St. Jose Sanchez del Rio banner in St. Peter’s Square, Oct. 16, 2016. / Martha Calderon / CNA.
Guadalajara, Mexico, Oct 18, 2021 / 17:01 pm (CNA).
At the dedication of the statue of Saint José Sánchez del Río at Guadalajara’s Martyrs Shrine, the city’s archbishop highlighted the saint’s witness and encouraged young people to be inspired by his life.
St. José Sánchez del Río was born in Sahuayo de Morelos, Mexico in 1913. He was a Cristero. At the age of 14 he was tortured and put to death by government officials when he refused to renounce the faith.
A 5.5 foot statue of the saint, made by Carlos Espino, was dedicated at the shrine in Guadalajara during an Oct. 12 Mass.
During the Mass, Jose Francisco Cardinal Robles Ortega, encouraged those who are younger to look to “the witness and example of Saint José Sánchez. Read his biography, meditate on it, share it, and see that despite his few years of experience, the full and total meaning of life can be found.”
The cardinal stressed that “life has a meaning,” while lamenting that “there are many young men and women who aren’t finding what to do with their lives, they don’t know what they are in this world for, they’re not discovering what they came into this world for and live an existential void.”
These young people, he continued, “seek many times to fill that existential void with things that apparently fill them, but the only thing they produce is a deeper void.”
“And so dear young people, it is worthwhile to look at the testimony of a young man, born into an ordinary Christian family, but who had the courage to discover Christ and to be faithful to him.”
Cardinal Robles encouraged Catholics to give “thanks to God for the witness of our Mexican martyrs to Christ the King.”
“They gave their lives bearing witness to the faith,” he said. Some of those who arrested them “told them what they had to shout in order to escape martyrdom (allegiance to the government) and instead of obeying that suggestion to escape martyrdom, they said with greater enthusiasm, ‘Long live Christ the King and Holy Mary of Guadalupe.’”
“And for that they merited their martyrdom, and for that they merited that Christ testify before the Father, and that Christ continue to bear witness to their martyrdom before the community of his faithful,” the cardinal said.
“Let’s try to get to know them more, let’s try to imitate them more, let’s try to take their testimony more into our personal lives, but especially in family life,” he said.
The Archbishop of Guadalajara stressed that “the witness of the martyrs should not only amaze us, the testimony of the martyrs should move us, it should be an invitation to us.”
“Perhaps because of the circumstances we live in, we’re not going to reach that extreme of having to shed our blood or die for Christ,” he said, but “every day, in every circumstance, in every moment, in every relationship, in everything we do, in all the areas in which we operate, we have the opportunity to be witnesses for Christ.”
“Jesus will bear witness to us if we take up being his witnesses, the disciples who bear witness to him,” he assured.
The cardinal stressed that “the testimony of the martyrs endures,” while people do not necessarily remember “the names of the people who inflicted, who carried out the martyrdom.”
The testimony of the martyrs, however, “is not extinguished” and “is not forgotten.”
Saint José Sánchez del Río was born March 28, 1913 in Sahuayo, in Michoacán state.
In 1926 under the administration of Mexican President Plutarco Elías Calles the “Calles Law” was enacted restricting Catholic worship, which began the religious persecution that triggered the Cristero War.
The laws banned religious orders, deprived the Church of property rights, and denied priests civil liberties, including the right to trial by jury and the right to vote. As the restrictions on religious liberty increased, Catholics could be fined or imprisoned for teaching Church doctrine, wearing clerical attire, meeting together after their convents were disbanded, promoting religious life, or holding religious services in non-church locations.
José Sánchez del Río asked his parents for permission to enlist with the Cristero troops, who were fighting for religious freedom in Mexico. When his mother tried to dissuade him because of the risk of being killed, he replied, “Mom, it has never been so easy to earn heaven as it is now, and I don’t want to miss the chance.”
After being captured by government troops, Sánchez was tortured Feb. 10, 1928, for refusing to renounce the faith.
The officers cut off the soles of his feet and made him walk towards what would become his grave. As he walked, Saint José Sánchez del Río prayed and shouted “Long live Christ the King and the Virgin of Guadalupe!” Once at the place of execution, the government troops hung him from a tree and stabbed him.
Shortly before he died, when one of his executioners took him down from the tree and asked him if he had a message for his parents, Saint Jose told him: “Long live Christ the King and that we will see each other in heaven.” He was then shot twice in the head, laid in a small grave, and covered with dirt.
He was beatified in 2005, and canonized Oct. 16, 2016.
[…]
Acts like this help us understand why there is the dreadful penalty of hell.
Vatican II’s declarations about Muslims and Islam are due for re-evaluation.
Nigerian Christians are facing a full fledged genocide at the hands of Islamic Fascists, and the world doesn’t care, and simply ignores it. Clearly some black lives really do not matter to the Mainstream Media.
Good thing Biden thinks there is no risk of religious persecution in Nigeria worth monitoring. Otherwise it could be a problem there.
Why does it seem like no one cares about the killing of Christians in Nigeria? Why is there no protection for them? Why aren’t the people who do this hunted and punished?
The people who did this are Fulani herdsmen, 99 per cent of whom are Muslims. They number 34 million and can be found everywhere from the Atlantic coast of West Africa to Ethiopia.
To put an end to the violence entails putting an end to Islam among the Fulani. That in turn demands that they be called to Christianity or removed in ways similar to those used against the Cathars.
Wait until the overturning of Roe vs Wade to see what happens to Catholics in the U.S. and the reaction of cowards like Cupich and McElroy. It’s like we are being attacked from within and without. Pray my brothers and sisters.
Science as well as faith help us to know how ‘small ‘ and interconnected we are – in the brothehood in The Mother ..havng read how the dust from the Sahara desert blows into S. America in the balancing of the eco system , we can also wonder how sins against life anywhere also invites in the agents of death and destruction, war and violence , lust and greed – esp. through those who have been blinded by Satan about the truth of the dignity and destiny of human life .
The interconections in these areas being ? willfully denied – the light shared in the powerful homily of the Holy Father on the need to love The Lord to be able to keep the commandments -the 24 Hour Passion meditations , the Flame of Love – adoring the Sacred wounds of our Lord , the indirect light from all such to flow into more hearts to help to love The Lord with His own Love in The Spirit …
Fathers charged to bring up the children in the discipline and instruction in The Lord (Eph 6 :4 ) – that to include fathers of nations too ..
The tears of The Lord and of The Mother shed for the slavation of each of us from the moment of their very beginnning as the Immaculate Conception and Incarnation and for every wound of sin and suffering of His children – to be offered up for all involved to help bring forth conversions as is done in the Holy Mass – to help break the walls around the hearts … along with use of other prudent measures as needed , as The Church continues to persevere in using the weapons given in The Mother ..
Hey, I don’t know what your comments have to with anything, but I do want to make sure that you know that Muslim terrorists killed Christian Nigerians yet again last Sunday. You would not necessarily know that from the four(!) CNA shorts on this story or the heartfelt condolences offered by the Holy Father. Nevertheless, it is seems pertinent.