The morning after I uploaded my first blog post I was shocked to see an email that said someone was following my blog. How could that possibly be? I’m a new author.
What was even more surprising was that it was a man that I think was Chinese. I immediately realized that it was unlikely that this man was following me because he had a devotion to Our Sorrowful Mother. I suspect he has some way of receiving notifications whenever somebody posts a new blog. I believe he most likely followed me so that I would click on his name and look at his writing. He was right. My curiosity got the better of me.
When I clicked on his link and began to read his poetry which was written in English, I found it interesting and ironic. He was lamenting not having access to the protections of democracy. He would have had no idea that I am the daughter of a man who spent almost 2 years of hell in a communist Chinese prisoner of war camp. So, I take the whole threat of communism against democracy a little more personally.
Not knowing this man’s religious background, I do hope that he’ll return to my blog and read this post because the Catholic Church, the Sorrowful Mother, and of course the Holy Rosary are among our greatest weapons against the destructive societal trends in the world today.
Interestingly, the Chinese pow camp where my father was detained was the same camp that housed Father Emil Kapaun, a Catholic priest and US army chaplain, Medal of Honor winner and possibly soon to be Catholic saint. The horrors of this officers’ camp have been detailed in several books in order to document Father Kapaun’s heroic compassion, bravery and spiritual support for his brother prisoners under the ruthless inhumane communists. His selflessness is the ultimate contrast to these demonic forces. A few of these books are linked below.
I am of an age where I remember when communism was ALWAYS a negative word, a threatening word and something to be fought against – and not just because I was the daughter of a POW and heard about Camp 5. It used to be routine and acceptable to document communist atrocities along with the societal and economic traumas inflicted by this empty utopian lie.
When Our Lady of Fatima appeared in 1917 to caution the world that Russia would spread her errors, I’m sure she was also there as the Sorrowful Mother – sorrowful because she could see that many people were going to become comfortable and complacent. They would feel that they no longer needed God in the equation.
This comfort that we’ve gained over the last century has made us soft. We take so much for granted – our faith, our families, our food supply. Were all the millions of lives, sacrificed and damaged, fighting totalitarianism in the World Wars, the Korean conflict, and Vietnam worth only a lousy 100 years of improvement?
It’s profound that I can relate to this poet lamenting a lack of democracy. Our Sorrowful Mother laments with us and the young Chinese man half a world away.
Books on Father Emil Kapaun:
https://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Father-Kapaun-Priest-Soldier/dp/1621640655.
Tricia Mendoza-Awethor 