• November 17th - SS. Roque and Comp.

    From rich@1:396/4 to All on Fri Nov 16 08:16:07 2018
    From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

    November 17th - SS. Roque and Comp., Jesuit Martyrs of Paraguay
    (1576-1628)

    Anglo-Saxon America has traditionally belittled the efforts of the
    Spanish pioneers in the New World =E2=80=93 more often than not out of religious and political prejudice. One Hispanic frontier institution
    that has survived such criticism is the =E2=80=9Creduction.=E2=80=9D This w=
    as a
    religious-cultural plan carried out by missionaries among the American
    Indians, with the backing of the kings of Spain. Intent upon teaching
    the natives both the Catholic faith and skills of European
    civilization, and meanwhile protecting them against enslavement and
    oppression, the missionaries gathered these nomads into villages where
    they learned to support and govern themselves. We in the United States
    are most familiar with the Franciscan reductions or missions of
    California.

    Even more notable were the Jesuit reductions in Paraguay (1609-1760).
    A moving picture of the Paraguay reductions called =E2=80=9CThe Mission=E2= =80=9D was
    screened a few years ago.

    One of the early participants in this brilliant, if incomplete, social experiment was the Jesuit priest Roque Gonzalez. He was himself born
    in Asuncion, Paraguay, in 1576, the son of noble Spanish parents. An impressively devout lad, Roque became a diocesan priest in 1599, and
    at once began to carry the faith to the remote tribesmen of Paraguay.
    After ten years he joined the Jesuits.

    Being a Jesuit, Fr. Gonzalez was even more able to continue his
    missionary explorations on behalf of the Indians. Some of his
    fellow-Spaniards were angered by him, for he withstood their efforts
    to exploit and enslave the natives. The Indians, on the other hand,
    held Roque in deep paternal respect, and were even ready to accept him
    as a reconciler. He founded among them several reduction villages, and
    they began to learn there the acts of self-government and
    self-sufficiency.

    If most of the Indians trusted Fr. Roque and his fellow missionaries,
    the pagan Indian-medicine men did not. Now a medicine man named Nezu
    began to organize opposition against Gonzalez. One day in 1628 when
    the priest was busy installing a church bell in the new mission
    village of Caaro, a slave named Maragua, who was a partisan of Nezu,
    attacked him from behind, crushing his skull with a tomahawk. Next,
    Maragua killed Fr. Alonso Rodriguez, and, on the following day, Fr.
    Juan de Castillo was slain. These two were Fr. Roque's Jesuit
    companions assigned to Caaro. After Fr. Roque's death, we are told,
    his horse refused to eat or be ridden, and soon died beside the grave!

    Paraguayan Catholics, in general, were appalled by these murders, and
    from the outset considered the three Jesuits three martyrs. In fact,
    within six months the Church authorities had launched inquiries
    intended to promote the canonization of all three as =E2=80=9Cprotomartyrs= =E2=80=9D
    (first martyrs) of Latin America. If the trio were beatified only in
    1934 (at a ceremony I was privileged to attend), it was because the
    original documents on the case were lost, and a copy of them was found
    only a century ago. They were finally canonized in 1988.

    Almost a century before his beatification, Father Gonzalez came to
    public notice in a singular way. In 1857 a Dr. and Mrs. T. L. Nichols
    of Springfield, Ohio, a worthy and prominent Protestant couple, were
    taking part in a spiritualistic seance. In connection with the seance,
    a man appeared to Mrs. Nichols who called himself Gonzalez the martyr,
    and who urged them to examine the religious teachings of the Jesuits.
    They approached the Jesuits of St. Xavier College, Cincinnati, took instruction, and joined the Church. Moving to England, they became
    quite well known in British Catholic circles.

    Saint Roque's appearance in connection with a spiritualistic seance
    says nothing about the practice of spiritualism. What it does
    demonstrate is that God can communicate graces to mankind in many
    different ways.


    Saint Quote:
    Let us abandon everything to the merciful providence of God.
    --St. Albert the Great

    Bible Quote:
    "Fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness, let it not so much
    as be named among you, as becometh saints or obscenity or foolish
    talking or scurrility, which is to no purpose; but rather giving of
    thanks. For know you this and understand: that no fornicator or
    unclean or covetous person (which is a serving of idols) hath
    inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God"=C2 (Eph. 5:3-5)


    <><><><>
    =C2 "Do you believe?" Matthew 9:27-31

    Meditation:
    =C2 Are there any blind-spots in your life that keep you from recognizing
    God's power and mercy? When two blind men heard that Jesus was passing
    their way, they followed him and begged for his mercy. The word mercy
    literally means "sorrowful at heart". But mercy is something more than compassion, or heartfelt sorrow at another person's misfortune.
    Compassion empathizes with the sufferer. But mercy goes further; it
    removes suffering. A merciful person shares in another person's
    misfortune and suffering as if it were their own.

    --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
    * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)