I never paid attention to Les Misérables when it first appeared on television a zillion years ago — despite my mom’s insistence that I watch it right through — except for this scene with the bishop, which I saw in passing, and which always stayed with me. Perhaps you can draw some… um… analogies…
Aaagghhh! What a fright! Here.
If you’re careful in watching the opening scenes of For Greater Glory, on the big screen or on DVD, you’ll notice scenes taking place in church, very long lines for Confession, lines for baptism, lines for, get this, weddings. Ever see that before? That’s what happens when people all of a sudden realize that they will soon not have any more priests, as all the priests are being deported or killed. They are taking advantage of getting the sacraments while the getting is good. Good on them.
But people! Don’t wait until the last second. You might not get that last second. Keep yourself current with the sacraments, especially Confession!
In the picture above you see a general of the Cristeros army, General Vega, a priest. He is giving absolution to General Gorostieta just moments, it turns out, before Father Vega gets a bullet to the head and Gorostieta gets a bullet to the back. Gorostieta died in the attempt to get Father Vega, now mortally wounded, out of harm’s way and into the hands of another priest so that Father Vega could also go to confession before he died. And this is what religious freedom is all about. The freedom to witness to our Lord, right unto death. We always have that freedom even if someone should try to and indeed take our lives. We always have the freedom to be a martyr. I love that.
When you don’t have any priests around, what will America do, vote in Obama for a third term? Probably. Probably a rigged election. But heaven will rejoice with so many new martyrs.
Remember! Eternity lasts an eternity. It’s really wonderful to be in heaven for eternity! It’s heavenly.
Remember! Believers are supposed to take up their cross, which might be a very literal cross! And that’s O.K. I’m enthusiastic to go to heaven, however it is that I’ll be getting to go there in our Lord’s goodness and kindness, in His grace.
For those following these posts on “readers” or “feeds”, why not stop by the blog itself and take a look at the Ferocious Holy Souls Hermitage Confessions Widget on the sidebar of the blog: http://holysoulshermitage.com You won’t regret it.
Filed under Catholic, Confession, films, Persecution, politics, separation of church and state
The hanging of the cristeros “from Monterrey to Veracruz”…
Here’s the response of General Gorostieta to the ”agreement” of Calles, who only pretends to compromise by providing just a little tiny bit of some religious freedom:
We will defeat this government. We will overthrow Calles. And we will establish a democratic government that repects the rights of the people, especially the basic right to worship God in peace. And with God on our side we will prevail.
Of course, God is not so much on our side as we are to be on God’s side, though for us to be on God’s side God has to first of all be on our side, as it were, so to speak. You get the idea.
The general’s statement sealed the rest of the Cristeros’ uprising against the monstrous President Calles. The statement would still be hanging in the air when the general himself would give his life for the cause of religous freedom for a religion in which he now believed. True life begins the other side of death, does it not? It does.
Again, just as a reminder, to those who think that religious freedom, freedom to live by one’s conscience also in public life, isn’t such a big deal, and that religious minded people ought to be content with freedom of worship alone, which is what Obama thinks… such people ought to remember that the two, private worship and public engagement, cannot be separated. When there is no freedom of religious conscience in public life, all private worship will shut down as a danger to the state. Saying Mass will be a capital crime, subversion, a risk to national security. And then the wholesale slaughter, “ethnic cleansing” will ensue.
That’s the way it’s been for some two thousand years. Know your history. Watch it play out again.
Filed under Catholic, films, Persecution, politics, religion, separation of church and state
After being stabbed with a bayonet in the back (because the government crowd were cowards), Blessed Jose Luis Sanchez del Rio starts to write on the ground to which he had dropped:
With his own blood, he traces out the sign of the cross, the sign of our salvation, for in this sign do we conquer with Christ Jesus…
He then says: “I’m going home!” As he says this, he’s shot in the back (because that’s the only way cowards can do this to a boy).
He’s then kicked into a grave where they killed him…
Dead.
That’s what atheism is all about. That’s what death mongering governments are all about.
Have you looked at the provisions of Obamacare recently? It’s all about power. About death. Death of youngsters in the womb. Death of our elderly. Death of the vulnerable. Because that’s what cowards do. We have cowards leading the government of these United States. What to do about it?
Vote Obama out.
Of course, we’ve seen a huge amount of election fraud favoring Obama already. Most of the military have been excluded from voting. Many voter machines select Obama even though the vote went for someone else. Etc. Etc. Etc. It’s widespread.
Then what?
Filed under Catholic, films, Persecution, politics, separation of church and state
Here’s a great shot of President Calles, the president of Mexico in the 1920s and the leader of the persecution of Catholics, having tens and tens and tens of thousands of Catholics murdered, men, women and children.
He’s looking at a crucifix given to him during a conversation with his adversary, General Enrique Gorostieta Delarde. Here’s that conversation that I typed out as I watched the DVD of the film:
* * *
President Calles: Your war is coming to end very soon.
General Gorostieta: You here to concede? … It’s not my war. It is your war. You declared war on freedom.
President Calles: I know you for a long time and I know you’re not a fool. So you know that this war is not about freedom. It is not about religion. It’s about who is going to decide the fate of Mexico and it’s people.
General Gorostieta: Well, the people of Mexico have spoken.
President Calles: They did speak, but they elected me president, not you. I run things in this country.
General Gorostieta: Not for long.
President Calles: An agreement is being discussed. Mexico and Rome are going to make peace.
General Gorostieta: An agreement?
President Calles: No one wants this war any more, Enrique.
General Gorostieta: Mexico is bleeding on its own fields. Mexico is hanging from telegraph poles from Monte Rey to Vera Cruz. Of course you need an agreement. But freedom has no compromise. By definition it is absolute. And that is why we will be victorious. Keep your agreement.
President Calles: Please spare me your rhetorical idealism, and tell me, what do you really want?
General Gorostieta: Absolute freedom. Is that in the agreement?
President Calles: The agreement is all but sealed.
General Gorostieta: This is yours. Your agreement. Not ours.
President Calles: You’re holding your fate in your hands.
General Gorostieta: The fate of Mexico, the destiny of Mexico… It’s in God’s hands, not yours or mine. Viva Cristo Rey!
Comment: In 73 B.C., Spartacus and 6000 slaves were crucified — crucified mind you — along 200 kilometers of the Appian way, from Rome to Capua. General Gorostieta mentions in this conversation that Calles has hung the Cristeros from telegraph poles from Monterrey to Veracruz, which is — what? — over a thousand kilometers? An exaggeration? Not if you let that statement be a symbol for all who were being starved to death in death camps (which were like forerunners of Hitler’s concentration camps) and who were summarily murdered and hacked to pieces. If you were the greatest general in Mexico, a military genius, and you knew that the man sitting in front of you was a liar and on his way out, would you make a deal with him?
By the way, just to say, they had tried peaceful means, an economic boycott. That’s precisely what aggravated Calles into murdering tens of thousands of people.
Such a world we live in! And die in! Our home is in heaven. Yikes!
Filed under Catholic, films, Persecution, politics, separation of church and state
One of the greatest war speeches of all time was given by General Enrique Gorostieta Delarde, spiking the enthusiasm of the Cristeros. Seconds before leading his men into battle, with little Jose as the flag bearer, he proclaimed this:
Today we are going to send a message. We are going to send a message to Calles and to the rest of the world, that freedom is not just for writers, and for politicians and for fancy documents. Freedom is our homes, our wives, our children, our faith. Freedom is our lives, and we will defend it or die trying. It is not only our duty to defend it, but it is our right. You must remember that men will fire bullets, but God decides where they land. Viva Cristo Rey! Y viva! Viva Cristo Rey! Y viva! Viva Cristo Rey! Y viva!
Now, I’ve previously been of the opinion that it would be foolish for a bunch of people to try to take down a government. Governments even like little uprisings so that they can have an excuse to quash them and, with that, make people all the more submissive to abuse of power. That was what many said at the start of the Catholic rebellion in Mexico in the 1920s. But then the greatest military leader of Mexico took up the lead, and before you knew it, concessions were in hand.
I think that Obama’s idea (in his Marxist way) is to force a Catholic rebellion here in America in our time by trying to force Catholics to pay for the murder of children in the womb by way of his Obamacare. The present law makes things difficult for any rebels. Anyone who rebels — even in thought — is automatically entitled a terrorist, and is lawfully whisked away to Gitmo without anyone knowing it, with no lawyers possible, until the person dies. I’m talking about life-long U.S. citizens by the way.
However, there’s one premise missing from that scenario. Obama is counting on the military. But all Obama has done is to upset the military, particularly our special ops, black ops crowd, the CIA, the FBI, the Navy Seals, DEVGRU… Not too smart on the part of our islamophile.
I keep hearing until this very day that our military is not supportive of Obama’s moves to be at the ready to impose Martial Law in the face of a popular rebellion. Why would he think there is surely going to be a popular rebellion coming up soon? I keep hearing that our law enforcement agencies want absolutely nothing to do with it. To quote: “Hell, no!” Interesting.
Let’s just repeat what the General said:
Freedom is not just for writers, and for politicians and for fancy documents. Freedom is our homes, our wives, our children, our faith. Freedom is our lives, and we will defend it or die trying. It is not only our duty to defend it, but it is our right.
Now, in saying all this, I’m not in any way saying that taking up arms in self-defense – if it should seem like it’s coming to that – is the way to go. Not at all. Clear?
Instead, there is another way. Peaceful means. No paying into the Obamacare death tax. That will mean revenge by the Obamacare politbureau. Even imprisonment. But you can’t imprison everyone. And pretty much all religious denominations have called themselves Catholic concerning this issue of religious freedom. There’s no economy in the world, especially the U.S. economy right now, that can imprison so many people. I would call on people to just let themselves get imprisoned. As the economy goes down the tubes altogether, truly a threat to national security in a military sense, that is when it will be deemed by the military that enough is enough, and they will call Obama a traitor, as indeed he is, in every way. Political prisoners, martyrs of conscience, will be freed, and we will move on. I think that anything more than that on the part of any would be rebels would not be just. Why, again? Because there are viable peaceful means, that’s why.
Filed under Catholic, films, Persecution, politics, separation of church and state
So, this fellow, beatified Jose Luis Sanchez del Rio, a Cristeros martyr, whose young teenage body has been crushed with torture, is being marched to his death by the incredibly, wonderously brave soldiers of the Freemason, Socialist, Marxist government of Mexico.
Even more defenseless than he are the millions of little ones being aborted under Obamacare. It’s a matter of abuse of power, of sucking all power over life and death unto oneself — or so one thinks — proving this by murdering the most defenseless. The more one kills little kids, the more power one thinks one has. Just ask Obama and his henchmen, especially his henchwomen like the head of Health and Human Services. “Death to kids!” they scream. “Vote for us and feel the power!” they shout.
Then there are those with a conscience, those who know that real life is not about power but instead is about God’s love. They show us the way, the way home. We thank them for that. We thank little Jose. But to be sincere, we have to follow up on their example.
Did I mention that the DVD of the film is out?
Filed under Catholic, films, Persecution, politics, separation of church and state
If I remember rightly, this guy (in the picture above) is the town constable, turned torturer on behalf of the “there is no God” government that was persecuting Catholics not all that long ago down in Catholic Mexico.
This fellow, who is being tortured, having his feet cut to ribbons, is the now beatified martyr, Jose Luis Sanchez del Rio. He’s just a young teenager.
People who torture others are cowards. People who torture kids are worse than just cowards.
Why do they do it, you ask? Because they are afraid of God. “But they are atheists!” you say. Right. There is no one more afraid of God than a so-called atheist.
The best way to prove that God does not exist, for an atheist, is to torture youngsters. Surely, in that case, God, if there is a God, would intervene. Right?
The torture, meant to have young Jose say “Death to Christ the King!” did not work. Jose kept screaming out: “Long live Christ the King!” “Viva Cristo Rey!”
Here’s a shot of Jose being asked by his godfather[!] to say “Death to Christ the King” in order to save his life. It is a worse torture to see others live without any conscience at all. What anguish there is when, in all charity, one would like one’s persecutor to repent and be filled with life and go to heaven.
He proclaims: “Viva Cristo Rey!” “Long live Christ the King!”
He’s then stabbed. He’s then shot.
And this proves the intervention of Christ the King, of God Most High, among us in such trying circumstances. Only with the supernatural provision of supernatural charity can such a one as little Jose rise to the occasion and be super charitable, forgiving, full of love, full of enthusiasm to go home to heaven.
Our Lord did not come to save us from the roughness of the consequences of original sin, from death in this world, but rather to provide us His grace which will wisk us right on to heaven when we provide the loving witness to the Lord. The unbelievers say: “Come down from the cross!” Instead, it is the divine grace within us which has us stay on the cross with all determination, in all good friendship with our crucified Lord, now risen to bring us to life.
Here’s the thing: when you see people like young Jose being tortured and starved to death and otherwise hacked to pieces and shot, in their tens of thousands, what does one do? Watch and then say, “Death to Christ the King!”?
What is the just-war theory for if not self-defense of the innocent?
Self-defense against unjust and deadly aggression is not screaming “Come down from that cross!” Instead, it is an act of charity made possible for us by the Christ Jesus choosing not to come down from the cross.
Self-defense on behalf of self or others is a contribution to the virtue of justice, which is what will bring a modicum of peace.
Filed under atheism, Catholic, films, Persecution, politics, separation of church and state
At the time of the Cristeros, when Catholics were being slaughtered in their tens of thousands by the Freemaso / Socialist / Marxist government in Mexico within living memory of any of your surviving great grandparents, the Holy See was petitioned for a response concerning the self-defense of the Catholic population in their popular uprising against such injustice. The Holy See, however, was extremely slow to respond, knowing that self-defense is legitimate on the one hand, but not wanting to look like a foreign military power on the other hand. Meanwhile, the Cristeros won the day, though at the cost of many martyrs.
Those martyrs are not like islamicist suicide bombers, but are, instead, real saints. Both Blessed Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, gloriously reigning, have beatified and canonized many Cristeros martyrs, lay people, priests and bishops. Some of them had an indirect role to play with the uprising. Many of them had a very direct role to play.
Contrast all this, if you can, with this bit from the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world of the Second Vatican Council, a short section on the promotion of peace, how to go about it
Peace is not the mere absence of war or the simple maintenance of a balance of power between forces, nor can it be imposed at the dictate of absolute power. It is called, rightly and properly, a work of justice.
It is the product of order, the order implanted in human society by its divine founder, to be realized in practice as men hunger and thirst for ever more perfect justice.
The common good of the human race is subject to the eternal law as its primary principle, but its requirements in practice keep changing with the passage of time. The result is that peace is never established finally and for ever; the building up of peace has to go on all the time. Again, the human will is weak and wounded by sin; the search for peace therefore demands from each individual constant control of the passions, and from legitimate authority untiring vigilance.
Even this is not enough. Peace here on earth cannot be maintained unless the good of the human person is safeguarded, and men are willing to trust each other and share their riches of spirit and talent. If peace is to be established it is absolutely necessary to have a firm determination to respect other persons and peoples and their dignity, and to be zealous in the practice of brotherhood. Peace is therefore the fruit also of love; love goes beyond what justice can achieve. Peace on earth, born of love for one’s neighbor, is the sign and the effect of the peace of Christ that flows from God the Father. In his own person the incarnate Son, the Prince of Peace, reconciled all men to God through his death on the cross. In his human nature he destroyed hatred and restored unity to all mankind in one people and one body. Raised on high by the resurrection, he sent the Spirit of love into the hearts of men.
All Christians are thus urgently summoned to live the truth in love, and to join all true peacemakers in prayer and work for peace. Moved by the same spirit, we cannot but praise those who renounce violence in defense of rights, and have recourse to means of defense otherwise available to the less powerful as well, provided that this can be done without injury to the rights and obligations of others or of the community.
Comment: That last paragraph looks to have been written by a bunch of peacenics, right? Wrong. Ever so wrong. Take a look again, more closely, especially at the words at the end beginning with “provided that this can be done…” So, there we are. Lots to think about there.
By the way, the greatest film of the year, epic in every way, and historically true, and age appropriate to any age in my opinion, is available on DVD.
Filed under Catholic, films, Persecution, politics, separation of church and state
Obama says that he can constitutionally limit freedom of religion to worship in closed buildings. Chief Justice Roberts agrees. Roberts signed his legislation, his judicial trumping of the constitution, which cannot but have the effect of a death warrant, a persecution of Catholics, even to death as time marches quickly on.
So, the attempt is already being made to force Catholics to formally participate in murdering their young neighbors in the womb by trying to force them to pay for abortifacients for girls who, in Obama’s opinion, just because they are girls, just can’t help themselves in their college years and need to have sex, sex, sex, you know, for free, as if they are having sex with him (as per his obscene political television message). But it’s O.K., he says, for Catholics to have Mass indoors, all that hocus pocus stuff.
Lots of Catholics agree. I’ve met many. They think Obama is God’s gift to the world, that abortion and contraception and planned parenthood is just great. They will vote for Obama, of course, and then go where after they die?
Anyway, one cannot divide one’s conscience which must be formed by the Church and which one must act on in public life (rejecting Obamacare and its penalties), from worship.
How is it that one could offer Jesus, the Head of the Mystical Body, during Mass, but then go ahead and put the littlest, most defenseless members of that same Mystical Body to death in the womb? “What you have done to the least of these you have done to me” says the King of the Universe. The cowardice of killing such defenseless people is what? There’s just no description…
As Obama wades through the corpses of the little ones he’s helped to slaughter on his way to judgment (for we will all be judged by our Lord), do you think he and those who vote for him so enthusiastically will get a good hearing?
Just to say, there will be no freedom of worship if he is re-elected. Catholics will be held to be enemies of the state. The Department of Health and Human Services, the new polit-bureau (which can legislate at will, on anything), has already stated that the Catholic Church is out to bring down the Government of the U.S.A. by not wanting to support Planned Parenthood.
This is the worst it’s ever been ever in the history of mankind. I mean, usually, tyrannical rulers just want people to go against their conscience by offering incense to the gods, to the politicians of the day. Sometimes, as in this past century, until today, they have instigated genocides of hundreds of millions of peoples. Hundreds of millions.
But now, it is insisted that people pay for the sacrifice of the little ones to the politicians of the day against their consciences. That brings it all to a whole other level. We are on the threshold.
There will be no freedom of worship. Instead, let’s just repeat that picture:
For Greater Glory is now on DVD. A. Must. See.
Filed under films, martyrdom, Persecution, politics, religion, separation of church and state
General Enrique Gorostieta Velarde (lower right) and beatified martyr José Luis Sánchez del Río (flag bearer, lower left) riding out to battle with the Cristeros of Mexico. Note the flag, a banner with the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Far be it from me to talk about just war theory when I haven’t written a doctoral thesis on it. But I do know someone who has written such a thesis, which, in fact, has been tweaked by decades of military experience and reviewed by the Department of Defense and Congress and this and that successive POTUS and so on and so forth, as the need arises.
However, I don’t think the author will be saying anything about the present oppression of religious freedom in the United States. What he’s already said is still ringing in the ears of all the above, even though they are trying not to think about it at the present moment. It’s his take on just war that they take as official policy, but, unofficially, they are wondering what to do about it in these United States.
So, in this series on the great 2012 film For Greater Glory, about the fight for freedom to practice religion in Mexico in the 1920s, I’ll just have to do my best with the rather outrageous life experience I’ve had.
The freedom fighters were led, note well, by a Freemason, the greatest general in Mexico, pictured above, who converted to the faith as he fought, seeing the great martyrs give their lives for Christ and desiring that the Catholic Church have religious freedom. The oppression was coming from a socialist-Masonic government of Mexico, which did not permit believers to have a voice in the public square nor any freedom to worship. The government armies slaughtered Catholics like the Aztecs offered human sacrifice just some centuries previously.
Human sacrifice stopped dead, so to speak, when our Lady of Guadalupe appeared. But the Mexicans began to lose sight of her Son Jesus, with some opting for Marxist “revolution.” The martyrs, the Cristeros, brought back the faith to Mexico, until recently, when many have begun to ignore Christ the King and the Virgin of Guadalupe. I think I mentioned before that there are Mexican youngsters who feel that they are grown up because they are leaving the faith for the human sacrifice of the Obama culture. Yet, I’m told by older Mexicans that, instead, the faith is very strong in Mexico, and among the Mexicans here in the U.S.A.
In this series, I would like to draw an analogy of the oppression of the Obama administration, the Obama Laws as compared to the laws of the president of Mexico at the time. Don’t be fooled. Obama’s attack on religious freedom is, he says, “only” aimed at conscience in the public square, but letting you worship in a church, but trying to force you into, for instance, formal cooperation with abortion, having you pay for that through “health” insurance. He doesn’t realize that the Body of Christ which is offered in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offended by the abortion of the members of the Body of Christ because of his death mongering. The reality is that when once conscience is outlawed and this is reconfirmed a reelection of Obama, and when once there is civil disobedience by Catholics, led by the bishops, then don’t think that there won’t also be a ban on worship. Churches closing, etc. Just like in Mexico.
But Father! But Father! It couldn’t happen here! We’re NICE!
No, we’re not nice. Even Catholics sacrifice their children in abortion and with abortifacient pills and injections and implants, just as much as non-Catholics. Some repent. And that is super wonderful. But, just to say, kids are being sacrificed by the tens of millions. This cannot go on. A persecution wrought by those who have such blood on their hands is already in the works, if you haven’t noticed already with the HHS mandate. Having such blood on their hands makes it really, really easy to take the next step against those who would proclaim the right to life, the preciousness of life, the beauty of life.
When people are being murdered in their churches and in their homes in their tens and tens and tens of thousands, do they have a right to self-defense?
Filed under Catholic, films, Military, Persecution, politics, separation of church and state
$0.00 so far for APRIL 2013 for Holy Souls Hermitage. That's surprising. The starting amount is $0.00 and the desired goal is $0.00. If I actually solicited donations, I would have to be a 501(c)3, which requires paying into the Obamacare abortion insurance program. Catholics need not apply. So, if you force donations on me, well, that's up to you. I explain it best on the Benefactors! page. I'm very thankful for what I have, and content with whatever there is. I thank all who have forced donations on Holy Souls Hermitage against all my protestations. I pray for you all daily, and offer Holy Mass for you about once a month.
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter.
All told, Masses offered for Benedict XVI came to 918.
י ב ר כ ך י ה ו ה ב ה ת א ם ל ת פ י ל ת מ ר י ם ה ק ד ו ש ה
May the Lord continue to bless you
according to the intercession of Mary Most Holy
