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". . . the generous, the civilized

Will understand what it is to understand."

---Wallace Stevens, "Reply To Papini," II

Antonio, for my purposes I

do not address you by your titles nor

shall sign this letter with my own.  In these

few words I am Mauro, a priest of Christ.

And in His Name, I bear witness against

your blasphemous and heinous disregard

of God's Law and Christ's expectations of

His followers, Catholic or not, on earth.

Upon what was once consecrated ground,

the property that once was named Mision

San Antonio de Valero, you

burned the dead bodies of slain Christian men.

How dare you disregard what Christ demands

of those who claim to be part of His Church?

How dare you substitute your will rather

than make submission to His Perfect Will

as He disclosed it in the Gospels and

the teaching of the Church?  Shame on your soul.

Are you so arrogant that you believe

you are outside the charities required

of any faithful Christian by our Lord?

Have you the reckless arrogance to think

that He did not take notice of your act

of total disregard for the respect

owed to a corpse---of proper burial

within the earth of which it has been made?

And that this does not haunt your sleep at night,

or make your daily meals less savory,

your entertainments---private or public---

much less relaxing than they might have been

had you remembered what the Holy Church

had taught you from your youth?  Now hie you to

a local priest and make confession of

this sin, and not just this sin only, but

the hubris that compels you to believe

that you can set your will forth---and above

the will of Christ and of His Holy Church

that rises now in my person as I

scratch these words on this paper to condemn

the utter disarray of your wrecked soul.

Confess your sins, man!, weep for them and plead

for Christ's forgiveness with an adequate

penance---a very adequate penance

for all your cruelties, especially

cremating those bodies of Christian men.

You had no right, no precedent, and no

license that would deny to any of

them Christian burial; for their remains

became your own responsibility,

you by whose orders and whose soldiers they

were slain.  I do not care at all about

the politics---your cause, or theirs, do not

enter into my condemnation of

your failure to obey the charity

required by Christ.  The spark that lit the fire

that burned their bones may have, as well, lit those

flames that might now await you deep in Hell;

unless you discharge this sin and, absolved

by an ordained priest, perform perfectly

and to the letter whatever penance

that priest might place upon you.  Christian souls

in Heaven cry against you; Christian souls

in Purgatory pause their own purging

to rail against you unto Heaven's Judge.

The Church's honor is not served at all

by men like you, who act as you have done.

Claim you to be a servant of the Lord?---

so you were baptized, so you were confirmed,

and so you are received at every Mass

that you attend.  And yet, for all of that,

you burned the dead remains of Christian men;

as if, though dead, they still deserved to bear

the punishment you wanted to inflict;

the punishment you needed to inflict

in order to bolster your self-regard.

Satan was cast out of the Heavens for

is dread urge to bolster his self-regard.

I have written all that I have to say,

even if you now stood before me in

one of our Holy chapels here in Rome.

I have come to you, through these words of mine,

as Mauro---just a humble priest of Christ

and of His Church.  And, in His Name, I warn

you:  heed what I have written here to you.

Do not let this grim cancer spread upon

your soul.  Go to confession and, until

you can, see that your blood-stained fingers clutch

your Rosary's beads---say it once each hour,

during each day, until an ordained priest

absolves you and declares what penance you

have to perform to cleanse your rotten soul.

I sign this as Mauro, a priest ordained

in Christ's Church and by His authority.

And I, despite my abhorrence, will pray

for you; you, too---pray for yourself.

Starward