Free Republic

THE CRISTEROS: They Died for God, Country & Christ the KingDriving northeasterly for a few minutes, about a mile out of town, the cars suddenly veered to the side of the road and rolled to a stop at El Puerto de Santa Teresa, a nondescript stretch along the primitive roadway that would develop into the Sombrerete-Chalchihuites Highway.Forced from their seats, the prisoners – Catholics: one priest and three laymen – stumbled from the cars on that August 15, 1926, forced down a parched slope of dirt, a graveyard of flora in the arid plateau’s xeric shrubland dotted with skeletal clumps...

The Franciscan Protomartyrs and Interreligious Dialogue The Franciscan order was founded at the height of the Crusading era. Political and religious leaders were consumed with a noble cause: to recover the Holy Land that had been taken centuries earlier by Muslim forces. St. Francis, however, had a different obsession: to convert the Muslims to the one true faith, Catholicism.In 1219, the Franciscans held a General Chapter, and St. Francis announced that he would be traveling to the East to preach to the Muslims. At the same time, six brothers were given the task to travel to the West, Morocco specifically,...