Remember to Say A Prayer for the Crusader Pinochet

The 91 year old liberator of Chile, His Excellency Augusto Pinochet, is in the hospital where he is recovering from heart surgery after a heart attack last week. He has been given last rites and could use any prayers sent in his direction.

It has long been fashionable among the left, the left liberals as well as their fellow travellers to deride this great man and hero against Communism. Certainly he was no saint, but he was the greatest leader that South America has ever had. From the point when it became clear that the government of the insane Salvador Allende would lead to nothing other than death and misery, to his most recent interviews (see the one in the New Yorker from about seven years ago), this devoted public servant has struggled for the common good of his people.

Were there abuses and some corruption under Pinochet? Certainly. But if you hear the leftists talk, you would think that every third Chilean was shot by mysterious death squads. Instead, when it comes down to it, most of the people who were shot by Pinochet's followers were Communists, even to the point of being paid agents of Moscow. It would have been ideal that they be tried and given a chance for Confession before their executions, but Pinochet had to avoid turmoil.

It is not even clear how much the few abuses that happened were even done with the knowledge of the Liberator. Certainly he gave orders to preserve the orders, but how much was interpretation and how much was micromanaged will never be known. Instead we have the left doing what it does best: clamor for more blood.

While you are praying for the recovery and vindication of the name of this great Chilean, you might want to ask God to convert Fidel Castro, forgive him of his sins, grant him an induldgence, and give him a happy death. Soon.

Saint Francis of Madrid, we ask your intercession in these matters as well as for the conversion of China, Cambridge, and Berkeley!