Rome, Italy, Jul 28, 2017 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During his six-day visit to Colombia in September, Pope Francis will beatify martyrs Bishop Jesús Emilio Jaramillo Monsalve and Fr. Pedro María Ramírez Ramos, who provide a potent testimony as the country heals from decades of conflict.
Bishop Jaramillo was killed by Colombian Marxist guerrillas forces in 1989, while Fr. Ramirez was murdered at the start of the Colombian Civil War in 1948.
The two were recognized as martyrs by the Vatican earlier this year, and will be beatified during the Pope’s Sept. 6-12 visit to Colombia, which he is making largely to encourage efforts for peace and reconciliation after more than 50 years of violent conflict that has left some 200,000 people dead.
Given the nature of their deaths, the two can be seen as belonging to a new wave of “modern martyrs” Pope Francis has often referred to, killed by oppressive regimes of their time such as Nazism, communism and brutal dictatorships.
Born in Santo Domingo, Colombia, in 1916, Bishop Jamillo was one of the many thousands of victims of the 52-year-long civil war between the government and guerrilla rebels.
After intensive seminary studies in philosophy, humanities and theology, in 1940 he was ordained a priest with the Xaverian Missionaries of Yarumal at the age of 24. Just four years later, in 1944, he received his doctorate in theology.
Immediately after his ordination Jamillo was sent to serve in the Sabanalarga municipality in the northern most tip of Colombia. Part of the Barranquilla Archdiocese, the area was known at the time to be hostile, and the people had very primitive religious knowledge.
Although the assignment only lasted four months, it cemented in the future martyr a love for both the priesthood and his vocation as a missionary.
In a letter to his rector at the time, Fr. Aníbal Muñoz Duque, Jamillo said “I think that now my spirit is more capable of appreciating the greatness of my missionary vocation, I feel like Christ; I feel in the depths of my being the great love for my sheep.”
After finishing the assignment, Jamillo was then appointed at a professor at the Order’s seminary, where he quickly became known for his clarity, spiritual depth and love for the priesthood. During this time, he also served as a spiritual director at the seminary and worked at the Women’s Prison in Bogotá.
He was named director of novices at the age of 30, and in the year 1950 was named Second Assistant to the Secretary General of the Order and Rector of the seminary. He was easily recognized by those around him for his smile, good humor and pastoral advice.
In 1959 Jamillo was elected Superior General of the Order, guiding them through the years of the Second Vatican Council and the many changes that ensued.
Eight years into his 10 year mandate, he asked permission to step down as Superior General, and began working for the bishops conference as and adviser to the National Council of the Laity.
Not long after, in 1970, Bl. Pope Paul VI named him Apostolic Vicar of Arauca, and he was ordained a bishop in 1971. Just 13 years later, the vicariate was elevated to a diocese, and Jamillo became the first residential bishop of the area.
He quickly gained a reputation as a selfless servant who was close to his people, and launched several pastoral projects aimed at helping the local population.
Jamillo became an outspoken critic of the violence that was being committed by the National Liberation Army (ELN) at the time, however, he was also unafraid to call out what he referred to as a climate of fear among the people that often prompted them to retaliate against the guerrillas.
It was his public criticism of violence that led to his kidnapping Oct. 2, 1989, as he was making a pastoral visit to local parishes in Fortul. According to his biography, he celebrated Mass and administered some Sacraments before setting out for the city on foot when he and his delegation were stopped by armed militants dressed as peasants.
They asked for the bishop, telling him they were members of the ELN and that he was being kidnapped in order to “send a message” to the national government. One of the priests traveling with Jamillo, Fr. Helmer Muñoz, realized what was happening and refused to leave the bishop’s side.
The two were driven for several hours before stopping in a remote location. After praying together and absolving each others’ sins, Jamillo ordered Fr. Muñoz to leave out of obedience when the captors demanded that he go. As he was walking away, Muñoz heard the the bishops’ last known words, when he said: “I will speak to whoever you want me to, but please, don’t do anything to my son.”
Despite reassurances from the captors that Bishop Jamillo would not be hurt, when Fr. Muñoz returned to the spot the following morning he found the bishop’s body. Jamillo was lying on his back in the form of a cross, having been shot in the head twice; his episcopal ring was gone, and his pectoral cross had been broken.
He was buried shortly after and dubbed by the faithful of Arauca as “prophet and martyr of peace,” which is engraved on his tombstone.
The murder of Fr. Pedro María Ramírez Ramos also came at another contentious point in Colombia’s history, when the country was facing divisions after the death of left-wing presidential candidate Jorge Eliecer Gaitan.
Born in La Plata, Colombia Oct. 23, 1899, Ramirez was just 12-years-old when his brother, Luis Antonio, invited him to join the seminary. He was officially enrolled in the seminary of Mayor de Garzon in 1915, but left in 1920. However, he entered the seminary again in 1928, this time in Ibague.
Ramírez was ordained a priest just three years later on June 21, 1931. He then served as pastor in various cities until 1946, when he was assigned to Armero just as political conflict in the country began to intensify.
After Gaitan’s death, tensions between liberals and conservatives reached a fever pitch, eventually leading to Colombia’s 10-year civil war, which lasted from 1948-1958 and is commonly referred to as “La Violencia,” or “the Violence.” It was out of this conflict that many of the left-leaning guerrilla groups who have fought against the government for the past 50 years rose.
Amid the chaos of the war, many liberal party groups in Armero protested Gaitan’s death by taking up arms, widely accusing the Church of joining forces with the conservative party; accusations they backed with the Church’s alleged support for conservatives and their frequent appeals to nonviolence.
It was in this atmosphere that an angry mob, alight with anti-religious sentiments, stormed Fr. Ramirez’s parish and a nearby convent April 9, 1949, in an attempt to arrest him.
They started throwing stones and eventually broke into the curial house and went to the chapel, where Fr. Ramirez was praying. He managed to escape with the help of one of the nuns.
The next morning, Ramirez continued his schedule as normal, celebrating Mass and visiting a wounded man in prison. Despite numerous pleas from parishioners and even the city’s mayor to leave town, Ramirez refused, insisting that he would not leave the sisters or the Blessed Sacrament alone.
After returning from the prison, the priest created an escape plan for the sisters, and had them consume all the consecrated hosts, leaving just one for himself. He then stayed in the convent to pen his last will and testament before the mob returned.
In the letter with his testament, Ramirez wrote that “I want to die for Christ and for his faith.” He thanked the bishop for allowing him to become a priest for the people of Armero, “for whom I want to spill my blood.”
“To my family, I will go ahead so that they follow the example of dying for Christ. With special affection, I will look at them from heaven,” he wrote.
Later that afternoon, as the mob returned, he consumed the last host and left his stole and serving vestments with a statue of Our Lady so they would not be desecrated before going out to meet the crowd.
The mob took Fr. Ramirez and beat him with sticks and their fists before bashing his head with a machete. As he fell to the ground, the priest shouted “Father, forgive them! All for Christ!” He was then decapitated, however, his body was later recovered and preserved from further desecration.
Pope Francis has often said that there are more martyrs now than in the early Church, and has praised them as sources of life and strength for the faith.
In an April 22, 2017, liturgy honoring the “new martyrs” of the Church, the Pope noted how in many communities around the world Christians are “objects of persecution.” However, he also noted that it is in difficult moments that people frequently call for “heroes.”
The Church today also needs the heroic witness of martyrs and saints, he said, explaining that this includes “the saints of everyday life,” who move forward with coherency, but also those who “have the courage to accept the grace of being witnesses until the end, until death.”
“All of them are the living blood of the Church. They are the witnesses who carry the Church forward,” he said. By demonstrating with their lives that Jesus is alive and risen, they also “attest with the coherency of their lives and with the strength of the Holy Spirit that they have received this gift.”
[…]
Is this the same Trieste speech wherein Francis decries the rise of populists, declares democracy in ill health, and derogates policies which polarize? I would guess so, and I suppose he would know. But who is he to judge?
He is the Vicar of Christ doing his job.
JJR, thanks for the reminder. For a while now we’ve been wondering what this guy in a white dress was up to.
DeaconEdwardPeitler ,are you a protestant deacon then? I have heard protestants mock cassocks as dresses. They do not know that cassocks are modeled on first century clothing. No Catholic deacon would do this as it would be mocking Christ.
JR,
My post relating to skirts, cassocks and mockery appears after Maria’s below; I intended as a reply to your post here.
The “Vicar of Christ” has been consigned by Pope Bergoglio to what is termed the “historical” dustbin, no longer. He wishes to be known “simply” as the Bishop of Rome. This should not be mistaken as an exhibition of personal humility, but rather a step in the elimination of papal primacy and authority — but not while he is occupying the Chair. Later. Next up.
He job has never been to deconstruct the Catholic religion.
I think Bergoglio wishes he was a politician instead of a pope.
And, by the way, I do too.
Or better yet, maybe still a bouncer in an Argentine bar? 🙂
Interesting choice of words by the Pope “This means not so much to be heard, but above all to have the courage to make proposals for justice and peace in the public debate.” that we always hear from left wing rioters as “No justice, no peace” whereas the most appropriate Christian/Catholic proposal would be “Know Jesus, Know Peace” which may be interpreted as a second truth “No Jesus, No Peace” but that would not be the proposals the progressives in the Roman Church are interested in considering, much less endorsing.
From the political sector, we hear “Make America Great Again” though the traditional Catholic should perhaps respond “Make America Godly Again” knowing from history the greater the godliness the greater the country.
An interesting comment from Pope Francis “This means not so much to be heard, but above all to have the courage to make proposals for justice and peace in the public debate.” The abbreviated version of the comment are the protestors favorite chant “No Justice, No Peace” in their pursuit of equality of outcomes at the expense of freedom.
The appropriate traditional response to that chant may be “Know Jesus, Know Peace’ which resounds with another truth “No Jesus, No Peace”.
In the political arena we often hear “Make America Great Again” MAGA which in accordance with Catholic Tradition and the Tradition of our Founding Father could be rephrased as “Make America Godly Again” 2nd
An interesting piece on Catholic Social Justice initiatives….from the progressive we hear “No Justice, No Peace” which is true though the greater truth in accordance with Catholic doctrine is to “Know Jesus, Know Peace” as well as “No Jesus, No Peace”. 3
Given the expertise Pope Bergoglio demonstrated in virology, I would be deeply hesitant to take his advice regarding political science, meteorology or — for that matter — theology.
How about alchemy…as in changing a “blessing” into something non-liturgical, spontaneous and yet magically not giving scandal, as in now crypto-blessing the homosexual lifestyle one “couple” at a time? From wine into water…
“This vision, rooted in the Social Doctrine of the Church.”
Clearly he is envisioning not The Social Doctrine of The Church of every previous Magisterium of Christ’s Church, informed by The Deposit Of Faith, grounded in Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, but of the new magisterium he is creating as we speak, that we can know through both Faith and reason, rejects Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the teaching of every previous Magisterium in communion with Christ, and His One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church.
“For the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter that by His revelation they might make known new doctrine, but that by His assistance they might inviolably keep and faithfully expound the Revelation, the Deposit of Faith, delivered through the Apostles. ”
“Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed. (Mystici Coporis 22)”
For those who claim that Jorge Bergoglio is the Pope of The True Church of Christ, why is he creating a magisterium that serves as a contradiction to Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and The Teaching of every previous Magisterium, The Word Of God Who Has Revealed Himself to His Church?
Surely someone other than Archbishop Vigano recognizes that a man who himself by his words and his actions before his election to the Papacy, had ipso facto excommunicated himself from those in communion with Christ and The Magisterium of His Church, cannot possibly have the authority to excommunicate a member of Christ’s Church, having himself already been excommunicated, and thus no longer a member of The Body of Christ.
Canon 751 of the Code of Canon Law states that schism is “the refusal of submission to the supreme pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.” Canon 1364 stipulates that the penalty for this crime is excommunication “latae sententiae,” i.e., automatically upon the commission of the offense.” (In the case of Jorge Bergoglio, this offense took place when Pope Benedict XVI was Pope)
Furthermore, “Canon 188 §4 states that among the actions which automatically (ipso facto) cause any cleric to lose his office, even without any declaration on the part of a superior, is that of “defect[ing] publicly from the Catholic faith” (” A fide catholica publice defecerit“).
Jorge Bergoglio’s “refusal of submission to the supreme pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him“, was evident, prior to his election to the Papacy, when his heresy was manifested and made public ,in his book, On Heaven And Earth, on page 117, when he stated, in regards to same sex relationships and thus same sex sexual acts, “If there is a union of a private nature, there is neither a third party, nor is society affected. Now, if the union is given the category of marriage, there could be children affected. Every person needs a male father and a female mother that can help shape their identity.”
– Jorge Bergoglio, denying The Sanctity of the marital act within The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, and the fact that God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage, while denying sin done in private is sin.
From The Catechism Of The Catholic Church: 1849 Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as “an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law.”121 1850 Sin is an offense against God: “Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight.”122 Sin sets itself against God’s love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become “like gods,”123 knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus “love of oneself even to contempt of God.”124 In this proud self- exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation.125“
“get out of polarizations”
This from a guy who has excelled in polarizing, most of all faithful Catholics, calling them names, scoffing at them, belittling their Catholic piety … and throwing faithful Catholics (Chinese) under the bus to make nice with the very regime that persecuted them and then give that atheistic regime the authority to appoint bishops. If this is “peace and justice,” I want nothing of it and do not care to listen to his blather.
It is said don’t mix politics with our Catholic beliefs
although sometimes they are one and the same we as Catholic and Christians are being persecuted May the Holy Spirit guide our Pope and all religious leaders and politicians
let us pray for President Biden may he open his eyes and follow the faith he grew up with i pray for all our world leaders as our country and all nations are in dire need of prayers my parents may they rest in peace would never have imagined the world we live after leaving a Communist country glad they are not here to see it but pray they are enjoying Paradise in heaven 🙏✝️
are in dire need of prayers to help them lead as God deemed to be
Your selection of comments are one-sided, deliberately choosing those who abuse and denigrate Pope Francis.
I don’t think they are chosen, it’s just who chooses to post. Perhaps you could draw the site’s attention to people whose comments you feel would be helpful or productive.
Incorrect. Comments are moderated, but not for pro- or anti- anything. It’s an imperfect exercise, but your insinuation here is off base.
If gender priorities, Church teachings, or demonstration of virtue are not straight, I refer to some Church’men’ as skirts.
Some traditional priests prefer a lace alb. It is cooler in warmer weather.
Jesus wore a robe while walking upright, and survivor disciples gave his genitals a cloth when picturing him on the cross.
NO. Describing and putting men in skirt, robe, lace, dress, or cassock is not a mock of Christ.
Mocks of Christ are best exemplified by Church’men’ manifesting the vice of cowardice, engaging in or voicing support of pastoral practices opposing chastity, celibacy, modesty—acts of lust; and espousing teaching which contradicts Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium of centuries.
For Jesus faith was both – public and private. Christians are lucky to have Jesus to show the way.
More than a guru showing the way, but instead, “I AM the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
It would be a lot less embarrassing for Catholics if this pope would live his “faith” in private.
Fur sure.