was mostly peasants from the From the outlying areas who you know, uh may not have known their catechism very well I I imagine but they they they knew you know that if someone insults our lady and if someone uh takes away the the mass and and it became quite obvious because Uh the the measures against the church went on increasing, right? So they they were looking for pretext to blame the the catholics for violence against the the government and and all this to It Increase the the measures they were taking um, and so It began by limiting The church to for instance not having to only exercise ministry in churches and their own buildings They couldn't do processions. They outlawed the cassock and then they flat out outlawed the mass, right? And so that's when you get the the biggest um, uh amount of martyrs, uh or figures like um Miguel pro Miguel pro was earlier, but um Miguel pro exemplifies what many priests had to do, right? He went around In disguise, you know, and and and there's pictures of him even, you know He would dress up like a mechanic or a bum even and lay on a park bench And people would would uh come and go to confession with him and he looked like just a bum drunk bum laying there I I think it was your father Romanowski had a sermon on him and he mentioned that He knew there were the authorities were looking for him and he'd go up in between two federales and go Hey, did you get that guy yet? And he said no, let's just walk off They said, you know, God gives each each of us the graces and talents and everything we need So if you read his biography says he was a practical jokester since his since his youth And it came to be came to be quite useful and his brother too was was a martyr because his brother actually was accused of Attempting to kill the president. They blamed him um because of his role in organizing this, uh, the the resistance and everything and uh They they framed him for planting a bomb in the car Overgone Who uh, how many priests in general you think were uh martyr, I mean Yeah, that yeah, I don't I don't know. There were there were lots not all have been canonized. Uh, so, um In in halisco the the diocese of guadalajara did a great effort to get many have been canonized But there's others there's more, you know, for instance, we have uh, One of our deacons, uh, who's going to be ordained a priest this this year He is related. He's like a great uncle or something who can't remember the relation exactly but uh, who was martyred in the in the christiana and We I went with deacon Javier, um a couple months ago to, um, uh Meet the retired cardinal uh here who was instrumental in getting all these, um Saints canonized and he was disappointed that he didn't know about that that case and he said well, well You have to send me the information. Uh, maybe we can, uh, Organize another campaign for to canonize even more of these these murders. Wow. Wow And not and not just priests but many many laypeople too. Um, right I mean a very interesting you mentioned the uh, the movie for greater glory Which kind of mixes of number stories. So historically, it's not 100 accurate, but I think it's good. It shows it brings a part of history to life that many people are unfamiliar with Um, but uh, there's a great book by gram green Uh called the power in the glory So gram green if if you're not familiar is one of these literary converts an english author Who was fascinated with mexico So he came over to mexico during this whole thing to observe to see And the the book the power in the glory Which was actually on the index for a short while because the main characters of a priest who's disgraceful um Who fathered uh children and Wasn't interested in in in being a very good priest for a while Um, but it starts out with him, you know lamenting his own Uh unworthiness But being amazed at the faith of the people so he would you know, had he had this mask kit He would go go around with And there everyone there was like a line of people who wanted to carry his mask kit And they knew that if you got caught carrying his mask kit, you would be killed They have a mass item was illegal And he he he reflects in this how he's too cowardly to die a martyr But yet somehow he's involved In the martyr martyrdom of these other people who are so eager to lay down their their their lives just by carrying his mask kit Wow I think uh tampos is blood-drenched altars. Um, yeah We have read that one in uh no god next door yeah And like like I said that there's there's so many interesting stories that you know need to be discovered So I've I've enjoyed Traveling to little towns When I when I have a chance and I need to do it more but You go to a little town here there where there's a martyr and and they haven't really Capitalized on this like in europe where where these places become pilgrimage sites Although I have the I've had the desire to organize a pilgrimage to try and Follow the route of these unknown martyrs Um, but you can come across so many interesting stories. I discovered recently um a martyr uh, saint uh, rodrigo aguilar um, who um In a he was killed in a town little town called a hutla And I went to this town and it's still very traditional because it's very remote um, and and there's still like people Praying the rosary out walking around in the town square and the old people Always take their hat off to the priest just a lot and they they told the bells for the angelists and They preserved a lot of this and this this saint um Was uh had to go into hiding Um and was betrayed then by the person who is who is uh protecting him And so he got beaten up and they stripped of all his All his goods even his clothes right and he has to walk all these miles to hide and hide in a convent And um there he opened up, uh, a seminary in secret And he had to celebrate mass. It was like six months or so And I got to celebrate mass on that on that altar. That was awesome And the nuns the same order of nuns who are still there um, we just came with um with a group of seminarians And we decided we'd have a sung mass in this altar And none of the nuns were going to attend mass. They'd already gone to mass But they started observing the traditional mass And it dawned on them that that's that's like saint rodrigo's mass And they all started coming into their cloister section And then there's a seminary in town the word spread and all the seminarians came Just out of the blue to attend this this mass, no So saint rodrigo was there running his little seminary And uh the the the soldiers got word of where he was hiding So they came and the people come to him and they said, you know, you gotta you gotta run He says I have a duty to do he said and he says they they can take my life But they're not going to take our faith. So he sent all his seminarians away That he was giving them a latin test. So they were probably happy that that But he destroyed all the records of of the seminarians because he didn't want them to get get caught Because this was common. They were ordaining priests and secret, you know basements and places And they ended up kept they caught him there And they walked him through through the town and they hung him from a mango tree But which is still there that it's kind of like a relic this mango tree where they where they hung him And as he was being hung he he gave his rosary to one of the executioners As as a as a parting gift and said I forgive you And uh, so his relics are are there. Oh, wow Yeah, awesome awesome stories. Uh one question that came in sarah ask are priests ever allowed to take up arms? Uh Priests are not supposed to uh to take up arms normally Although there's many cases of of exceptions It was a oh, yeah Everyone's everyone everyone knows about him, right? Yeah, um, and and he's from a town not too far from here. So, um, the town of so why yo He's not canonized because he's from a different diocese. So it depends on how they organize these or he was only recently canonized, sorry but uh So I I've been able to celebrate mass near his tomb as well. So, uh, jose sanchez del rio From so why yo now so why yo was really The first town where there was where violence broke out And when you go to so why yo you can visit not only the relics of sun, uh, Jose sanchez del rio, but uh, there's a museum there and there's actually a whole bunch of other martyrs unknown But what happened is when the government ordered the churches closed? Okay, so I mentioned that first the the church ordered the priest to leave but they let the church is open Then the government closed the churches And a group of men in so why yo said over our dead bodies? And literally that's that's what happened They would not let the government go into the church because what they were doing in many places They were turning the uh The church is in this to stables and and actually there's a church right here close to where we are Um, where I've celebrated mass too where that's they literally put horses in the in the church You know, they took it and they put horses and other animals. So jose sanchez del rio of course got himself uh In the sights of the enemies for martyrdom because he said you can't do this when he was in prison And he let all the chickens out of the cages because they were training Cock for cock fights and he said this is blessed. You know, this is sacrilegious And he let all the animals escape and then he went back to a cell and then they found him in the morning They're like, you know who did this? He's like, yeah, I did this. Um, so And and what an example he is because He's the one that you know, he begged his mother to let him join the army when he was like 13 years old or something and his mother, of course, like any mother would say to their 13 year old no But he said to his mother But mom never has it been easier to win heaven than now And so his mom couldn't resist that that child childlike faith and so his role was to um to Go around the the army Uh in the camp and ask all the soldiers if they prayed the rosary that day Like he was reminding them like why why we're fighting so in so why yo um when I last went there we got to meet um Someone who an older person who had stories like still living memory who told us about um some miracles that had occurred But around the the tomb right so um it let me make sure I'm remembering the details well, but um one of the soldiers Uh who I think was involved in his execution um was uh Still around in that town and they had set up a little shrine to him shortly after his death and this soldier was Recalcitrant, so he would go into the uh, he would he wanted to destroy the the shrine So he uh he went in with a couple of other soldiers I think and they were going to fire on the little shrine The day they had made but the guns wouldn't go off So they they went outside And they shoot the rifles up in the air and they work fine Then they go back inside and they take aim Doesn't work and they did this like like three times And finally the guy realized This is a this is a message So the the soldier dropped his weapons began to to cry And this person from the town said that that soldier Almost never left the shrine for the whole rest of his life He converted and would be seen there in front of the relics praying every single day until he died Like a couple years earlier than before we had made that visit. Oh, wow Yeah incredible The constitution that there is now is Not much different from what it was then right? It's Nothing really got repealed. Is it am I correct on that? Well, some things changed over time. So when the whole conflict ended, um, the um That there was a negotiation between the church and the and the state And and many people actually there's still criticisms even saying that that the pope betrayed the church in uh advocating for the To end the the war prematurely and telling the church to Accept terms that weren't favorable in the end to the church All the the bishops had all left the country the bishops had all left to most of them to the united states There's actually I think uh, it was still functioning Uh, uh, Jesuit seminary in new mexico It was specifically to train priests to go back to Mexico When the Jesuits left But when the bishops came back and they did this negotiation so that the churches Be open they accepted some some terms that were not so favorable like the the fact that You couldn't have processions in the street The priests couldn't wear clerical garb the marriage thing various various restrictions. So We live even to this day under Some difficult conditions as far as that's concerned people are surprised People hear even talk about how they say, you know How is it possible the united states is a Protestant country? But yet the the church has more rights there than it does in in mexico And it's true to a certain extent like you can't give a tax-deductible donation to the church here in mexico it does they don't allow that but Some things lightened up in 1978 1979 Uh, john paul II made a historic visit. I think john paul II came to mexico six times Um, and so they they gave him honorary citizenship. They say here Finally that john paul II was a the first mexican pope, uh, they they love john paul II Um, and he showed up in his cassock So the government like had this dilemma on their hands when john paul II showed up because it was still basically the same ruling party from the christiana They ruled They call it the perfect dictatorship because the the name changed, but it was really the same structure For like 70 years. There was like in the whole country only a handful of people that ever got elected from a different party So john paul II shows up in his cassock And the the president thinks yeah, they don't they're not really interested in the pope here in mexico It's not going to be a big deal. They've forgotten about it um, and he arrived and went on this motorcade from Puebla, uh, which is a historic city because there's when cortez arrived He had some some important battles there and made their march on mexico city over the mountains um To conquer mexico city So they followed the highway from Puebla to mexico city and millions of people where they're the whole stretch of highway There was not a section of it where there were not people just wanting to catch a glimpse of them So they have this dilemma. What are we going to do the popes ahead of state? We're going to like Find him we can give the pope a ticket So they had to make a concession to him and he put certain demands on the government to lighten up Certain things mexico only established diplomatic relations with the vatican at that at that time finally in like 1979 and certain things didn't change until later like I believe the law on on wearing a cassock was changed officially in the 90s um and There were changes. I think priests couldn't vote for a long long time um what else um Yeah, and there's still some the the processions there's still some things that haven't ever ever really changed Hugh asks, uh, what about the opinion of john mire that the cristero's war wasn't exclusively a religious conflict, but an agrarian one Well, I I think there's there might be something to that because everything in mexico mexico history Is tied up with the the land question So if you read, uh, there's a great book on the history of mexico called mexico land of volcanoes um, and it's called that because everything is erupts It's unstable We still we have here one of the most active volcanoes in in the western hemisphere And uh, so ever since the the independence All the political movements have been tied up with, uh questions of land this distribution, no, but, um Then it gets more complicated because you have this pretext like I mentioned with with Juarez and others who say You know, therefore the people they're they're the reform the land and then they dismantle these huge estates Where in in former times many of the landlords They may have had, you know, poor people working on their lands, but from from the spanish Really hapsford times There was this expectation that the landlords had a responsibility for the physical and spiritual well-being of the people that worked the lands at first, you know, that was the indians that were entrusted to the those landlords and later with more mestizaje The peasants in general the government comes in and and and and takes the land and sometimes gives away a little bit of it to people Who don't know how to run a farm on their own on their own But hey, hey have some land and good luck, right? And then these people fall into greater and greater poverty and they become subject to to certain demigods so, um, there was probably an element of that that same Um frustration amongst the poor people in the in the rural areas Uh of the government doing the same sort sort of thing Saying that they're going to help them with with the poverty of rural areas and the agrarian problem And not really doing it rather enriching their their, um, their friends Uh, john asked for another, uh, cristero your favorite cristero story I was hoping someone would ask that because those are the most fun. Um, so, um, one of the most popular cristeros Um is uh, santo torribio romo. Uh, maybe you've heard of him because he's become Mixed up with legend. He's he's also supposedly the patron of illegal illegal immigrants because there's some story about him appearing to some people Trying to illegally cross into the united states and giving them some dollars or something not Um, I don't doubt that uh miracles and apparitions happen, but that sounds a little fishy to me but santo torribio romo um was, um uh The pastor of uh, the church or the parish in tequila tequila is not just a drink, but it's a town Um, it's also it's about 45 minutes from from guadalajara He was he was born in uh, a town called santa ana de guadalupe So as a seminarian the persecution broke forth And he in secret in his free time built his own little chapel Near his near his home where he celebrated his first mass and uh Well just from a personal note. I got to celebrate a a mass there Again with a group of seminarians because we bring uh seminarians down here to learn Spanish and everything and we take these little tours And as we're celebrating Um, we're getting ready for the mass and there's a lady who's the sacrist in there And she's watching in admiration. First of all seeing all these these young men in cassox because to this day the cassox is not very common in mexico and so, um Uh, she's watching with amazement and after the mass she was just uh Um, floor, you know, she said I was imagining that As saint terribio romo celebrated his first mass. It probably looked a lot like that She was probably wrong because we had a solemn high mass and I think in persecution You probably didn't have that luxury nevertheless the essence of the mass, right? So sandal terribio romo rita. I have a quote here from him where as a seminarian he wrote in his journal Um lord pardon me if I am overstepping But I beg you to grant me this favor Do not let one day of my life pass without saying mass without embracing you in holy communion Give me a great hunger for you a thirst to receive you that I might be less uneasy all day Until I will have drunk of this water Which gushes forth under eternal life from that blessed rock of your wounded side Oh my good jesus, I beg that you grant me to die without having let a single day go by without having said holy mass and however, he was Prohibited from saying mass um An armed rebellion as he began in 1926 Okay, and he he said again in his diary I pray to the to the true god that he commanded these times of persecution cease Look your christs cannot celebrate the holy mass Rescue me from this painful test your priests having to live without celebrating the holy mass Nevertheless, how sweet it is to be persecuted for the sake of justice. Oh, wow so he moved from The church he had to move into a abandoned factory in a ravine outside of town And was hiding there With his brother his brother was his vicar So two brothers were priests in the same town and their sister because in that time Usually the youngest sister in a family if her brother became a priest She would give up marriage to Serve the her brother like as a housekeeper and a cook So there were I think 10 in the family and the sister was there their housekeeper and she took care for two brothers and the He says When he knew his death was imminent He asked the night before he he went to confession to his brother Because he knew he suspected he would soon die and he said oh tequila You impart to me the tomb, but I give you my heart Okay, and so they found him hidden there in the in the factory. I said this is the pastor. We must kill him Okay, and so they they they shot him and as he was there dying The uh, his sister took him in her arms And he she said you have you need to say the the the call of the cristeros, right a viva cristo re Okay, she she you say courage father terribio And may the most merciful jesus receive you and he died in in her arms So there's a shrine there. They still have this little cell you can visit Uh, and I had the privilege to celebrate mass on that altar And can I can I tell you another one go for it? Okay, so this isn't about Uh, well, there's more martyrs connected with it, but in mexico, uh in in the state of Guanajuato Uh, there's a shrine to cristo re it's called the hill of cubilete. Hey, this is another dream of mine Uh to organize a pilgrimage shard style A walking pilgrimage to this mountain because they the bishops Okay, I think it was in 1925 Um, or maybe the the idea began even earlier They wanted to they saw the tensions and everything and the government trying to take over what is rightfully christ And so the the bishops got together and said we're going to consecrate Mexico to the sacred heart of jesus and they responded to an initiative begun by father uh, father mateo We talked about before And mexico and spain became the first nations to publicly consecrate The nation to the sacred heart. There's the bishops who did it They built this monument on top of this hill that's one of the highest in the region and the geographical center of the of the country And um, the government did not like it very much. Okay, uh, they invited the uh, the papal nuncio or the papal observer to come in and uh Consecrate the cornerstone And the day after he was expelled from the country So that was the severing of diplomatic relations Then all these people started climbing this mountain. There were no roads But they they had this mass up there and suddenly there's like 25 000 people who who climbed Like a 15. I think it's almost 15 000 feet high or something like this To to to be at mass So then the government sent uh dynamite and blew it up And then the bishops got together said, you know what? We're going to build a bigger one And there were several of them destroyed and all this but It became a chapel of perpetual adoration the nocturnal adoration society began Adoring the blessed sacrament on this enormous mountain with a statue of christ the king on top of it The current statue is not the most beautiful the older one was better But nonetheless from a long way away you're driving down this highway And you can see this this enormous statue of of christ the king and it became a rallying cry The eva crystal ray the sacred heart is the image Um, I we had some prayer cards made Um, uh, when of the prayer of consecration, you know when they when the bishops all pleaded that This land belongs to christ the king and we are all ready to give you even our blood So that your rights may be protected Um, and at the bottom of that hill There's a shrine Uh a chapel to our lady queen of martyrs and they have relics of hundreds of priests and laypeople who were killed in the in the persecution And there you can find a ton of amazing stories I've seen the statue. I didn't know it was on top of a 15 000 wood mountain into the heart of mexico though Yeah, I that's I mean i'll be 100 accurate on the height, but it's a it's a high mountain and when you go up there You get this great view of of the whole the whole country site because it's kind of an isolated mountain And so it gives you the spectacular view and you're up there kind of in the clouds And you see christ raining over over mexico. It's it's amazing. Is it still an adoration? Uh, this is they I don't know they They do have adoration there. Uh, it's I'm not sure if it's perpetual Um, but they they do have adoration up there and I've been able to celebrate mass up on top of that Mountain as as well. Uh, it's quite remarkable I immediately thought a sacri core when you when you mentioned that when the french built that in reparation for the french revolution Yeah, and isn't it amazing that these enemies of christ Um, they're they're really, um, they they they know the power of these images, right? Because if you go to, um, uh The serro de los ángeles outside of madrid just similar right this this mountain on this mountain when the king consecrated spain to the sacred heart You have those terrible photos from the um from the spanish civil war Which was almost the same time also bloodshed against the church and the soldiers are firing at a statue Like really you're scared of a statue, but they were so important to them to to blow it up And and and there there's miracles too because when they dynamited that statue everything got demolished basically except his heart The sacred heart was preserved intact And it's it's in the custody of these nuns these carmelite nuns who live right there next to the site Yeah, I remember the nuns. I can't remember the name of those She got dried down the street a couple times, uh That's another topic There's a At cubilete they they mentioned they tell all their stories and here I think there's a great Example uh for us in these times we're living in especially um that The church should take into account. I think and imitate these these examples um, there's this young uh priest who uh was um called to uh minister to uh convent and um he had no fear right and uh So when they asked for sacraments he went no matter what and and all these people said no father don't go Don't go. You gotta you gotta preserve your life. You gotta hide and he says I'm a priest So then they get on his trail and he has to hide out in this uh In this house And the the lady of the house Uh says to him, you know what father? I'm sorry, but You're gonna get killed He says because he wasn't dressed as a priest obviously He says father you stand no chance because you have priests written all over your face And I love meditating on that because We as priests should think of that all the time like is our Zeal for souls so evident that someone would say that to us even if we weren't dressed as priests like No, you use you Proclaim priests to to everyone. So there's something different about you That's that's beautiful But any any parting words Um, well, I hope more people can discover All of this this richness and that's as I said, I I want to I want to organize a pilgrimage so people can come and get to know all this but I think it's good to know the story because Um, you know, if this could happen It's kind of persecution of the church could happen so close to home in a country that Where more people are Catholic than in in the United States and so so recently Well, we we shouldn't think it's in it's impossible But we need to ask ourselves. I think if we have the same zeal That that our forebearers had, you know, like Would we be willing to risk so much? To defend the the rights of the church or are we content to just kind of roll over and and let it all slip away because well Dying dying for the faith is is hard and scary I mean, I merely keep the the san patricios keep popping up my head because I don't know how many people know about them But remember they were at one of the battles in texas And they're shooting at the the mexicans and the the irish men are going wait a minute They're a priest over there. I see nuns Are we on the wrong side and risk in life? They change sides Yeah, yeah, that's why that's why to this day in certain parts of mexico you have Mexicans whose last name has begun with oh Over your ear. Oh, oh, oh something Maybe that'd be a top over down the road. I found out that about a year ago and became a big fan of those guys Anyway, father, so can we get your final blessing? Yeah, okay, benedictio de mnipotentes patricio 50 years 50 to sunday deshinda supervotes and money at somber amen. Thanks again. See you. Thank you file. Appreciate it