Page Download(s)
file size: 177KB
Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion
17 April 2011
Dear Friends in Christ,
In the night before He died, the Lord Jesus warned His disciples, “Remember the word that I said to you: No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (John 15:20) For Christians everywhere, the possibility of persecution because of our faith is a real and present danger, and more Christians were killed for their faith in the 20th century than in all other centuries combined. Two of the most savage attacks against the Church in the last century occurred in Mexico from 1926 to 1929 and in Spain from 1936 to 1939, and in the coming months, both of these periods in history will be the subject of major films.
The Cristeros Uprising in Mexico was a response by faithful Catholics to the hatred of religion unleashed by the socialist government of Mexico after the Mexican Revolution of 1910. During two years of intense fighting, the Church was subjected to fierce persecution, and thousands of Catholics were killed in cold blood. The Cristeros Uprising is also called the “Cristiada,” and this is the title of a film that will be released later this year. The film tells a fictional version of one small part of the Cristeros Uprising, but it conveys very powerfully the nature of the life or death struggle faced by Catholics on our continent in the lifetime of many who are still alive. To learn more about this film, visit www.cristiadafilm.com.
As bad as the persecution of the Church in Mexico was, what happened in Spain during the Spanish Civil War was worse. From 1936 to 1939, the people of Spain were divided by a savage civil war, the scars of which still shape Spanish society today, and Christians were subject to barbarism redolent of the persecutions unleashed by the Roman Emperors. The leftist government of the Second Spanish Republic began to reorganize all of Spanish society in keeping with socialist doctrine, and this provoked a reaction from those seeking to keep Spain from moving into either anarchy or Communism. The Civil War, fought between the Republicans defending the leftist government and the Nationalists defending traditional Spanish society, plunged the entire nation into violence and hatred, and the Church was frequently the target of Republican atrocities. The story of this Civil War and its effects on Christian families and friends is the subject of a new film called “There be Dragons” which opens on Friday 6 May, and one character in the film is a Spanish priest named Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of the international fellowship Opus Dei and now a saint of the Church.
Local Catholics in Greenville are organizing groups to see the film “There be Dragons” on its opening weekend of 6 – 8 May, and for more information go to www.upstatedragons.com. I encourage you to see these two films which remind us of the cost of following the Lord Jesus in the Way of the Cross.
Father Newman