Monday, September 23, 2019

The Smoke of Satan by Anacleto González Flores (Mexican martyr)


"Many Catholics are unaware of the seriousness and especially of the causes of the disaster, they ignore how the three great enemies, Protestantism, Freemasonry and Revolution, work tirelessly and with an alarming and well-organized program of action.

These three enemies are defeating Catholicism on all fronts, at all hours and in all possible ways. They fight in the streets, in the squares, in the press, in the workshops, in the factories, in the homes. In the case of a generalized battle, they have their sword drawn and their battalions deployed everywhere. This is a fact. Christ does not reign in the streets, in the schools, in the Parliaments, in books, in universities, in the public and social life of the countries. Who reigns there is the devil. In all those environments you can see the smoke of Satan.

And what do we do? We content ourselves with praying, going to church, practicing some works of mercy, as if that were enough "to counteract all the vast conjuration of God's enemies." We have left them everything else, the streets, the press, the teaching at various levels of education. In none of these places have they encountered serious opposition. And if sometimes we have acted, we have done it so poorly, so weakly, that it can be said that we have not fought at all. We have sung in churches but we have not announced God in schools, in squares, in Parliaments, and so, we have cornered Christ out of fear.

Reducing Catholicism to a secret prayer, to a grievous complaint, to trembling and fright before public authorities when they kill the national soul and destroy everything before everyone’s eyes, is not only cowardice and excusable disorientation, but also a religious, public and social historical crime, which deserves all execrations.

...Souls suffer from spiritual anemia. We have become beggars, renouncing ownership of our destinies. We have been evicted from everywhere, and we have abandoned everything.

So far, almost all Catholics have done nothing but ask God to do, to work, to accomplish, to do something or everything for the fate of the Church in our countries. And that's why we have only prayed, waiting for God to work. And all this under the mask of an alleged "prudence." We need the imprudence of Christian boldness.

Moreover, there are many Catholics who dare to call imprudent those who know how to assert their rights before their persecutors. It is necessary that this situation of isolation, estrangement, national dispersion, ends once and for all, and that as soon as possible we think in a serious way that we are all Catholics of our country, not a lot of particles without union, but an immense body that has one program, one head, one thought, one organizing flag to face all persecutors."

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