I just asked my very old aunt (she's looking at 90 in the face) if she saw For Greater Glory. Have you seen it yet?
As soon as she heard about the movie, she drove herself to the movie theater and saw it. My aunt told me the movie reminded her of certain aspects of growing up.
Her parents (my grandparents) escaped from Mexico during the revolution when things started to go bad for the Catholics, and the government said bishops and priests had to register. It's never a good sign when a group of people have to register with the government.
My grandmother would get letters and pictures from relatives in Mexico showing priests hanging from poles. I can't even imagine the horror. I know in the filming of the movie they used mannequins or dummies, right? But to see actual photographs of real bodies is entirely different.
I do remember my own mother (deceased) telling me that her parents came here to escape religious persecution before it got really bad. I really didn't understand what my mother meant until now.
A great aunt and uncle of mine in Mexico had a secret room in their house where they let the priest come and say a secret Mass and a nun give secret C.C.D. lessons. Great Aunt and Great Uncle (I'm sure my aunt knows their names, but I didn't think to ask) could have been killed for allowing Catholicism in their home. I am related to brave and faithful people.
This weekend I am going to a conference on religious liberty. We need to beat down (though peaceful means) the government's interference on our religious liberties before it gets worse. Otherwise, what country would we escape to??
Graham Greene wrote The Power and the Glory, but he isn't part of my family history.
Roger Ebert didn't understand a thing when he wrote his movie review.
3 comments:
I haven't seen Great Glory yet, but I want to!
You have some amazing people in your family!!! I can't imagine living through religious persecution like that.
Wow! You have mexican ancestries! I have Americans also because my grandparents and brothers of my grandpa went to live to US right after civil war and when the religious conflict was beginning to arise. My ancestors we're managers of Haciendas, so when the revolution finished they just didn't have in what to work. So they emigrated to US where brothers of my Grandpa arrived before which was LA at California. After 16 years of living there and having 4 children, the eldest wanted to enroll in the Army. So my Grandma though never in the life she was going to loose his boy and decided to came back to Mexico. What is amazing is that in those years, Mexican government decided to participate in the World War II and since my uncle was bilingual and a clear vocation he was accepted in the Mexican Army "201 Squad" trained in the US. The young man went back to USA and live there until assigned to Philipines. When he was there, the War finished and retrieved to Mexico. Finally he died piloting a plane near the Lake of Texcoco, but my family changed completely the destiny of our next generation... And because of that they didn't lived directly during the days of Cristiada the attempt to our faith. Instead, we, the next generation, have live in a subtil prosecution because this mentality that politics and religion is something that should be maintained strictly in the soul and never guide public decisions such as vote for elections or representing a public cause or being prolife advocate. It could not be politically correct because of what happened to Catholics in that time. Interesting, right? Maybe we are cousins!
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