Tea at Trianon: A Mexican Bishop Speaks Out

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, December 5, 2013

A Mexican Bishop Speaks Out

From The Washington Post:

APATZINGAN, Mexico — Their names hang from a wooden cross at the altar of a Catholic cathedral, the dead and missing of the diocese: Manuel Alaya. Octavio Contreras. Sergio Madrigal.

This has been the bloodiest year since 1998 when it comes to drug violence here in the state of Michoacan. For Miguel Patiño Velazquez, a 75-year-old bishop with a white frock and dark circles under his eyes, it is time to speak out.

The bishop has criticized drug gangs by name, supported village vigilantes and demanded that the government restore order. Where other church fathers have spoken in generic terms about the violence, the bishop has been bold, leading the Catholic Church into the heart of the public debate.

“Now is the moment to be one voice for our poor people, for our society,” he said. But his stance has also put the bishop in the crosshairs of his enemy — a drug mafia whose leader, Nazario Moreno, has his own brand of fervent followers.

Moreno is known variously as “El Chayo” and “The Craziest One.” He may or may not be dead. He is the cult-like figurehead of the Knights Templar, which claims to be the righteous defender of the peasantry against a corrupt government.

Knights Templar members have been known to wear ceremonial white cloaks with red crosses and to spread Moreno’s religious writings as gospel. Hundreds of them used to convene to hear their leader’s multi-hour sermons. But they are also brutal killers and methamphetamine dealers who extort everyone from big corporations to street vendors throughout Michoacan, according to residents and government officials. (Read more.)