Who are We? (Our Profile)
C O N T E N T S
OUR MOVEMENT
LEPANTO LIBRARY
OUR MODEL: THE CRISTEROS OF MEXICO
FOUNDATION DAY
DUTIES OF A CRISTERO
MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES
ORDER OF THE CHAPTER MEETING
Our Movement
The Cristeros is a Traditional Catholic movement of young men (15-30) which aims to:
- * profess and defend the faith and form Catholic gentlemen;
- * help young men have good Catholic friends to associate with;
- * study the Faith together and learn how to defend It.
This movement was established to help others know the Catholic Faith, the value of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,
Our Lady and Her Rosary, the Crisis in the Catholic Church today, and the dangers of the different sects around us.
Our constitution is founded on the Mass and confirmed by the Rosary and Scapular,
supported by the Catechism and good Catholic literature.
Holy Scripture tells us that when there are two or three gathered in the name of Our Lord, He is surely in their midst,
thus we encourage other Catholic Youth to join in this movement and serve Christ, our King and Lord.
Our Chapter, St. Michael, is composed of sub-chapters run by young men from Manila who meet on a regular basis to meet the aims of this movement and to help our parish
(Our Lady of Victories Church) particularly in organizing The Archconfraternity of St. Stephen (confraternity of Mass-servers),
assistance in the Santo Niņo Catechism for children, collaboration with other groups in our parish,
and organizing other parochial activities such as Symposia, Doctrinal Trainings for the Youth and Other Parishioners,
Photo Exhibits, etc.
- LEPANTO LIBRARY
True to our aim of studying and assistance in the dissemination of good Catholic Literatures, we have volunteered and taken upon us the obligation of running the parish library which we call the Lepanto Library.
Most of the books in this library were inherited from the then youth group TCYC (Traditional Catholic Youth Crusade-some founding members used to be its members) library; the others were donated by the faithful, here and abroad. If you wish to help us expand
our library by donating books, please do not hesitate to contact us through e-mail at cristeros@yahoo.com.
- OUR MODEL: THE CRISTEROS OF MEXICO
The name Cristeros was taken from the group of faithful Catholics who, during the Mexican Masonic revolution in 1926, fought for the Catholic religion and the reign of Christ, the King.
They had great Faith and were ready to die for the sake of Our Lord and the Catholic Church. Blessed Miguel Pro, the great Catholic Priest during the revolution, encouraged them to keep their Catholic Faith which infuriated the Masonic government. Father Pro administered to them the Blessed Sacrament secretly so as not to awaken the anger of the civil government.
The Freemasons of that time dubbed the Cristeros as revolutionaries since these Masons did not know the cause the Cristeros were fighting for (which was to restore society to Christ the King) and were not interested in their "cause"--thus they wished to annihilate this Catholic association. In a nutshell, they were the sword of contradiction to the Freemasons in Mexico.
- FOUNDATION DAY
In honor of these great Catholic men, Father Michael McMahon, founded a group of young men which held its first meeting on September 24, 1996 and named the group as "The Cristeros". The word Cristero is a spanish term which means man of Christ.
- DUTIES OF A CRISTERO
The founding Chaplain encouraged those who wanted to become members to be faithful in praying the Rosary, for, the Rosary is the sword in the spiritual battle faced by each Catholic.
He imposed scapulars-the shield in the spiritual battle- on those who had not been enrolled and exhorted them to wear it everyday.
He recommended the attendance at the Holy Mass at least once a week besides Sunday and preached on the necessity of the Sacrament of Confession at least twice a month or whenever it is needed. The duties as agreed upon in the proceeding Chapter Meetings may be found in the section Duties of the Cristeros.
- MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES
Meetings and Spiritual Conferences are officiated by the Chaplain and Reporting on an assigned topics are discussed within the group to further the members' knowledge on the Faith and on the Crisis of the Church. Meetings and Conferences are held every Saturday and have different themes each week: for the first week, we study Catholic Doctrine; for the second week, on the Apostolate; and on the third week, a regular meeting, i.e. no Spiritual Conference; there may be another meeting on the fourth week if needs arise or it is assigned as the group's day of recreation. back to top
- ORDER OF THE CHAPTER MEETING
A Chapter Meeting begins by singing the Hymn to Christ the King, a prayer to the Holy Ghost, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Michael the Archangel and the Patron Saints of the movement. The Chapter ends with a hymn to the Mother of God, Salve Regina.
For the Missions of Asia and Vocations
