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A Patron Saint for the Falsely Accused [Father Miguel Augustin Pro, S.J.]
Catholic Exchange.com ^ | November 23, 2006 | Thomas Craughwell

Posted on 11/23/2006 9:36:05 PM PST by Salvation

Thomas Craughwell  

Other Articles by Thomas Craughwell
 
A Patron Saint for the Falsely Accused

November 23, 2006

On the morning of July 31, 1926, for the first time in the 400-year history of Catholic Mexico, no priest mounted the steps of an altar to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. By order of the Mexican bishops, and with the approval of Pope Pius XI, the celebration of Mass, the administration of the sacraments, and the day-to-day cycle of devotional exercises were suspended in every cathedral, church, chapel and shrine throughout the country. It was not an interdict; it was a church strike.

For 11 years the Church in Mexico had tried to reach some type of reasonable accord with Mexico's aggressively anti-Catholic government, but without any success. Mexico's president, Plutarco Elías Calles, encouraged the state governors to enact the most stringent laws against the Church in their own districts. In Tabasco, Governor Tomás Garrido Canabal sponsored new legislation that ordered all Catholic priests to marry and outlawed any priest who remained celibate. In other parts of the country priests who offered Mass and administered the sacraments, nuns who kept their vows, laity who sheltered priests or concealed the Blessed Sacrament in their homes did so at the risk of their lives.

 At this critical moment in the life of the faith, Father Miguel Augustin Pro, S.J., came home to Mexico from his studies in Belgium. Immediately Father Pro began to practice a clandestine ministry in Mexico City. Disguised as a mechanic or a student or a man taking his dog for a walk, Father Pro went from house to house, hearing confessions, baptizing infants, blessing marriages, giving last rites to the dying.

When Father Pro was finally arrested it was an accident. Three radicals plotted to assassinate a Mexican general. By chance one of them had bought a used car from Father Pro's brother Humberto. The murder plot failed, the would-be assassins were captured, and their car was traced to the Pros. At the family's home the police arrested Humberto and Father Pro, accusing them of conspiracy to commit murder. The charge was false, but that didn't matter, especially after Humberto admitted that he was active in Catholic organizations and Miguel revealed that he was a Catholic priest. With the explicit approval of Mexico's president, both brothers were sentenced to summary executions.

In the courtyard of the police station Father Pro made the Sign of the Cross over the firing squad and the spectators. "May God have mercy on you," he said. "May God bless you." Then, extending his arms like Christ on the cross, Father Pro cried out, "Viva Cristo Rey!" Long live Christ the King! The soldiers fired and Father Pro fell dead. A few minutes later his brother Humberto met the same fate.

The authorities returned the bodies of Father Pro and his brother to the Pro family, who gave them a joint funeral. As the coffins of the two brothers were carried through the streets of Mexico City people threw flowers from their balconies and thousands joined the procession. Many in the crowd surged forward to touch Father Pro's coffin. Once the committal prayers were finished and the coffins had been lowered into their graves, the martyrs' father approached the two priests who had conducted the funeral and asked them to intone the Te Deum. And so the funeral of the martyrs concluded with a hymn of triumph.



TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: blessedmiguelpro; catholiclist; cristeros
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For your information and discussion about Blessed Miguel Pro.
1 posted on 11/23/2006 9:36:09 PM PST by Salvation
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To: nickcarraway; sandyeggo; Lady In Blue; NYer; american colleen; ELS; Pyro7480; livius; ...
Saint of the Day Ping!

Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Saint of the Day Ping List.

2 posted on 11/23/2006 9:37:22 PM PST by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: All

Blessed Miguel Pro:Heroic Mexican Martyr["VIVA CRISTO REY!"]

Father Miguel Pro: Heroic Mexican Martyr

Blessed Miguel Pro[last dying words:"Viva El Cristo Rey"("Long Live Christ The King")]

Mexican "Cristeros" Martyrs Beatified

A Patron Saint for the Falsely Accused [Father Miguel Augustin Pro, S.J.]

3 posted on 11/23/2006 9:40:22 PM PST by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: Salvation

Thank you for the post. I wish I had known this sooner, I would have had some favors to ask of him.


4 posted on 11/23/2006 9:44:16 PM PST by TAdams8591
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To: Salvation
What was Blessed Miguel Pro falsely accused of? I thought he was executed for being a priest and saying the Mass in Mexico, which was a crime in Mexico. He was a priest and he did say the Mass in Mexico, knowing that he could be executed for that crime.

[Blessed Miguel Pro lived in my town, at what was the a Jesuit seminary]

5 posted on 11/23/2006 9:56:58 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: Salvation

Hmmm, Fr. Pro has not been canonized, yet. How can he be a patron saint?


6 posted on 11/23/2006 10:07:37 PM PST by ELS (Vivat Benedictus XVI!)
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To: nickcarraway
There was a Catholic terrorist movement (led by a nun, Madre Conchita, who was a sort of female Osama bin Ladin. Like OBL, she was a religious fanatic from a wealthy family and had the money to finance her dirty doings). The President-elect of Mexico, Alvaro Obregon, was assasinated by one of her followers in 1928.

In the "anti-terrorist" reaction, several innocent people were rounded up, including the Pro brothers. In Mexico, some half-jokingly suggest Miguel Pro should be the patron saint of lottery tickets. When he faced the firing squad he said "I win God's lottery as a martyr." The police station where he was executed was later torn down to build a new headquarters for... of course... the national lottery.

Madre Conchita's home was later seized by the government and given to the Lutherans (to prevent it from becoming a shrine to her (and MOST -- but not all -- of the church has repudiated her followers). It still stands, a couple of blocks from where I lived for several years in Mexico City.

There is a civil rights/civil liberties group -- well respected -- in Mexico named for the Pro brothers. Even Mexicans who are not "clerical" respect them as symbols of those unjustly accused.

7 posted on 11/24/2006 12:22:06 AM PST by rpgdfmx
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To: Salvation

Historical Question since this is a period I have not studied, why was Mexico's Government Anti-Catholic, Anti-Clerical?


8 posted on 11/24/2006 2:05:23 AM PST by StAthanasiustheGreat (Vocatus Atque Non Vocatus Deus Aderit)
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To: nickcarraway
"What was Blessed Miguel Pro falsely accused of?"

It's a good question. Basically, he's guilty of being Catholic and loyal to Christ and remaining obedient to the Pope. Veeerrrry evil, huh? (sarcasm)

But here's a website that tells more:

http://www.catholic-forum.com/SAINTS/saintm16.htm

"Falsely accused in 1927 of a bombing attempt, Pro became a wanted man, was betrayed to the police, and without trial, he was sentenced to death."

The same website shows that his Canonization is pending, but he was Beatified on 25 September 1988 by Pope John Paul II.

So, the historical lesson learned is that when we face our martyrdom in the near future, false accusations will be the vehicle to the slaughter--like ripping the tag off your pillow, or walking carelessly under a ladder, or breaking a mirror, or something very horrible, despicable, and heinous enough to deserve a bullet in the face.

The anticlerical forces that murdered so many Catholics in Mexico are the same forces today who'd love to follow suit.

It's beautiful that our Blessed Padre Pro kept his sense of humor about the whole thing; but, that the Beatitudes for you:

Matthew 5
11
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me.
12
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
9 posted on 11/24/2006 3:41:45 AM PST by SaltyJoe ("Social Justice" for the Unborn Child)
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To: Salvation
http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/pro/index.html



Rejecting the traditional blindfold, Miguel stretched his arms out in the form of a cross and facing the firing squad said, "May God have mercy on you. May God bless you. Lord, You know that I am innocent. With all my heart I forgive my enemies."



As the firing squad took aim, Pro spoke his last words. In a firm, clear voice, he said: "Viva Cristo Rey!" Long live Christ the King.



The firing squad was shaken by Pro's unflinching heroism; the bullets wounded, but did not kill him. A soldier walked over and shot him at close range, killing him.



The Martyr in death



Although Calles had forbidden any public demonstration, the people acted in open defiance. Never had the city seen such an enormous turnout for a funeral. As the martyrs' caskets left the house, the spontaneous cry went up: "Viva Cristo Rey!" Thousands thronged the streets and balconies, throwing flowers, praying the rosary and singing. It was a triumph -a glorious witness to the heroism of the brave martyr for Christ the King.
10 posted on 11/24/2006 3:57:54 AM PST by SaltyJoe ("Social Justice" for the Unborn Child)
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To: rpgdfmx

Madre Conchita was not a "female Osama bin Laden," although I know it's all the rage to refer to her that way. The Church had been under heavy persecution for years with the rising "revolutionary" party of Mexico taking power. Many people did indeed meet at her home, since church services and assemblies were forbidden. But she was a Capuchin nun who was living at home because the convents had been closed by the Mexican government in 1924. She was not a billionaire spending her fortune on fomenting world-wide religious attacks. While I don't approve of violence in any way, the Catholic resistance was not a Catholic "terrorist movement," but a misguided attempt to fight back against the increasingly harsh and restrictive laws imposed by the Mexican leftists.

Whether she was even actually the intellectual author of the crime is in dispute. The actual killer, Toral, was a young man who had been around the fringes for a while, and it is unclear exactly what triggered him to kill Obregon, except possibly that a new set of anti-Catholic laws had recently been imposed.

He was sentenced to death and executed. She was sent to a women's prison, Las Tres Marias, where she spent a number of years and was famed for her kindness and good works to the other prisoners. After about 10 years or so, her sentence was commuted by a new administration that wanted to repair relations with the Church, the heirarchy of which had been in negotiations with the government to restore at least some religious freedom. She had married while in jail(her vows were not permanent)and left prison to take up life with her new husband. She was quite popular in Mexico, where many things are named after her.

Incidentally, it was only a few years ago that Mexican clergy and religious were given the right to appear in public in clerical clothing.


11 posted on 11/24/2006 4:50:50 AM PST by livius
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To: StAthanasiustheGreat
why was Mexico's Government Anti-Catholic, Anti-Clerical?

Masons supported by our government were put in power.

12 posted on 11/24/2006 5:31:41 AM PST by murphE (These are days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed but his own. --G.K. Chesterton)
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To: StAthanasiustheGreat; nickcarraway; ELS
Here is an audio link to a radio broadcast from Voice of Catholic Radio on Long Island about this very thing. If you are interested, download it now it may only be available for a few more days.

Synopsis:

THE CRISTEROS - Mexico's 20th Century Catholic Uprising

In 1924, Plutarco Elias Calles became President. For this descendant of Spanish Jews, a 33rd degree Mason, "the Church is the unique cause of all Mexico's misfortunes." For him, too, she had to disappear. 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. 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! 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. Does this not offer Catholics a strategy in their fight for the restoration of Christ the King to do likewise: resist and organize; resist and moralize", that is, to resist the popular culture and to organize a solid Catholic educational system.

LISTEN HERE

Article here:

The Cristeros

13 posted on 11/24/2006 5:50:26 AM PST by murphE (These are days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed but his own. --G.K. Chesterton)
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To: murphE
First link not working, try this: Voice of Catholic Radio on Long Island
14 posted on 11/24/2006 5:52:22 AM PST by murphE (These are days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed but his own. --G.K. Chesterton)
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To: nickcarraway

Fr. Pro was executed on the false charge of involvement in an assassination attempt against Álvaro Obregón. True, the government could have chosen to execute him merely for being a priest and saying Mass, but his actual charges were for conspiracy to murder.


15 posted on 11/24/2006 7:21:22 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Viva Cristo Rey.)
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To: nickcarraway

Fr. Pro was executed on the false charge of involvement in an assassination attempt against Álvaro Obregón. True, the government could have chosen to execute him merely for being a priest and saying Mass, but his actual charges were for conspiracy to murder.


16 posted on 11/24/2006 7:21:30 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Viva Cristo Rey.)
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To: SaltyJoe

great post - thank you -- Viva Cristo Rey!

and this Sunday is the Feast of Christ the King.


17 posted on 11/24/2006 7:26:42 AM PST by Nihil Obstat (viva il papa - be not afraid)
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To: nickcarraway

**At the family's home the police arrested Humberto and Father Pro, accusing them of conspiracy to commit murder. **


18 posted on 11/24/2006 7:45:10 AM PST by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: ELS

**Hmmm, Fr. Pro has not been canonized, yet. How can he be a patron saint?**

I thought that was strange too. And from a Catholic site??? Go figure.

Matbe -- on the way to becoming a saint???


19 posted on 11/24/2006 7:46:20 AM PST by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: SaltyJoe

Thank you for all those details! Wow!


20 posted on 11/24/2006 7:50:06 AM PST by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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