Blessed JJose Sanchez Del Rio

 

 

On October 16th, the Church will recognize the teenage martyr of the Cristero revolt for religious liberty, Blessed Blessed Jose Sanchez Del Rio as a saint of the universal church.

 

They were fighting for their religious liberty to worship Christ the King (whose feast, not so incidentally, was proclaimed for the universal church by Pius XI in 1925.)

Whether the Callas regime was motivated by its socialism, communism, sheer egotism, or free masonry may be fun to debate, but the crucified Mexicans and the numerous martyrs were the fruits by which we know that regime's true nature.

Religious liberty is under attack here in the United States by dogmatic secularists who are willing to use the power of the state to suppress it as they are Brussels and Ottawa among other places. The case of the Little Sisters of the Poor and the challenge to state Blaine amendments are before a Supreme Court suffering from the loss of Anton Scalia. We need prayer and fasting.

Religious liberty is a fundamental human right that inheres in our god-given human nature and that the church has dealt with it differently over the centuries. To my mind, how the church should treat this right is prudential rather than dogmatic. I appreciate anti Vatican II Catholics and I may differ on this.

History does not treat the consequences of using state power to impose Catholicism kindly. It is no coincidence that the areas where Charlemagne imposed Christianity by the sword were the strongholds of the Protestant Revolt seven centuries later (Niedersachsen and Martin Luther's own Sachsen Anhalt.) The sins of the fathers fall to the sons even to seven centuries. Increasingly even the secularists are coming to appreciate the wisdom of Benedict's address in Regensburg, an address that seems prescient in light of the Brussels attacks. 

 

¡Viva Cristo Rey!

Twentieth Century Martyr Leads to Twenty First Century Miracle

In a previous post, I prayed to Blessed José Luis Sánchez del Río for Kathleen Parker.  Maybe a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist is a bridge too far even for one of God's heroes, but hope is one of the theological virtues.  

I knew of the young martyr's heroic sanctity.  What I did not know is the nature of the miracle that has advanced Blessed José's cause.  If you can read the story of Ximena Guadalupe Magallón Gálvez with dry eyes, good on you.  But the glory of miracles is that they are eucatastrophes: yes, the story has a happy ending!  Read it—it will make your day.

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free

This video from the Financial Times show how refugees are being helped in Baltimore and how they are helping revitalize that city which gave us the "Star Spangled Banner."






It was not the FT’s purpose to defend the family as we and nature know it nor is it a theme of this story. Yet watching it, I thought these refugees may be of more help in the long run than anybody. 

The warring camps on immigration include the President who wants to let in those who he thinks will vote Democratic and the business elite who want to let in more techies and entrants into the New Class. None is lobbying for the unwashed masses who haven’t had their understanding of human nature educated out of them: those waves of humanity who swarmed into our country before 1920 and fueled our greatest period of economic growth.  The unjust and prejudiced laws pasted in the 1920s were designed to keep "those people" out.

These refugees in the video are only allowed to come because they have been victims of one repressive regime or another and were lucky enough to have had an advocate.

America was once a country whose Lady Liberty welcomed all such folk,  
                      "Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!". 

The Lutherans Know It Is Our Religious Freedom at Stake!

I watched and heard Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison's testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform yesterday morning at our First Things together.  

 

Wow!

Dr. Harrison is the President of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.  He testified on Thursday, Feb. 16., to discuss the recent U. S. Health and Human Services ruling mandating that all organizations no matter what their moral beliefs must provide an insurance mechanism that funds, without deductibles, abortion inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. On behalf of the LCMS, Harrison spoke to the issue and how it violates our freedoms of religion and conscience. 

The Synod President also issued a statement on February 3rd, 2012 about religious freedom in response to U.S. Department's of Health and Human Services requiring religious employers to cover contraceptives, even those that can kill unborn children.

Nor are these solid Lutherans sucked in by the President's supposed "compromise:" Dr. Harrison said his  church remains ‘deeply concerned’ about health plan mandate despite the White House statement.

It is difficult to know how to react to the "compromise."  Is the White House completely ignorant of economics or is it just blatantly cynical?  The compromise allows organizations and companies(?) who morally object to exclude the mandated coverage from their plan, but then must direct their employees to riders which the insurer must provide free of charge.  The first law of economics is TANSTAAFL: "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."  As Robert Heinlein portrayed so well in The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, somebody pays.  The insurance company, forbidden to charge directly for sterilization, abortion inducing drugs, and contraception, will smear the costs into its rates.