The relics of six Mexican martyrs were not supposed to arrive at Our Lady of the Rosary of Talpa Church in Boyle Heights until after the summer.
But when the parish’s pastor, Father Miguel Ángel Ruiz, learned that the relics were going to show up early — coincidentally on the week that a wave of drug cartel violence suddenly rocked Mexico — he knew it was God’s providence when it was needed most.
“I said, ‘It’s God’s sign — let’s do it,’ ” Ruiz said. “Not only will we pray for peace, but we will also have the intercession of the martyrs through the presence of their relics.”
The parish, simply known as “Talpa” to most parishioners, held a week of prayer that kicked off Tuesday, Feb. 24, with a Mass for peace and veneration of the martyrs’ relics, temporarily gifted to the parish by the Knights of Columbus.
The relics of St. Miguel de la Mora de la Mora, St. José María Robles Hurtado, St. Mateo Correa Magallanes, St. Luis Batis Sáinz, St. Rodrigo Aguilar Alemán, and St. Pedro de Jesús Maldonado Lucero were priests killed during the Cristero War against the Catholic Church in Mexico during the 1920s. They were canonized by St. Pope John Paul II in 2000.
The Mass and relics come as Mexico deals with the aftermath of the killing of Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, a prominent drug cartel leader, which sparked days of violence in the country, bringing fear and uncertainty to families on both sides of the border.
The violence hit close to home for many who attended the prayer service. Maria Rico attended the Mass with her daughter and said she has a sister and her family who had been “locked inside their home” since the violence began….
“It was truly perfect timing. [The relics] came exactly at the moment when we needed it most emotionally.”
Sara González has attended Talpa since 1985, even after moving to Whittier. She, too, has family in Mexico and has been affected by the violence….
González, whose mother was born in 1927, was raised by a first-person witness to the faith shown by the Mexican martyrs.
“She used to tell me about it and how they couldn’t baptize her,” González added. “They had to baptize her in the basement because they couldn’t perform baptisms at the time she was born….”
In his homily, Ruiz pointed to the martyrs’ example of solidarity and faith in the face of adversity.
From Angelus News
So any coincidence in someone’s mind is a sign from God? What about all the other parishes the relics could have gone to with parishioners who also have relatives in Mexico affected by the cartel violence? They don’t count? God doesn’t care about them? Only that parish in this story and their folk?
The celebration of the relics also began on the exact day of Trump’s State of the Union speech in which he railed against illegal immigration. Maybe the relics are a sign from God that Trump is wrong and America should welcome illegals again.
You can’t only interpret signs the way you want them to go. That’s not reality, it’s fantasy. And Catholicism isn’t fantasy.
Please read the histiry of the horrible Cristero War and the holy martyrs, killed for standing up for Christ and their Catholic Faith. Religious Freedom is very precious. America fights for Religious Freedom both here and globally. America is also helping to fight the evil drug cartels in Mexico and Latin America. It is extremely violent. If you had any family members — your dear mother, or anyone else– living in cities where violence has escalated, due to the drug wars– you would be deeply concerned. Prayers are desperately needed.
During the Mexican Cristero War, (1926-29) many priests, seminarians, bishops and nuns fled for their lives to America, to California, Texas and other states. There were about 2500 religious refugees– Jesuits, Franciscans, Paulists, Dominicans, etc.– and diocesan priests, seminarians and bishops. Plus, many Carnelite nuns of variousl branches, Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, etc. The religious refugees either were incorporated into reliogious orders, dioceses, convents and seminaries in the U.S.– or else started thwir own. American Catholic dioceses and the Knights of Columbus helped in this endeavor. Many priests and nuns who remained in Mexico were killed, and their churches, convents and monasteries were destroyed.
It seems like a nice opportunity for a solemn, prayerful experience.
Viva Cristo Rey.