In our first half, Michael Hernon, vice president for advancement at Franciscan University of Steubenville explained why the university decided to drop students from its health care plan.
“It was a moral and an economic decision,” said Hernon. “We notified parents and students in mid-April.”
Not only would the insurance have doubled in cost, but it also would have made the university complicit in covering contraception, abortion-inducing drugs, and other services opposed to Catholic teaching.
In addition, Hernon spoke about Franciscan’s decision to be one of 43 Catholic organizations to sue the federal government to strike down the Health and Human Service’s mandate.
“We’ve fought this legislatively and have entered the lawsuit to have our day in court and hope to get an injunction to prevent this law from effecting us and others,” said Hernon. “We have a year. We hope cooler minds will prevail. We’re looking for a conscience clause, as the President promised at Notre Dame. Catholics were the pioneers of healthcare. They’re trying to separate our faith from our service. We are a passionately Catholic university. We will not comply.”
For Greater Glory
In our second half, Ruben Quezada, author of "For Greater Glory: The True Story of the Cristiada" spoke about the Cristero rebellion, which is being depicted in the film opening nationwide this weekend, "For Greater Glory."
Asked how historically accurate the film is, Quezada said it does an "incredibly accurate job of depicting what went on. They used some creative license to create some characters, but I would say that it's 90-95% accurate."
Quezada said that 90,000 Mexicans lost their lives during the three year war, which took place between 1927-1929. “Approximately 20- to 30,000 Cristeros perished, and about 65,000 government federales died,” said Quezada. “That’s amazing given that the Mexican government had a larger army, more weapons, and assistance from the U.S.”
Quezada, who grew up in Mexico until the 5th grade, said that the story isn’t better known because it was an embarrassment to the government and not taught in schools. While giving a lecture to a group of 250 first and second generation immigrants in Los Angeles recently, Quezada said that only about 10 attendees were aware of the Cristero rebellion.
Asked why it’s an important story for us to know, Quezada said, “it’s very timely.” “We need to voice our opinion and fight for religious freedom not only here, but in Mexico as well, because the persecution there continues. As Father Vega says in the film, ‘We cannot allow the Godless to take away our freedom.’”
To learn more, listen to today's show at 2 p.m. EASTERN Friday on any EWTN Radio affiliate. The program re-airs at 7 p.m. EASTERN on Saturday and 11 a.m. EASTERN on Sunday, and is also available on the Register Radio web page, and via podcast.
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This movie For Greater Glory was incredible. Every Catholic priest should encourage their congregation to watch this movie. This could happen to us if we do not stand up for our own religious freedom
The movie is awesome! I hope we have such courage when this happens here.
I agree about the movie. Upon returning home from the movie, I sent an e-mail to all my Catholic and Christian friends recommending that they see it. We can’t leave it up to the priests to do it all. We need, as proactive laity, to spread the word about the movie using whatever means, including leveraging technology to the hilt, to get it on people’s radar. Just as the Cristeros started off in small groups, we too can use word of mouth in our networks to get the ball rolling.
Hi Tim;
I listened to your radio program yesterday while getting ready for Mass and we were listening to Ruben Quezada give his take on the movie. My husband and I saw the “For Greater Glory” the evening before and it truly is a powerful movie more so for my husband because his father and uncles were Cristeros. Both of us were surprised at Ruben’s comment about the current President of Mexico Felipe Calderon and his government still persecuting the Church. Both President Calderon and his predecessor Vicente Fox are devout Catholics and both presidents warmly received both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico so I doubt very much that President Calderon is persecuting the church. Now the drug cartels murdering clergy and nuns, that I can believe.
We saw the movie last night. Awesome story and extremely well done. The theater was only 1/10 full. It seems as if it’s up to us to get the word out and fill those seats. We’ve researched it pretty well and except for some minimal artistic license, the story told is 95+% true. We were surprised to find that even after the 3 year armed conflict ended, it took 60 years to actually establish religious freedom in Mexico - until the 1990’s! No wonder a lot of Mexican Catholics don’t know the truth about their faith! History and truth are important, and these days it seems easier for people to be against God than to claim him as their Creator. My prayer is that those who see it grow in their faith, and become active in sharing that faith with others. It is up to us to not only believe, but to act on our faith.
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