“For seventy years, more than six hundred Jesuits had toiled in Baja California, moving steadily northward, never abandoning a mission.” (De Nevi and Moholy) Now, with no regard for age or illness, they were ousted from their Indians and herded aboard overcrowded ships. The people of Mexico, rich and poor, watched the spectacle with overflowing tears. What caused this unbelievable spectacle? “The same causes which in further development brought about the French Revolution.” (Cath. Encyclopedia) In other words: the Masons. The Jesuits were the Catholic vanguard against all heresy, and, being highly organized, were the worst enemy of that secret society aimed at toppling thrones and altars. Carlos III was a good man, but a very weak king. His Spain had a Mason for a prime minister, as did Portugal, France, and the Kingdom of Naples and the Two Sicilies. These four men – Count Aranda, Marquis of Pombal, Duc de Choiseul, and Bernardo Tanucci (the worst of the four) – were exerting great pressure on their respective countries and the Holy Father to suppress the Society of Jesus.
Clement XIV did suppress the Jesuits in 1773, as the aforesaid countries were threatening schism. While they still survived in Russia and Prussia (for bizarre reasons), the Jesuits were practically rendered extinct. It wasn’t until 1814, when Pope Pius VII promulgated the Bull Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum that the Society’s suppression was lifted. It would take a lot for anyone fully to appreciate the shocking scandal and tragedy of that suppression.
(This was originally published in From the Housetops as a sidebar of an article called “The Father of California”)
Founding of Mission San Carlos Borromeo
