You're listening to Catholic Sprouse, the daily podcast for Catholic kids that strives to plant seeds of faith.

Hey there, Sprouse. Today is Thursday, April 22nd, 2021.

All week long, we have putting a spotlight on some great Catholic Latinos.

We have talked about St. Rose of Lima from Brazil. We talked about St. Oscar

Romero from El Salvador. Yesterday, we talked about St. Laura Montoya from Colombia. And today,

we are going to the country of Mexico to talk about one of my favorites, Blessed Miguel Pro.

Now, Blessed Miguel Pro lived during a very difficult time in Mexico.

Mexico went through a revolution, and the people that took control of the country, they hated the Catholic Church.

They began to pass all sorts of legislation

against priests, against people practicing their faith. They closed churches. They closed religious

institutions. In fact, there were parts of the country where they either killed or forced out

all of the priests.

So shortly before this, Blessed Miguel Pro answered a call to the priesthood.

He was studying in seminary, but because of the situation in Mexico, he was forced to leave and study first in California and then study in Belgium.

And it was there in Europe that he was ordained a priest.

Now, as you can imagine, being ordained a priest in Europe, while your whole family is in Mexico,

was very sad because usually the first thing that a priest does after they are ordained is they

bless their family. But his family wasn't there,

and he knew that his family was back suffering the persecution that was going on back at home

because of this new government. Now, many people advised Blessed Miguel Pro not to go back to Mexico

because he would probably be killed,

but he knew he was a priest and that people in Mexico were suffering,

...