The "Terrible Triangle"
Update: This post was prompted by my re-discovery of a website I find to be a remarkable treasure. What impressed me most were the photos of the faces of the Spanish clergy, religious, and lay people murdered in the Spanish Civil War. Here’s a link to Hagiography Circle; and this link directly to the page beginning the list of martyrs of the Spanish Civil War.
These days when one hears terms like “Terrible Triangle” thoughts immediately jump to latter day terrorism especially the Greater Middle East, southeast Asian island nations such as Malayasia, the Philippines etc. where such “triangles of terror” have probably been defined over time. The particular triangle I’m referring to though is one that Pope Pius XI tried to bring 
to the attention of the world but which, especially the West, seemed to remain silent on.
The triangle of terror that Pope Pius XI was concerned about involved three countries – the Soviet Union, Spain, and Mexico. In all three countries socialism and communism, among other idealogies, had taken strong root — all of them due to the influence of the Marxist-Leninist philosophy from the Soviet Union who, as promised by Our Blessed Mother at Fatima, spread their terror world-wide. In each of these countries the Church suffered terrible persecution and loss yet rarely was this even mentioned in the press of the day. As the violence spread, beginning with the Soviet revolution in 1917, through the 20’s and 30’s, the ideology of Communism was spread through much of Eastern Europe and the Balkans where even more of the Church began to experience persecution. As with any topic involving human misery and suffering, particularly when that suffering involves the Catholic faithful there is typically great accusation made against the Church attempting to “explain” why there was rebellion and violence against the Church, its people and property. Often the explanation involves the Church colluding with the rich and the landowners. Now I’ll be the first to concede that not every member of the Catholic Church, clergy, religious, or laity are innocent of some favoritism with the influential people, but the number of these versus the number of faithful, hardworking priests and religious pale when considered against the backdrop of the cold-blooded murder of so many of them in Russia, Spain, and Mexico in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Later, as WWII began the Communists, Nazis, Socialists and Facists made every attempt to obliterate the Church and remove any trace of God from the countries and cultures they tried subvert. In the end, history notes that none of these ideologies is acceptable to right-thinking and God-fearing people who, when given the choice will reject them all in favor of liberty, self-government, and religious freedom.
Today, as ever, these ideologies are a dangerous element putting freedom and democracy at risk wherever men and women are duped into believing them and some are well-intentioned. But not everyone espousing socialism or communism is good-hearted or has the best interest of the “people” at heart. On the contrary – more often than not it is the few who believe they are the answer to the worlds ills and that the masses of ignorant, poor, and working class of the populations are simply dragging everyone the world down. The common good is exchanged for something equally as insidious and hateful as the “class” structure they claim to replace. At least in the democracy we are free to render charity and aid to those in need (and we prove this in America every day by our giving to those in need both at home and abroad) and to worship the God who compells us to that charity. (I speak of charity here in the Christian sense of the word, that is, love).
Take off the blinders of bias, shut out the meaningless rhetoric, open your heart and mind and see the differences. Yes, America has poor, we have unemployed, we have rich exploiting the workers, we have clergy failing in their faithfulness but we have many, many more who, while wealthy, share their wealth willingly, who though not wealthy willingly share what they have with those in need, who daily struggle with difficults lives but who live those lives proudly and work hard for what they do have. There are thousands upon thousands of clergy and religious who have dedicated their lives entirely to serving God and His people, whoever they are, wherever they live, and no matter their state in life. In anything other than the type of democracy we have in America any or all of these things would be jeopardized for the good of a few at the cost to many.
Mary help us; Jesus save us!
The photo above courtesy Wikipedia:
"Execution" of the Sacred Heart by leftist militiamen at Cerro de los Ángeles near Madrid, on 7 August 1936, was the most famous of the widespread desecration of images and Churches.[1] King Alfonso XII had consecrated the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the spot on May 30, 1919.[2] The photograph was taken by a Paramount newsreel representative and originally published in the London Daily Mail with a caption calling it part of the "Spanish Reds' war on religion."[3]