(LifeSiteNews) — In 1599, the Blessed Virgin Mary said to Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres of Quito, Ecuador, “In the 19th Century, there will be a truly Catholic President, a man of character whom God, Our Lord, will give the palm of martyrdom on the square adjoining this convent. He will consecrate this Republic to the Sacred Heart of my Most Holy Son, and this consecration will sustain the Catholic Religion in the years that will follow, which will be ill-fated ones for the Church.”

Who was this hero of the faith and model of Catholic statesman, keeping the beacons burning in one of the last outposts of Christendom in an age grown dark with liberalism, freemasonry, and secularization? His name was Gabriel Garcia Moreno, a man of remarkable natural gifts and personal piety. 

He has been referred to as the greatest Catholic statesman of modern times, and his life contains useful lessons for Catholic politicians today. At certain moments in history, God raises up exceptional individuals, men of genius, marked by formidable intellect, diamond-hard will, and heart aflame with charity to accomplish critical works for His kingdom. Such figures stand head and shoulders above their comrades, as though hailing from a different world entirely. Such was Gabriel Garcia Moreno, a man who, largely unaided, faced the powers of darkness of his age and gave everything in defense of what he loved: God and country.

Life

Gabriel Garcia Moreno was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador on Christmas Eve, 1821, and the event marked the eve of a Catholic restoration in Ecuador, also. His father, Don Gabriel Garcia Gomez, was from Old Castile in Spain, and his mother, Dona Mercedes, was the daughter of a knight. Gabriel’s parents provided their eight children with an example of devout Catholic living. However, tragedy struck early in Moreno’s life, as his father died suddenly, leaving the family in poverty so severe that Moreno’s education was in jeopardy. Providentially, a friend of the family, Father Betancourt, undertook Moreno’s education. 

It was well that he did, for Moreno proved an exemplary and academically gifted scholar, outclassing all his peers. After receiving tutelage in basic subjects from Father Betancourt, the latter arranged for his attendance at the University of Quito, where he studied mathematics, philosophy, and natural sciences. As Mary Maxwell-Scott writes in “Dios no Muere!” The Life of Gabriel Garcia Moreno, Regenerator of Ecuador, “He determined to learn everything, and from his strength of will we can understand how he succeeded afterwards in becoming at the same time a great orator, a profound historian, an excellent linguist, a poet, and an ‘incomparable statesman.’”  He lived at this time a secluded life of constant study, where his “recreation” consisted of learning English and French.

In appearance, he was tall, handsome, with thoughtful dark eyes. He was well-liked, and with the help of his father’s early training, he had countered his natural timid disposition and become bold, even fiery in temperament, as Maxwell-Scott relates.

Moreno was pious, too, and this trait began to manifest itself early in his life. When still a student, he considered becoming a priest. However, his irresistible attraction to the study of the sciences, along with the advice to remain in the lay state and serve the church in the temporal sphere dissuaded him from seeking ordination. He became a lawyer at the age of 23, and only accepted cases where he believed he was fighting on the side of justice. In 1848, he married Dona Rosa Ascasubi, and the happy union produced six children. 

Moreno became involved in his nation’s politics around the time he became a lawyer. There was, at this time, a man named General Flores serving as president of the republic of Ecuador, and he sought to solidify his power by drawing up a new constitution in which he would hold the scepter of absolute power. Moreover, since he was in league with the Freemasons, his government held a strong anti-Catholic stance, The clergy were excluded from the Legislative Chamber and the government issued a directive for everyone to swear an oath to the constitution. At this point, civil war erupted and Moreno actively participated in the resistance to Flores’s tyrannical rule. The Patriots succeeded in ousting Flores, who was sent into exile for two years, while a new president was appointed, one Olivedo Roca Noboa.

After this success, Moreno made a name for himself as a journalist, founding multiple political journals that criticized corruption in the Ecuadorean government. He travelled in Europe in 1849 to observe firsthand the results of a wave of liberal revolutions that had occurred there in 1848. He returned with a deeply embedded understanding that only true religion could save and preserve a nation. As Maxwell-Scott writes, “a country without it must be the prey either of autocrats or anarchists.”

Upon his return to Ecuador, Moreno played a pivotal part in helping the Jesuits gain a foothold in the country, and then subsequently defended them against the slanders of the Freemasons in a pamphlet called Defensa de los Jesuitas. Shortly after this, another scheming General, General Urbina, removed the sitting president and had himself installed, once more casting the nation into a state of upheaval. The socialist Urbina promptly exiled the troublesome and vocal journalist, and Moreno ended up in Paris for a few years, where he redoubled his scholarly efforts, preparing himself for his future political career by a deep examination of politics, military theory, literature, history, and chemistry. His dedication to all this staggers the mind: he wrote to a friend, “I work sixteen hours a day and if there were forty-eight hours in a day I would work forty without flinching.” Here, too, in the city of light, Moreno underwent a deeper spiritual conversion, his early piety having worn off some. He returned to the full and fervent practice of his faith, from which he never again wavered.

Moreno returned to Ecuador under a general amnesty in 1856 armed and ready for the battles that lay ahead. He taught at the University of Quito and joined the senate, where he opposed the Masonic party, which had seeped into the veins of the government like poison. In time, Moreno realized that only armed revolt would deliver the country from the talons of Urbina’s tyrannical, Masonic, and anti-Catholic government, and he personally trained and led troops into battle, while also being appointed as head of a Provisional Government. Through a series of exploits and feats worthy of any adventure novel, Moreno and his allies won the civil war and removed Urbina and his government.

Unsurprisingly, the people elected Moreno as president of the new government and he launched into a program of reform with his trademark energy and determination. He restored the rights of the Church and reworked the financial system, among many other achievements, which I will examine momentarily. Under his rule, prosperity steadily grew, and he successfully warded off continued threats from the malcontent Urbina and another general who sought to absorb Ecuador into a great “Colombian Federation.”

When, in 1870, the troops of Victor Emmanuel occupied Rome, Moreno loudly protested this violation of the rights of the Holy See, and Pope Pius IX awarded Moreno with the decoration of the First Class of the Order of Pius IX. In 1873, Moreno publicly consecrated Ecuador to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, fulfilling Our Lady’s prophecy of four centuries before. It was this, perhaps—along with Moreno’s fierce loyalty to the papacy when liberals sought to overthrow its power—that finally solidified Moreno’s fate. This indomitable man of indefatigable energy, who had so long opposed the Masonic program in Ecuador and had made Ecuador into a truly Catholic nation, invited upon his head all the wrath of the secret societies who sought to create a new order. As The Catholic Encyclopedia has it, “It was. . . notorious that certain [Masonic] lodges had formally decreed the death of García Moreno.” That sentence was carried out against him on August 6, 1875, when he was sliced with a machete and shot with revolvers upon exiting the Cathedral where he’d been praying before the Blessed Sacrament. Moreno had been warned multiple times about the plot against his life, but refused to cower in fear, preferring to place his life and the future of his country in God’s hands. “I fear God but God alone. I willingly pardon my enemies and would do them good if I knew them or if I had the chance.”

Political program

Here, in brief outline, were some of Moreno’s achievements and policies, along with his standards of personal conduct.

• He established a concordat with the Catholic Church, considered by the church one of the most favorable concordats ever negotiated with any nation, according to Joseph Sladky.
• He introduced a new constitution in 1869 that strengthened the powers of the government and established the Catholic faith as the official state religion, to the exclusion of all others.
• Under Moreno, the state supported the Church in her work and only Catholics were allowed to hold office.
• He dismissed officials who were only serving in government for selfish gains and draining the government coffers. He refused to take a salary for himself.
• Members of secret societies were forbidden the rights of citizenship.
• He introduced better bookkeeping and financial accountability.
• He invited French religious to teach in his schools and care for the sick and imprisoned.
• He recalled the Jesuits (who had been expelled).
• He greatly enhanced the country’s infrastructure, including its roads, lighthouses, and the adornment of the capital. 
• This list is not exhaustive. In Sladky’s words, “García Moreno’s administrative reforms in Ecuador are almost beyond numbering, including significant changes in the military, education, and care for the poor and the sick.”
• Perhaps most importantly, Moreno understood that success as a Catholic politician rested upon a foundation of a deep spiritual life. A politician cannot bestow the peace of Christ upon his people if he does not possess it first in his own soul. He wrote himself a Rule of Life that included a strict schedule (rising at 5:00AM and not retiring until close to midnight) and rules such as: 
  • Every morning when saying my prayers, I will ask specially for humility.
  • Every day I will hear Mass, say the Rosary, and read, besides a Chapter of the Imitation, this rule and the annexed instructions.
  • I will take care to keep myself as much as possible in the presence of God, especially in conversation, so as not to speak useless words. I will constantly offer my heart to God, and principally before beginning any action.
  • In temptations I will [think]: ‘What should I think of all this in my last agony?’
  • In my room never to pray sitting when I can do so on my knees or standing. 
  • Practise daily little acts of humility, as kissing the ground; to rejoice when I, or my actions, are censured.
  • I will make a particular examen twice a day on my exercise of various virtues, and a general examen every evening. I will go to confession every week.
  • I will scrupulously observe the law of justice and truth….
  • I will never pass more than an hour in any amusement, and in general never before eight o’clock.

Such were the accomplishments of this great man. And after laboring for many years, the gift of martyrdom was awarded to him. Lying there in the street after the assassins’ attack, his life and blood flowing away like the ebbing of the tide, one arm and one hand severed from his body, looking up at the cerulean tropical sky, what thoughts must have run through his head? Did he think of all that he had done for his people and his God? No, no, it seems unlikely. For he had never thought much of himself (and used to repeat to himself, “I am worse than a demon.”) His thoughts at the end were of God. For when the assassins shrilly shouted, “Die, destroyer of liberty!” He replied, “Dios no muere,” “God does not die.” 

Empires of men may rise, glitter for a moment, and then fade far out of sight. Even individual political careers of great men like Moreno bloom like water lilies on the stream of time, but they, too, are transient. Often, what one generation does, the next undoes. But it doesn’t matter. God does not die. What is done for him is eternal, an eternal victory, however it plays out in time. 

The Catholic statesman who lives by unchanging truths has transcended time.