Priests of Christ - Concepcion (Conchita) Cabrera de Armida

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Concepción Cabrera de Armida
Priests of Christ
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(with references to the book To My Priests)
Selection of texts and theological introduction by
Juan Gutiérrez González, M.Sp.S.
Historical introduction by
Carlos Francisco Vera Soto, M.Sp.S.
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Cover: The Holy Mass for the Conclusion of the Year for Priests, Solemnity of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus, St. Peter’s Square, 11 June 2010.
Photo by L’Osservatore Romano.
Declaration
In accordance with the Decree of Pope Urban VIII, we do not presume to anticipate the
definitive judgment of the Holy See on the writings of the Venerable Conchita. In this
regard we humbly submit to the Church’s final decision.
Nihil Obstat
Carlos Castro Tello, M.Sp.S.
2 February 2004
Imprimatur
Domenico Di Raimondo Romo, M.Sp.S.
Superior General
30 May 2004
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ISBN 978-0-8189-1690-8
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Our heartfelt gratitude to
Msgr. Arthur B. Calkins
for theological consultation and the correction of the text.
We would also like to express our gratitude
to all who have collaborated in the preparation of this book: to
Guscin Esta, James Wierzbicki, Mary Kaufmann,
Sr. Cecilia Corona, RCSCJ, Sr. Elzbieta Sadowska, RCSCJ.
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Table of Contents
Presentation
Preface
Message of Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos
Letter to a Brother Priest
Reasons for Hope
Capacity to be Amazed
Theological Introduction by Juan Gutiérrez González, M.Sp.S.
What does the Lord want with these Confidences for Priests?
Why a New Call to Priestly Holiness? There will always be Prophets!
What is the Source of the Power, the Depth and the Value of Texts of the Prophet
and the Mystic?
“The Lived Theology of the Saints”
The Ecclesial Dimension, a Criterion for Discernment
Notional Theology and the Mystical Experience
The Confidences to My Priests are a Grace of Motherly Fruitfulness
Conclusion
The Confidences: A Letter to the Church
Historical Introduction by Carlos Francisco Vera Soto, M.Sp.S.
The Tribulation
The Agreements of 1929 – Meat Offered to Idols
Patience
A Kingdom of Priests
Part One: Called to the Joy of the Father
1. Chosen in Jesus Christ from all Eternity in the Heart of the Trinity
It is Love that Begot Priests in the Father
From All Eternity, the Father was Pleased in Seeing His Beloved Son Reproduced
in Every Priest
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In the Father’s Mind
My Love Came Before their Love
My Father Seeks Priests in Me and Me in Them
It Was Love, It Is Love and It Will Be Love and Only Love Until the End of Time
that Constitutes All Priests as One Priest in Me
Love for My Father, Understood and Developed in the Priest’s Heart
In Gazing Upon a Priest from all Eternity, I saw in Him a Legion of Souls,
Begotten by Him
Priests were Begotten with Me in their Priestly Vocation in the Father
My Priests should always bear in mind this Infinite Love of Predilection
What a Priestly Soul is Worth
The Father Gazed on Me with Infinite Tenderness and then Priests sprung forth in
the Eternal Priest
Mary sees Priests in her Son
Mary always plays a Great Role in the Mass
2. Chosen in Christ, the Church’s Bridegroom
I want all my Bishops and Priests to be absorbed in the Unity of the Trinity so that
They may be Fruitful in Souls
My Church is so pure that I give it as Bride only to those who swear to be pure
A Priest who is not in love with the Church should not belong to it
The Church, the Bride of Jesus and of His Priests
Mary is the One who prepares Priestly Souls for the Grace of the Mystical
Incarnation
The Holy Spirit does not Unite Himself to Anything Stained
3. Seminarians Should Understand the Greatness of the Priesthood
Make the Sublimity of the Vocation Clear in the Seminary
A Vocation to the Priesthood, even though Divine, Needs to be Cultivated
Seminaries and Novitiates are the Future of the Church
Part Two: Consecrated in the Fire of the Spirit
1. Consecrated by Virtue of Priestly Ordination
In the Priest I Contemplate all Mysteries
Who anointed Them for the Priesthood? Who gave their Words Power at the
Consecration?
Priests, from being Simple Men, Become Me by Virtue of their Ordination
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Jesus’ Ardent Longings
All Priests should Consecrate themselves to the Holy Spirit
2. Consecrated for the Eucharist
The Fruitful Shadow of the Father Extends to the Altars
In Virtue of the Priesthood Conferred on Them, They Receive in a Certain Sense
the Power to Conceive the Word Made Flesh at Mass
The Priest Receives the Reflection of the Incarnation at Mass
The Priest is a Living Eucharist
How Can I Get in the Way When I am all Love and Tenderness?
Intentions in Celebrating the Eucharist
The Eucharist is Perpetuated in the World by Priests
The Glorification of Bodies in Heaven will be in Proportion to Union with Me on
Earth
Divine and Indestructible Life
3. From the Eucharist to the Mystical Body
3.1 Consecrated for the Ministry of Forgiveness and Spiritual Guidance
The Priest distributes the Spiritual Riches of Heaven
The Confessional, after the Altar, is the Place where the Trinity is Most Glorified
The Priest of the Cross should also be a Heaven from which all the Perfect Virtues
always Shine Forth
Spiritual Directors should be the Guides and Teachers of the Souls whom I Deign
to Entrust to Them
In these times more than ever there is a need for Holy Directors who can give a
New Impulse once again to the True Interior Life by means of these Lights, these
Teachings
3.2 Consecrated for the Ministry of the Word
God’s Word accomplishes Its Work and returns triumphant to where it came from
I Am the Divine Word, the Channel through which My Father Communicates with
the World
Preach the Mercy of God!
Constant Study Frees Priests from Great Dangers
The Time has Come to Make the Divinity of My Heart Shine out
Part Three: Sent in the Power of the Son
1. In the Perspective of the Father’s Fruitfulness
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The Secret of the Priest’s Apostolate
The Priest is Conscious of Participating in the Father’s Fruitfulness
The Holy Fruitfulness of the Father seems to have been Forgotten
Diffuse the Fruitfulness of the Father in Souls!
Fruitfulness and Priestly Celibacy
The Priest’s Duty to Give the Life of Grace
The Goal of the Fruitfulness of the Priest: to Form Jesus in Souls
Mary, the Icon of Fruitfulness
The Fruitful Suffering of the Priest
Fruitfulness and Suffering in Souls
There are many kinds of Fruitful Suffering
The Priest’s Fruitfulness by Means of the Word
The Objective of the Priest’s Fruitfulness is to bring back to the Father What came
from Him
How Much Fruitfulness Should be Venerated
Man Owes Heaven to the Father’s Fruitfulness
2. Sent by the Church of the Trinity
I Came into the World to Save it through My Church
The Church Contains All the Charisms of the Holy Spirit
Salvation is Found Only in the Church
The Weakness of Jesus Savior
3. Sent for Charity (The “Living For” of the Priest)
Priests Belong to and Exist for Souls
Loving Me Means Surrendering to Love Unconditionally
Part Four: Inordinate Love of Self
1. The Threefold Concupiscence
1.1 The Concupiscence of the Flesh and of the Eyes
Impurity of the Priest
The Scandal given by a Priest causes Incalculable Damage and Profanes the
Image of the Trinity in Souls
A Disoriented Heart
When a Blind Person Guides Another Blind Person
The Drunkenness that Diminishes the Virtues and its Remedy
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Greed in the Priest
I Love the Poor so Much That I Made Myself Poor
The Image of the Trinity in Souls
1.2 The Pride of Life
Dissipation Kills the Intellect
A Priest Should Be Everything for Everyone
How Much I Deplore Vanity in Pulpits
The Priest is a Sower and His Mission is to Sow the Seed in Souls
For Me True Greatness Lies not in What Shines, but in the Secret of a Pure Heart
Sometimes I Find the Doors of Many of My Priests’ Hearts Closed to Graces
Excessive Material Work Asphyxiates the Spirit
By Means of Purity One Sees God, Feels God, and Communicates God
1.3 Sin as an Offense Against God and the Mystical Suffering of the Heart of Christ
The Suffering of Christ the Priest and the Temptations of Priests
I Want Love in Priestly Souls
Why do They Look at My Beloved Father Like That at Mass?
During Mass the Power of the Godhead Absorbs the Priest
I Suffer Mystically, but Really Because of the Love I Have for My Father, Who is
Offended
The Sin of Indifference Towards God
How Much I Must Deplore the Lukewarmness of Many of My Priests
Human Respect Stains the Purity of Priestly Actions
How can I Communicate Myself to them if they are Immersed in Worldly Matters?
How can the Lord say that He Suffers if He cannot Suffer because He is God?
1.4 The Consequences of a Life in which One does not Break Definitively with Sin
How Much Many of My Priests Need Prudence!
Many Priests do not Love Me and Consequently do not Love My Church
My Human Heart Feels Very Deeply the Insensitivity of Man
The Lack of Confidence in Priestly Souls is the Devil’s Principal Weapon to
Obtain Victory
2. The Priest in the Presence of the Divine Forgiveness
Why Should One Fear the God of Mercy?
I Also Love the Apostate Priest
No More Distance Between Priests and Me
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Priestly Souls that Close Themselves to Grace
I Beg for Purity! I Beg for Purity!
Purity of Soul
Making a Heartfelt General Confession
Tell them that I am Ready to Forget their Past, to Wash them in My Blood
Part Five: Transformed Into Christ and Anointed by the Holy Spirit
1. What Does Transformation Into Christ Consist In?
The Culmination of Transformation Into Me Consists in Joining Man’s Will to
Mine, in All its Degrees
Transformation Into Me is not just of My Exterior Traits
This is My Body; This is My Blood
The Two Roles of Jesus
2. Christ Crucified is the Exemplar of the Priest’s Spiritual Transformation
In Order to Reign Crucified I Need Holy Servants
I Reigned when I was Crucified and when I Became a Victim, I Drew Souls to
Myself
I Have Given You an Example
The Priest, to the Extent of His Transformation Into Christ, feels as Christ does,
the Offenses Committed Against Him
3. Transformation Into Christ Through Mary
Secret
The Zeal of Mary for the Sanctification of Priests
Mary and the Most Holy Trinity
4. The Transformation of Bishops into Christ
The Mystical Incarnation
Jesus Wants a Radical Change in the Priests of Today
The Pope, the Cardinals, the Bishops and Priests Make up one Single Divine
Reality
It is the Duty of Bishops to Maintain Unity
5. The Urgency of the Transformation Into Christ Because of the Priest’s Role in
the Celebration of the Eucharist and of the Sacrament of Reconciliation
Transformation Into Christ is a Sacred Obligation that Should Move the Priest
Transformed Into Christ by the Holy Spirit Who Personifies Love
Love and Purity Form the Priestly Vocation
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The Priest Distributes the Spiritual Riches of Heaven
The Same Fruitful Shadow of the Father is Extended to the Altars
At Mass the Priest Receives the Reflection of the Incarnation
6. The Holy Spirit brings about Transformation Into Christ by Means of the
Dynamism of the Virtues and of His Gifts
Graces from God for the Priest
An Urgent Invitation for Transformation
Faith, Trust and Gratitude
Only Through the Holy Spirit does Man Receive What is Divine
The Time has come to Exalt the Holy Spirit in the World
What is the Foundation for the Transformation of Priests Into Me? The Holy Spirit
Who is Love
7. The Spiritual Fruitfulness of the Priest is the Result of His Spiritual
Transformation Into Christ
Only a Priest Transformed Into Me can Transform Souls
The Fruits and the Practice of Transformation
The Role of the Priest in the Transformation of Souls Into Christ
The Fruitfulness of the Suffering of a Priest Transformed Into Christ
To Be Transformed into Christ in Order to Attract Souls
8. The Goal of Transformation Into Christ is to enter into the Joy of the Unity of
God
To Form in Me one Priest and one Church in the Unity of the Trinity
Do not be Surprised that I Speak so Much of Unity
Conclusion
Daily Consecration to the Holy Spirit
Dear Brother Priest
Works by Archbishop Luis M. Martínez and Concepción Cabrera De Armida
For Further Information
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Presentation
16 July 2014
Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
San Antonio, Texas,
United States of America
It is my honor to be asked to write this letter to be placed in this English edition of the
work Priests of Christ. This translation will make accessible to the English-speaking
world this great work of the beloved Venerable Concepción “Conchita” Cabrera de
Armida. This gifted lay woman, though her spiritual life and her interactions with our
Lord Jesus, was able to offer truly gifted and valuable insights into the ministerial
priesthood and the life and work of those called to ordination in our Church.
Conchita did not write a doctrinal work, or a theological work, rather she recorded
the words prompted by our Lord in the language of her heart and soul. The result is a
work that is both beautiful and beneficial, both formative and challenging. These pages
lead to a constant relationship with the Trinity -Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -who is love.
Her work stands in resonance with the Church’s teaching on the ordained priesthood,
and many of the same exhortations, challenges, and affirmations for the priests of the
world can be found, in doctrinal language, in many of our contemporary teaching
documents today.
I commend this work to any priest looking to deepen his understanding of his place
in the Church, his life with Christ, his life with Our Lady and the saints, or any priest
needing renewal or refocusing. The world needs ordained men grounded in their personal
relationship with Christ, and men that love the people entrusted to them by God. It needs
men who know that only Christ’s love suffices, and that only out of this love, dedicate
their lives to everyone they meet, especially the poor. This kind of man becomes one
offering with Christ, having his same motives, attitudes, and purposes. Only a priest that
allows the Holy Spirit to transform him into the likeness of Christ can serve as Christ did,
and give himself as Christ did on the altar of the Cross, he “who has loved me and given
himself up for me” (Gal 2:20).
I also commend this work to the Church at large as we continue to grow together in
holiness, each of the faithful answering his or her call in the baptismal priesthood of all
believers. The work of our beloved Conchita, and the commentary and theological
reflection done by the scholars, which are included in this book, can guide us to a deeper
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understanding of how we are to minister together for the glory of God and the good of
his people, building a culture of communion with God and solidarity with everyone called
by Christ to be saved.
Pope Francis, at the Chrism Mass in Rome in 2014, told his priests that, “Priestly
joy is a joy which is sister to fidelity. It is the living Church, with a first name and a last
name, which the priest shepherds in his parish or in the mission entrusted to him. That
mission brings him joy whenever he is faithful to it, whenever he does all that he has to
do and lets go of everything that he has to let go of, as long as he stands firm amid the
flock which the Lord has entrusted to him: ‘Feed my sheep’ (cf. Jn 21:16,17).” May
God, through the intercession of the Venerable Conchita and of Our Lady of Guadalupe,
continue to provide priests for his Church, priests who are faithful, holy, fruitful, and
loving in their service to the Church as missionary disciples of Jesus Christ, the High
Priest.
Most Rev. Gustavo Garcia-Siller, M.Sp.S.
Archbishop of San Antonio
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Preface
Dear Brother Priest,
The Sisters of the Cross of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Missionaries of the
Holy Spirit are hereby publishing a new edition of To My Priests, written by the
Venerable Concepción Cabrera de Armida. This book has its origins in the “confidences”
she received in prayer from 1927 to 1932. Thus, they are spiritual conversations with
Jesus, that is, private revelations – which do not belong to the deposit of faith – whose
goal is to help us to live the definitive revelation of Christ more fully in a certain period of
history (cf. CCC 67).
We entrusted Fr. Juan Gutiérrez, M.Sp.S. – a theologian and expert in the writings
of Concepción Cabrera de Armida – with the selection of the main texts and the
organization of the thematic structure of the book. Fr. Juan carried out his task with great
care and dedication. We are pleased to offer you this book so that by listening to the
Holy Spirit you can take advantage of these reflections on Jesus Christ’s priesthood and
the participation in it by the ordained ministers of the Church.
At the end of this book, you will find further information about the Spirituality of
the Cross and references to other publications and contacts with the Fraternity of Christ
the Priest and the Family of the Cross.
We pray that the Holy Spirit will bless you abundantly as you read these pages.
If in the light of thi's book you ask yourselves:
What should I do for God in these circumstances?
What should I do for my soul?
What should I do for my neighbor?
It will be impossible for you not to give greater glory to God, not to sanctify
yourselves in the truth and not to be apostles willing to give up your blood and your
life for your brothers.
The Most Reverend Leopoldo Ruiz y Flores (1865-1941)
Archbishop of Morelia and Apostolic Delegate
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Message of Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos
Father Juan Gutiérrez González, M.Sp.S. has asked me for a word of recommendation
for the work that he has edited entitled Priests of Christ, which organize the writings of
the Venerable Concepción Cabrera de Armida, known as Confidences to Priests.
Reading the writings of the Venerable Concepción Cabrera de Armida, familiarly
known as “Conchita,” I am struck by her spiritual vision, which projects a light of
particular beauty on the vocation to holiness of ordained ministers, inviting them to gaze
in a more spiritual way at the exceptional dimensions of the mystery, which they
incarnate by virtue of priestly ordination.
These Confidences to Priests, as is always the case with the works of mystics, are
expressed in the personal language of the mystic and thus they verify the
recommendation of that great Dominican theologian, Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange,
who counseled that one must approach the mystics – particularly their spiritual writings –
with the eyes of a mystic and a spiritual person, explaining that the language of mystics is
not that of theologians.
The systematic-theological introduction of Father Juan Gutiérrez González
appropriately highlights the particular spiritual connotation of these Confidences, which
are characterized by language typical of mystical inspiration.
This work is in harmony with the traditional Catholic doctrine on the priesthood, but
with its own specific spiritual language. This – I would say – helps us to enter more
deeply into the mystery and above all makes us meditate on the transformation of the
priest into Christ, which to me seems to be the very heart of this message of the love of
God entrusted to the Venerable Concepción Cabrera de Armida.
It is typical of the mystical intuition to expand the horizon of theological reflection,
to extend it with expressions, which sound at times rather “exaggerated,” but which serve
undoubtedly as the inspiration to arrive at the fundamental goal: to move, to convert, to
lead to penance, but also to excite and to win over.
When the Venerable Conchita received these particular lights from the Lord directed
to helping priests, the final objective of the message was hidden from her. Here is where
the wisdom of her spiritual directors, like the Servant of God, Luis Martínez, then
Archbishop of Mexico City, was of great help to Concepción.
It is very useful that works like this are accompanied by appropriate theological
commentaries that, however, should always respect the typically spiritual and prophetic
characteristics of the author. This, in fact, is what the priest and theologian Father Juan
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Gutiérrez González has done in the introduction to this work, uniting to his great love for
this mystic his theological precision.
One speaks today of a crisis of priestly identity, of a crisis, which above all, touches
their spirituality. This charism that the Lord confided to the Venerable Conchita may be
seen as a valid and effective contribution to “rediscovering” the sacramental and spiritual
identity of the ordained priesthood.
These Confidences impel one to make the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass the very
center of one’s own life and spirituality. When the Confidences speak of this mystery,
perhaps reaching here their high point, they help us to recognize in the Eucharistic
Cenacle, the “maternal womb” of the minister of God.
Along with the sublime Eucharistic mystery, the priest is also called to enrich his
own spiritual life particularly through the mystery of Mary’s spiritual maternity.
One could say that through the Venerable Concepción Cabrera de Armida Heaven is
inviting priests to return to the “maternal womb” of the Eucharistic Cenacle together with
the Blessed Virgin Mary, to live in the light of the Priestly Presence and Power of Christ
the Redeemer, who transforms the hearts of those who give themselves to Him without
reserve.
I hope that the readers – above all priests – will be able to acquire from these
Confidences exactly what the Holy Spirit wants to transmit to them.
Darío Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos
Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy
Vatican City, March 25, 2004
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
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Letter to a Brother Priest
There is no better way to present the prophetic role of Concepción Cabrera de Armida in
the Church than in her own words, which she felt within herself as coming from the
Lord.
You cannot imagine how much these loving confidences of Jesus touch the
fibers1 of hearts; you cannot measure the good they will do, for they are not
words that pass away but rather words with power, words that work in hearts;
words that penetrate, convert and transform, since they are not your words,
but words born of Love.2
I am addressing you, my brother priest, wherever you may be in the world. I would
like to take in, from a global perspective, all the different ministerial activities in which
priests the world over may find themselves.
In the course of 44 years of life as a priest, I think that God has granted me a
certain priestly experience and a certain knowledge of the priest’s heart. That is why I
feel myself close to any priest in any circumstances of life and throughout the various
interior states through which his life passes.
Let me confess something. In all the books on spiritual theology that I have written,
I have never felt what I feel now – a living sensation of hope overwhelms me, of hope
and enthusiasm for my priestly life and at the same time great joy that each and every
priest who reads this book written by a woman with no theological knowledge, but who
was immersed in the fire of love for Jesus Christ, will be set ablaze, as I hope you will
be, with the fervor of a priestly life that is renewed and revitalized every day.
I am sure that in these pages you and I, as priests, will find many words addressed
to us by God.
The mystic who wrote these pages which I am introducing knew the priestly Heart
of Christ by divine inspiration, and at the same time she possessed a profound knowledge
of the heart of the man-priest. I know that what Jesus gave to Conchita in these
Confidences3 will become a reality in you. I know that these powerful words will
resound in your priestly heart and will bring about the transformation into Christ offered
by Him, desired by Him and brought about by His Spirit.
I know that they will remove all spiritual sloth and will return you to your “first
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love” (cf. Rv 2:4), the joy and the happiness of being a priest of Christ.
Reasons for Hope
At the beginning of this introduction I made reference to the hope which I desire for
myself and for all priests. This virtue can only be theological hope. In fact, the writings
of Concepción Cabrera de Armida show a profound knowledge of priestly life.
Sometimes the descriptions of sin in a priest’s life by themselves would be sufficient to
discourage him and submerge him in despair. Even though the Lord does point out
priests’ faults and even sins, this is not the main intention of the Confidences, as He
Himself makes clear, “If faults are pointed out it is not to accuse priests of them, but
rather because of My living and burning desire for their sanctification.”4
Moreover, the ideal offered to the priest in this book, so lofty and sublime, might
seem impossible to attain. Yet in these same writings we find the antidote against
discouragement that God gives to the priest along with the eager hope the Lord nurtures
for us. This guarantees the joy of the victory of good over evil. Only this theological
hope, sustained by God’s all-loving power, is capable of establishing peace in the priest’s
heart.
Brother priest, the sublime ideal of transformation into Christ is possible, for it will
be carried out by means of a new and personal Pentecost. This is the central theme of
the writings we are referring to. You and I can cry out, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me” (Lk 4:18). This is the Spirit who will change our hearts. Following the Spirit’s work
in the priest step by step, we will be anointed and consecrated anew in our mission as
priests or bishops. There will be a new beginning of our ministry in the Church. The
foundation of our theological hope will always be this new Pentecost, no matter where
we are, in the heights or in the depths. The fire of the Spirit will set our souls ablaze.
This will make us priests of light to illuminate the ways of righteousness, pure priests to
rescue many souls from the mud, priests of fire to fill the whole universe with divine
love. Each day, each little passage of these writings will fill us with the hope of a new
outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Capacity to be Amazed
Yet the contemplation of faith, which goes beyond what is merely tangible and
enables us to experience the greatness of being priests, will bring us joy. Joy in
crescendo. May your joy never be extinguished! The joy of having received so much
through His calling. The Lord has deemed you and me worthy of unheard-of trust.
Before consecrating you, before sending you out, He chose you as a companion of His
life and trials, before associating you with the mission.
A calling is a gaze. A gaze that will not leave you for all eternity.
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Priests who are capable of being amazed are needed. There are plenty of priests
with severe faces – it looks as if the light has gone out in them – even though we are
bearers of God’s joy.
Never get tired of discovering how beautiful and great the Father’s incredible gift is.
The day you stop being amazed you will be a fruitless being who no longer takes part in
God’s creativity.
Young people need beauty and greatness. If they heard Christ’s message with an
echo of joy, they would be filled with passion for God. There is nothing as contagious as
a priest’s happiness.
As I was telling you at the beginning, my own experience as a priest brings me
closer to you who, just like every priest, are on the path to eternity and working for the
establishment of God’s kingdom in this world.
The intuition which came to my heart through prayer, study and dialogue with other
priests – and is reflected in the arrangement of the texts of Concepción Cabrera de
Armida – is as follows:
The Father has called us; He thought of us before the world was created and
rejoiced in this thought of us in His beloved Son, who became the Eternal High
Priest. Everything is based on the divine choice! (first part).
In time, He Himself consecrated us with the Fire of His Spirit. What great
happiness to think, live and to vibrate again with the gift we have received! We
should rejoice in the extraordinary grace of our being ordained for the Eucharist.
This grace is unique and only for priests: the priest provides God the chance to give
His greatest love, His life in all its fullness, His whole Being. The priest gives God
His existence in the Eucharist and allows Him to show His merciful way of loving
in the sacrament of reconciliation; and in the proclamation of the Word he calls
together the Church, a place of the Spirit and a place of forgiveness. Nobody other
than he can do this. The priest is the man of the essential, of the fundamental and
of the one thing necessary (second part).
The priest does not live for himself. We have been chosen and consecrated for the
mission. The wide range of our apostolic ministry thus unfolds before our eyes,
more as a grace received from the fruitfulness of the Father than as a personal plan
(third part).
We bear this immense grace as a treasure in an earthen vessel. We need, therefore,
to love this treasure and to welcome it with all our hearts, to take care of this clay
vessel with delicacy and to renew the abandonment of ourselves into the merciful
arms of the One who chose us, consecrated us and sent us forth (fourth part).
The Father’s plan for priests is transformation into Christ the Head and Shepherd
by the power of the Spirit. Therefore, transformation into Jesus is essentially a
cooperation brought about by letting ourselves be guided by the Spirit of the Lord
Jesus. Our destiny will be losing ourselves in the bosom of the Trinity with the
Risen One while we journey on, sustained by theological hope (fifth part).
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After you have read the writings of Concepción Cabrera de Armida, brother priest,
you will find the invitation that I fraternally make to you.
28 January 2004,
the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas
Jesús María, San Luis Potosí
1 In Conchita’s language, the word fiber means something very intimate.
2 Cf. Concepción Cabrera de Armida, A mis Sacerdotes [To My Priests], ch. 59.
Account of Conscience [hereinafter AC] 50, p. 254, T. 3200b [the first number after AC
is the volume number of the Account of Conscience, the second number is the page and
the number preceded by a T is the text number in Fr. Juan Gutiérrez González M.Sp.S.’s
book Cruz de Jesús [The Cross of Jesus].
3 Cf. AC 50, 254, T. 3200b. Conchita received the Lord’s Confidences on the
priesthood beginning with her retreat of 1927 (Morelia) directed by Archbishop L.M.
Martínez (cf. To be a Mother, ed. Cimiento, Mexico, 1996, p. 79). Confidences (1927-
1930) contain the beautiful message of the Lord to priests, in which He urges them on to
holiness and transformation in Christ. Jesus explains the dignity of the priesthood and all
the dangers to which priests are subject. Conchita participated intimately in Jesus’ love
and sorrows for His priests. Confidences were published under the title of To My Priests.
4 Cf. To My Priests 46; AC 50, 112-113; T. 3197.
25

Theological Introduction
Understandably, before the Servant of God Concepción Cabrera de Armida (familiarly
known as Conchita) was declared Venerable in December 1999, all of her writings were
carefully analyzed by well-qualified theologians designated for this task by the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The first theologian and censor concluded his
personal opinion about what Conchita tells us in her writings on priests: “The book’s
doctrine is completely sound and Catholic.…”5
Further on, he says, “I must confess that when I read these pages I received great
spiritual benefit and often felt enveloped by a holy fear, as if by the presence of God who
was speaking.”6
What does the Lord want with these Confidences for Priests?
He wants to renew the call, ever ancient ever new in all of us, His ministers. He
wants to transform the priest into Christ and to unite him in the Trinity through the Holy
Spirit. In order to bring about this transformation, the only thing the Lord asks for is the
priest’s willingness. Here are Conchita’s own words, which not only highlight the
importance and the greatness of the transformation so often requested and so often
proclaimed by the Lord in the Confidences, but also express what this transformation
consists in:
The truth is that the love I ask from man, the love that man can give Me, is
derived from Eternal Love, from Divine Love. Man cannot love Me in any
other way but only with this love; and yet what I search for in this love is what
is most beautiful in it: the will to love Me. The soul’s free will is what I seek,
what I came to earth to look for, what I desire to possess in all its fullness,
what satisfies Me. The culmination of transformation into Me lies in joining
this will to Mine on all levels and in all fullness.7
What we have to consider now is the overarching role that transformation into
Christ, brought about by the Holy Spirit, plays in the priest’s life. In other words, we are
26

talking about the priest’s holiness.
This holiness, of course, is not equivalent to the holiness of the entire Church. If
such an idea was present in the time of Concepción Cabrera de Armida, it should be
corrected. Vatican II affirmed that all the Church’s members – priests, religious and lay
people – are called to holiness. God is interested not only in priests’ holiness, but in that
of each and every baptized person.8 Any opposite affirmation – and sometimes it may
seem to be the case in writings of the Servant of God – should be corrected.
Having emphasized this essential point, nobody can harbor doubts about the
perennial importance and urgency of the holiness of the priest, not only for the fulfillment
of his personal vocation, but also because of his influence on the spiritual journey of the
Church. This aspect is what the Venerable Servant of God, as His instrument, will
remind us of when she conveys Jesus’ Confidences to His priests.
Why a New Call to Priestly Holiness?
There will always be Prophets!
St. Thomas wrote, “People with the spirit of prophecy have never been lacking at
any period in time, not to develop a new doctrine of faith, but rather to direct human
activity.”9 This enables us to situate theologically the priestly mystagogy10 of Concepción
Cabrera de Armida within the broad framework of Revelation.
If prophecy as an instrument of Revelation, in the strict sense, came to an end with
the apostolic age, prophets, however, have not disappeared from the life of the Church.
They no longer intervene to add new things to revealed truth, but God still sends
messengers to His people. They remind us of the exigencies of divine love or teach us
how to behave when faced with the challenges of modern times. They bring with them
an order – a new commandment – demanded by new circumstances and situations that
arise in the heart of Christianity. Their doctrinal affirmations are those we already know
from faith and theology. Even so, these affirmations are not useless, “neither are they
mere repetition of public Revelation. They are a means for the intellect to acquire
knowledge it would otherwise not acquire.”11
The recent Catechism of the Catholic Church also makes reference to the
importance of private revelations in the Church:
…some of them have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They
do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or
complete Christ’s definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a
certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus
fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever
constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.12
27

There are many passages in the writings of the Servant of God whose end is, as St.
Thomas Aquinas says, “to direct human conduct” (ad directionem actuum
humanorum).13 This end of prophecy is expressed in Concepción Cabrera de Armida’s
language, when she says that the charism of prophecy and of other related charisms is to
provoke a spiritual renewal in the world.
Even though only in passing, it is worth underlining the fact that in Concepción
Cabrera de Armida’s prophetic charism we can find, for example, how the “direction of
human conduct” is concretized in the life of the priest precisely in the doctrine and
message contained in the Confidences for priests. These constitute a sure path for the
spiritual life of the priest.
What is the Source of the Power, the Depth and the
Value of Texts of the Prophet and the Mystic?
Following the indications of the Second Vatican Council14 we should think of
mystics as prophets who provide us a profound insight into the mystery of God. This is
why a prophet’s role is not reduced merely to the practical level, like a command from
God to correct certain habits. In the history of the Church, the prophet also probes more
deeply into the understanding of Revelation and helps others to do so.
Not all of the thousands of pages written by the Venerable Servant of God
Concepción Cabrera de Armida are mystical in nature. Many are stories of natural and
spiritual happenings, sometimes even supernatural. It cannot be said that they are the
expression of a mystical experience of God.
Nevertheless, many of this woman’s writings are truly intellectual lights granted by
God, making evident a truly divine experience that can be called mystical.
The mystic is one who experiences the mystery that is latent in him or her or that is
beyond him, in the divine sphere. Thus, he either catches a glimpse of the divine and is
filled with amazement or comes into contact with the action that God carries out in him
or that sustains him in being.
It is important to bear in mind the mystic’s role: to be the intermediary between an
experience that he has had and one that he hopes to stimulate. The mystical text is
therefore the word that comes from the experience of God, from being in contact with
the divine fire, and is capable of reaching us, mediating experience which will strike the
reader like a dart, like an arrow bearing something contagious.
As Christians, we all have the vocation to experience God. The mystic’s function,
and that of his text, is to be an intermediary. The mystic is the person who has tasted
God and encountered Christ on the mountaintop or in the valley of daily life. When he
returns to us, he comes with a word that can awaken in us the vocation for the divine
and serve to elevate us from where we are – usually on the ground – to our
communication with God. The mystical text fundamentally contains the spiritual event
28

and presents it from our perspective, converting it into a witness and a means of
transmitting that experience.
It is true that a mystical text can be read from a merely critical or literary point of
view, in which case the spiritual experience it contains – present in order to establish
contact with us – passes unobserved. This is why we need to get onto the same
wavelength or open ourselves up to it. The mystical text will then serve as an elevator,
with its tremendous range of possibilities.
“The Lived Theology of the Saints”
In his apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, John Paul II speaks of how we
should contemplate the face of Christ.
The history of grace, lived through faith by the people of God – and in a special
way by the saints and mystics – cannot be reduced only to a systematic theology, since it
goes beyond theological concepts, respecting them as valid and necessary, but at the
same time recognizing that the mystery of grace is always beyond all our reflections.
This is a matter of coming to grips with the content of faith, aided by the so-called
“lived theology of the saints” in order to obtain an intuition of faith which emerges from
an experience guided by the light of the Holy Spirit. This is precisely what the Holy
Father refers to when he speaks of “the lived theology of the saints”:
Faced with this mystery, we are greatly helped not only by theological
investigation but also by that great heritage which is the “lived theology of the
saints.” The saints offer us precious insights which enable us to understand
more easily the intuition of faith, thanks to the special enlightenment which
some of them have received from the Holy Spirit, or even through their
personal experience (no. 27).
Concepción Cabrera de Armida exercises this “lived theology of the saints” in many
areas of the Catholic faith.
On September 29, 1963, Pope Paul VI, in inaugurating the second session of the
Second Vatican Council, described the Church as a mystery, that is, as a “reality
pervaded by the presence of God and, consequently, of such a nature that it always
admits of new and deeper explorations of itself.”15 In order to realize these new
explorations of the mystery, continues the Pope – this time in his encyclical Ecclesiam
Suam – “the experience of the faithful soul is more important than pure theology, just as
the mystery should be something we live, much more than a clearly conceived object.”16
In the Dogmatic Constitution on Revelation, no. 8, the Council declares that a
penetrating understanding of spiritual realities by means of experience contributes,
together with the Magisterium and with reflection by theologians – although in different
29

ways – to the handing on and advancement of what has been revealed. The confluence
of these three processes within the bosom of the Church determines the dynamics of
tradition: reception and handing down of the revealed Word, not mechanically as a
material transfer from hand to hand, but rather impregnated by experience which
permeates the soul of the Church and the life of the believer in constant growth toward
the fullness of divine truth until the words of God reach their complete fulfillment in the
Church.17 The experience of Concepción Cabrera de Armida forms part of the chain of
those who have a penetrating understanding of spiritual realities in the Church, thus
facilitating the growth in the theologian of his penetration into the events and
understanding of the words that have been handed down to us in Revelation (DV 8).
The strength of Concepción Cabrera de Armida’s words about priests is precisely in
that it makes us return to what is essential in the priest’s life.
According to Vatican II, the experience of spiritual realities is one of the keys in the
rereading of Revelation. The Council wants the broken bridges between theology and the
lives of the saints to be repaired; the thirst and longing for joining theology to life to be
revived, at least in the life of the Church. The “lived theology” is made manifest in the
Church’s members, especially in those who have continued to mark out the history of
salvation, indicating milestones and thus giving signs of life in the ecclesial community.
The great theologian Cardinal Journet wrote of Thérèse of the Child Jesus, “in
Thérèse of Lisieux we do not exactly find an ecclesiology, but rather a living knowledge
of what the Church is and whose splendor the theologian can do no more than
admire.”18
Thus, the splendor of the priestly doctrine of our mystic from San Luis Potosí does
not provide us with exhaustive blueprints to reconstruct a new theology of the
priesthood, but it does provide building materials for construction, large stones useful to
theology for reinforcing the building and bringing it to completion.
Some texts that speak of her profound mystical experience fill the theologian’s and
the reader’s soul with nostalgia, admiration for a gift of God and the desire to receive it
through the Eucharist, a gift based on contemplative faith and on love for connatural
experience, as was the case with Concepción Cabrera de Armida.
The Ecclesial Dimension, a Criterion for Discernment
Above all, I would like to point out that, according to spiritual theology, no matter
how interior or how personal life in the spirit might be, no matter how incarnate it might
be in human, individual or social reality, it can never be separated from its communal or
ecclesial dimension. The ecclesial dimension is the touchstone for Christian mysticism.
That is why the ecclesial dimension has become a criterion for issuing judgment on the
authenticity of Christian mysticism which we are analyzing.
Through the dynamics of his faith, each member of the Church does his part to
30

accomplish in himself what the Church is jointly in all its members. Thus, the Christian
should become ever more completely what he began to be through baptism and
confirmation. If we have considered the Venerable Servant of God to be a true prophet it
is because she participated in the prophetic dimension of the Church, not through the
teaching office, but ex spiritu.
A long tradition has made it clear that whatever is said about the Church in its
relationship to Christ is also said of each individual Christian through grace. Of himself
and in communion with all the others, the Christian takes part in the mystery of the
Church in his relationship with Christ. The more one is an adult in Christ and the more
one is joined to the Church, the more one takes part in the riches of the Church in its
mystery. There is no truly supernatural interior life except in a close dependence on the
historical reality of Christ and the collective life of the Church.
The ancient Fathers would say in a lapidary way that “each soul is the Church.”
This does not hide a false subjectivity. Gregory the Great always speaks of the individual
believer in a way that is analogous to what he says of the Church, and this obviously
makes sense only if the individual believer is fully alive within the Church: “What we say
in general about the whole Church, we now say especially about each soul.”19
With Conchita, just as with many other mystics, the abundance of divine
communication, the clear and sure discernment of her spirit, the fact that she can
describe the grace she receives and explain it, guarantee her spiritual witness and
teaching.
The last period of Concepción Cabrera de Armida’s life, within Mother Church, was
totally and heroically given over to unselfish love for priests, inasmuch as they touch and
affect the Lord in love, and sometimes in suffering. The Servant of God is the “echo of
all Christ’s love and suffering” in these Confidences.20
Just as Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi and Catherine of Siena, who bore the bark of
Peter on their shoulders, Concepción Cabrera de Armida will be the Lord’s instrument
for transmitting “the urgency for dynamic and spiritual transformation into Christ through
the Holy Spirit” to the clergy of her time, and in a way to priests of all times. In this way,
the priest will be immersed in the Unity of the Trinity.
According to Concepción Cabrera de Armida, under political circumstances of
religious persecution of the Church and of priests, the clergy suffer from a certain
spiritual imperfection. We could call it a lack of trust or a loss of theological hope, a
process of secularization or a fearful abandoning of the sheep, etc. Whether we call it a
lack of interest in the spiritual life or in living out sacramental faith, the priest needs to be
transformed from within by the Holy Spirit.
This message is aimed at what is essential in priestly spirituality. The Confidences,
therefore, will be a message of spirituality, but it is fitting, however, that this message
should be handed down by one who has received and welcomed in her bosom the one
whom St. Augustine called the Whole Christ. Here are the Lord’s words to Concepción
31

Cabrera de Armida: “And yet... when you received Me in your soul in the mystical
incarnation, you received Me and in Me, the Church and all its priests.”21
This is followed by a promise for us: “I promise that these pages will bring about
much good, because the Father will make them fruitful. They will never be lost, since
they are divine; wherever they fall, they will produce the fruit of eternal life.”22
Notional Theology and the Mystical Experience
I have been a professional theologian for many years. Reading the mystics has
opened in my heart a new understanding of mystery, contemplating it through the eyes of
the witnesses of God’s passionate love for us. This made me aware that we should not
forget the danger that threatens notional theology: namely, losing our sense of mystery
through the intoxication produced by logical analysis and the mastery of scientific
technique.
This theology, which is a science only in and through faith, can become so delighted
in the light of reason as to practically forget that this can be projected onto revealed truth
only when it is understood through the light of faith.
There is nothing that can awaken the theologian so effectively from this harmful
dream as mystical contemplation, even before he has experienced it, from the moment
when he is guided toward it by desire and faithful effort. The inadequacy of concepts,
the poverty of formulas, the weight of reasoning and the lack of words to express what
faith can only describe figuratively, are all experienced in mystical contemplation. As far
as complete knowledge of Revelation is concerned, however, mystical experience needs
scientific theology, since this experience has two serious limitations: it cannot be
communicated and certainty is not inherent in it.
The thought of St. Thomas will help us to see that in many of Concepción Cabrera
de Armida’s writings not only could some images previously stored in her imagination be
reordered through the light of prophecy, but also some ideas could appear in this new
light as a new revelation. God would arrange those ideas according to what He wanted to
make her understand. The formal element in prophecy is the divine light, which enables
our intellect to make a judgment.23
The main role of this light is to elevate the prophet’s intellect and bring it to the
heights of a knowledge that surpasses the natural order of things.24 This divine light not
only enables the prophet to judge the object he is about to know, but also provides him
with subjective certainty of the divine origin of the revealed message.25 In order for the
prophet to be the messenger he should be, he has to be the first one who is convinced of
it, and this can only happen thanks to the prophetic light. Now it is appropriate to quote
one of the texts of Concepción Cabrera de Armida about God’s mystical communication
with her, of whose divine origin she had complete assurance.
32

I see interiorly, but very clearly, the vast fields that have to be traversed in each
moral virtue. I would say that I immerse myself in the theological virtues,
although I am not drowning in the depths of darkness and light… I can also see
the slightest movements of my soul, of the good spirit or of the evil spirit…
and in this inner life God has placed me in, I feel and I know without wanting
to know and feel, yet driven along and sustained by a divine superior force
from which I cannot separate myself. As I was saying, a flood of ideas came
upon me – of light, fire and holy joy in my soul – in a way hardly ever felt
before.
I felt with full certainty that Jesus was speaking to me so clearly that I had
no doubts at all either about what I heard enraptured, or about what I felt in
my spirit. My soul was on fire by contact with the divine, I would say, yet full
of peace; at the same time, I could feel a supernatural light in my mind which
put this flood of divine ideas in order and did not confuse me. On my own, I
would not have been able to do this in years.
I would give my blood, my whole life, even in the cruelest way that could be
asked of me if anyone wanted it as proof, to confirm the certainty that I felt
then and now that it was my God who was at my side, speaking to me and
communicating with me.26
We should not forget that the light of prophecy is one thing, while divine protection
against all error in the transmission of the message is quite another. In order to express
what he has seen or heard, the prophet uses the words, images, ideas and reasoning that
he knows. We can see this in sacred writers, too, as their styles and the movements of
their spirits are quite diverse. The sacred writer is endowed with the charism of
inspiration, which in this very personal and very laborious activity, directs his thought and
his pen to make him express the divine intention in the best possible way and to describe
– free of formal errors – what he has seen in the prophetic light. Thus, the book that
proceeds from the pen of the sacred writer is, without doubt, the Word of God, and
should be received as such. Everything that is taught therein is guaranteed by God’s
witness and is imposed on our theological faith. This does not happen in the case of
private revelation. The prophet of private revelation does not possess the charism of
inerrancy. Therefore, the trustworthiness of his expression is never divinely guaranteed.
It is subject to error. He might even keep on prophesying in good faith after the light of
prophecy in him has gone out.27
Correct theological science is of great use to the mystic so that he does not get lost
and does not lose others through the prestige granted by his familiarity with God.
In the concrete case of Concepción Cabrera de Armida, it is always clear that she
33

feels the need for her experience of the mystery of God and the intellectual light she
receives to be studied and subjected to the judgment of theology.
The Confidences to My Priests are a Grace of Motherly Fruitfulness
I would briefly like to reflect on these writings inasmuch as they proceed from
Conchita’s experience of the mystery of Christ the Priest, writings which are the fruit of
the central grace of her life. This grace became the unifying principle of her life and the
organizing principle of her doctrine. We are speaking of the grace of the mystical
incarnation. We have looked at this grace and its basis in theological tradition
elsewhere.28 The only thing I want to highlight now is that the Confidences are related to
this central grace. We should realize that this grace is essentially priestly. It is intimately
related to Christ the Priest. It is the profound love that dynamically joins us to Christ the
Priest. From this love for Christ in His priesthood flows the love-charity for priests who
sacramentally represent Christ. This love for priests which reaches all the way to heroic
self-giving on their behalf, is nothing secondary in her spiritual journey, as if she were a
seer who received private revelations with no profound implications for her and unrelated
to her life. What she calls Confidences, which we present in this book, are essentially
linked to her central grace. This is a witness in their favor not only of the credibility of
her message but also of the unity of her spiritual life, just as God planned it for her. She
understood Jesus saying to her:
If they, My priests, are Me, then they are yours, as I am yours and in the way
I am, with the bonds of a holy, spiritual and pure union; but with the
implication that this union should have and indeed does have for you: the
implication of the voluntary sacrifice of every mother – even more so in this
case – on behalf of those who are yours.29
34

Conclusion
Before I bring this introduction to an end, I would like to express my great
satisfaction once more at having carried out the service so enthusiastically proposed by
the Servant of God Most Reverend Luis María Martínez, Archbishop of Mexico City,
eminent theologian and the last spiritual director of Concepción Cabrera. In one of his
letters to her he exclaimed:
When the Confidences scattered in your Account of Conscience will be
collected and organized in a perfectly coherent system, the magnitude of the
treasures of light, which Jesus has deposited in your soul will be understood,
their transcendence will be perceived and their harmony will be admired.30
May this theological effort, recommended by the Archbishop of Mexico City, who
knew the value of these writings, be one of the greatest services I can offer the Church
by virtue of the power communicated by God to His Venerable Servant. I am filled with
joy at having been able to collaborate in this project of the Servant of God Archbishop
Luis María Martínez regarding the Confidences of Concepción Cabrera de Armida.
5 “Doctrina libri est omnino secura et catolica. Dignitas sacerdotis mirifice extollitur
argumentis theologicis et spiritualibus. Admirationem movet tam plena cognitio
sacerdotalis muneris et tam exquisita scientia theologica in Serva Dei. Si præscindamus
ab elemento supernaturalis revelationis, liber debet considerari ut tractatus
theologicospiritualis magni valoris et magnæ utilitatis pro sacerdotibus” (Iudicium prioris
Theologi Censoris, ab Emmo. Cardinali Ponente deputati super scriptis Servæ Dei Mariæ
a Conceptione Cabrera, Vid. Armida tributis). Cf. Positio super virtutibus… III, p. 40.
6 Cf. Positio, p. 54; 61-62.
7 To My Priests, ch. 63. AC 50, 282-283, T 3203.
8 Cf. Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, no. 39.
9 Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae [hereinafter STh.] II-II q. 174 a. 6
ad 3.
10 The deeper initiation into the mystery of the priest’s transformation into Christ.
11 Cf. K. Rahner, Visiones y profecías [Visions and Prophecies], San Sebastian
(Dinor) 1956, p. 36.
12 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 65-67.
13 We have already quoted the text of St. Thomas, Summa Theologiae II-II q. 174
a. 6 ad 3. I will now add St. Thomas’s commentary on the Gospel according to St.
35

Matthew: “We should say that the prophet is sent for two purposes: to confirm faith and
to correct habits… but faith is already founded, because what was promised has already
been fulfilled by Christ. To correct habits, however, prophecy will always be needed.” In
Commentary to Matthew 11:13, Naples, 1858, p. 102.
14 Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on Revelation [Dei Verbum, hereinafter DV] no. 8.
15 Opening speech of the second session, 29 September 1963, Acta Apostolicae
Sedis [AAS] 55 (1963), p. 848.
16 Cf. Paul VI, AAS 56 (1964), pp. 623-624; cf. H. De Lubac, Paradoxes et
Mystère de l’Église, Paris (Aubier Montaigne), 1967, pp. 30-31.
17 Cf. T. Álvarez, Experiencia Cristiana y Teología Espiritual, in Seminarium 26
(1974), pp. 94-95.
18 Cf. Ch. Journet, Entretiens sur l’Église, Paris (Parole et Silence), 2001, p. 119.
19 Cf. H. De Lubac, Catolicismo. Aspectos Sociales del Dogma, Madrid
(Encuentro), 1998, pp. 144-151.
20 AC 48: 248, T 3146.
21 AC 53: 33-45, T 3234, November, 1928.
22 Cf. To My Priests, ch. 60. AC 50: 258-266.
23 STh. II-II, q. 171 a. 3 ad 3.
24 STh. II-II, q. 171 a. 1 ad 4.
25 STh. II-II, q. 171 a. 5.
26 AC 6: 240-244.
27 STh. II-II, q. 171 a. 5.
28 Cf. J. Gutiérrez González, Concepción Cabrera de Armida. Cruz de Jesús, Jesús
María, S.L.P., 1998, Vol. I, pp. 465-550.
29 AC 54: 382-395, T 3265.
30 AC 64: 66-66a, T 3631.
36

The Confidences: A Letter to the Church
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
Carlos Francisco Vera Soto, M.Sp.S.
The Tribulation
Confidences to My Priests is a mystical work, entrusted by Jesus to Concepción
Cabrera de Armida, in which some counsels and teachings for priests are brought
together. It occupies a significant place in her writings due to its content and those for
whom it was intended. We owe it to history to describe the circumstances in which it
arose.
The Confidences are scattered among the pages of Conchita’s Account of
Conscience from 1927 to 1931. When she started to write it, Conchita was sixty-four
years old, toward the end of her life, under the spiritual guidance of Archbishop Luis
María Martínez. She had known him since 1923, when he was Auxiliary Bishop of
Morelia. He had clearly understood the moment in which this woman of profound love
found herself and step by step guided her in solitude – in imitation of the Virgin Mary –
along a path of gratitude to God for His work in her and of further penetration into the
grace of the mystical incarnation.
At that time, Conchita was living alone. Her family life had been reduced to looking
after her grandchildren and sporadic visits from her family. Although illnesses were not
lacking either in herself or in others, this was the period of her life with the fewest family
responsibilities. She could spend more time praying, writing, remembering and loving.
Her apostolate consisted of spreading the Spirituality of the Cross through her books and
giving herself lovingly to the people around her. Conchita was at her human and Christian
peak with a serene vision of life and the certainty that God had kept each and every one
of the promises He had made her in her youth.
When Conchita started writing the Confidences, the terrible year of 1914 was still
fresh in her memory, when the constitutionalist army had overrun the country with
destruction, pillage and the humiliation of the Church. Not even the Constitution of 1917
had been able to put a halt to the disaster; rather, on the contrary, the self-designated
“Jacobin” faction under General Álvaro Obregón had left its anti-religious stamp on laws
designed to govern the nation, in spite of the exiled bishops’ official protests. They had
surreptitiously brought a written protest into the country and sent the government a
37

complaint with two million signatures, requesting changes in the laws that oppressed the
Church.
When General Obregón became president in 1920, a sense of expectancy grew
among Catholics, given that he had shown an erratic attitude toward the Church. He
would take one step forward apparently favoring Catholic interests, and then take two
backwards, going in the opposite direction. In the end, there were direct violent actions
against Catholics, which cut short the weak hope of a peaceful future for the Church. In
December 1924, Obregón chose his successor – an almost unknown general called
Plutarco Elías Calles – who had distinguished himself through hate of everything related
to religion. Obregón’s motives for choosing Calles were not clear. He apparently wanted
to control the new president from backstage, in order to modify the Constitution and then
be reelected.
Calles, supported by Obregón, undertook various reforms to modernize the state,
but he was of the opinion that his reforms were always resisted by the Catholic Church.
He therefore decided to regulate religious practice as outlined in the Constitution. On
January 4, 1926, Calles signed a plan to regulate article 130 of the Constitution. The
project was approved by the Chambers, at the service of executive power, and should
have come into force on July 31 of the same year. The law was known by the name of
its author and left no possibilities for Catholics to defend themselves. It covered all the
fields that Catholics could be involved in, that is, education, publishing, political action
and worship. It was not a separation of Church and State. It was in effect the mastery of
the State over the Church.
Calles’ personality was granite-like and left no room for the subtleties of diplomacy.
The Church had come up against a man like a wall, and all its hopes of keeping a
preponderant place in society were shattered. The victorious State made the Church, to
all appearances defeated, feel that she would never again be above its authority.
The Catholic hierarchy was not idle. Toward the end of January, the bishops and
archbishops of Mexico gathered together in the capital to start a campaign from within
the law against some articles of the Constitution. This was caused by the arrival of the
members of the Commission made up of the Archbishop of Durango, José María
González y Valencia, the Bishop of León, Emeterio Valverde Téllez, and the Bishop of
San Luis Potosí, Miguel María de la Mora. They had come from Rome. They had been
sent there to inform Pope Pius XI about the difficult situation faced by the Church in
Mexico. The bishops’ meeting with the Pope was viewed with displeasure by the
government, which adopted an attitude of defensive apprehension.
The final spark in this confrontation, from the government’s point of view, came
from an article in the newspaper El Universal, which recalled the prelates’ protest against
the Constitution in 1917, repeating the declarations made by the Archbishop of Mexico
City at the time, José Mora y del Río. There was a huge scandal and the aged
Archbishop Mora had to state in the newspaper that they would fight legally any article
that limited the Church’s freedom.31 Calles’ reaction was violent. The cabinet agreed that
38

the Archbishop should be consigned to the General Attorney’s Office of the Republic for
publicly rejecting the Constitution. His accusers argued that the word “fight” was an
invitation to rebellion and a threat to the social stability of the country.
Archbishop Mora defended himself. In the same newspaper, he declared that he
was not breaking any law by refuting articles that did not correspond either to justice or
to national feeling. Under his lawyer’s advice, the Archbishop held that the sentence with
the word “fight” had not been faithfully transcribed by the journalist. The judge assigned
to the case found no offense in Mora’s declarations.
Even though Archbishop Mora was not placed under arrest, Calles did not intend to
stop showing the Church his firm determination to fulfill the Constitution. With no
explanation, he expelled foreign priests and he had Catholic schools and some churches
closed down. By March 1926, 202 priests, mainly Spaniards, had been expelled from the
country. The government had closed down 118 Catholic schools and ordered 83
convents, 85 public chapels and various seminaries to be closed. The whole population
took part in massive protests.
Pius XI was informed of the situation and wrote the apostolic letter Paterna Sane
Sollicitudo to the bishops and the faithful, dated February 2, 1926. Beyond denouncing
the unfair situation to which the Mexican Church was being subjected, the Pope urged
the faithful to defend the religion bravely and to abstain from politics so that the
government could not judge the religion in terms of the preferences of Catholics for
various parties. The Pope believed that the only solution to the religious conflict in
Mexico was the direct intervention of Divine Mercy and the active promotion of Catholic
Action. On the one hand, he urged lay people on to action, but on the other he asked
them not to take part in political activities.
The effects of the anti-Catholic laws continued to be extended throughout the whole
Republic. Three governors distinguished themselves in their repression of Catholics:
Solórzano Béjar, the governor of the state of Colima; Guadalupe Zuno, the governor of
the state of Jalisco; and Garrido Canabal, the governor of the state of Tabasco. The
bishops feared a renewed national persecution and decided to set up an episcopal
committee upon the recommendation of two Jesuits, Alfredo Méndez Medina and Rafael
Martínez del Campo. The idea was to establish a front with a unified opinion in order to
confront the problems. The committee also wrote a joint pastoral letter inviting Catholics
to resist, which was a non possumus with the law as it then stood. They promised not to
give up until the law was changed. Calles’ government saw the letter as a challenge and
reacted by expelling the new Apostolic Delegate, Monsignor Jorge José Caruana, and by
closing down more schools and charitable institutions.
Meanwhile, committed lay people had secretly founded the National League for the
Defense of Religious Freedom (LNDLR) on March 9, 1925, under the direction of
Bernardo Bergöend, a Jesuit who was French by birth and Mexican in his heart. The aim
of this organization, totally independent of the hierarchy, was to regain religious freedom
peacefully and, in general, freedom for Catholics marginalized by the Constitution.
39

Faced with national unrest provoked by Calles’ law and the bishops’ pastoral letter,
the League tried to force the government to repeal the law and called upon the people to
do without all superfluous goods, to stop using vehicles as far as possible, not to attend
public entertainment, to limit their use of electricity, to stop buying public lottery tickets
and to refrain from sending their children to government schools. The episcopal
committee approved the boycott and supported it. The force of the protest was felt
throughout the country and the government was made aware of the strength of the
Catholic organization.
The bishops agreed that they would not accept the registration mandated for priests
by the government and that they would suspend public worship the day after Calles’ law
came into force. Before publishing their decision, they consulted Pius XI and the Pope
told them to act as they saw fit. In the end, they decided to publish a joint pastoral
letter.32 They ordered all public worship in the entire Republic of Mexico to be
suspended. It is difficult to describe the effect this blow had on the faithful and believing
people. It was understood as a punishment from God for the sins of sluggish
consciences, an eschatological happening. Conchita wrote down her impressions on the
last days of liturgical celebrations in her Account of Conscience:
July 30. I received communion for the last time at the Villa [Basilica of
Guadalupe in Mexico]. The pain tore my soul apart.… All the churches were
crammed with people. Four Bishops could not cope with all the confirmations,
hundreds of baptisms, confessions, unending weddings and first communions.
When the Blessed Sacrament was covered in the afternoon, it was like the Day
of Judgment, the coming down from the cross. Jesus was leaving… the
tabernacles empty… worship suspended by order of the Bishops, acting on the
Pope’s instructions. It is impossible for the Church to accept the government’s
articles by which she is placed under the State in degrading conditions.”33
Priests accepted the severe decision of the bishops. Some wanted to avoid such a
drastic step and attempted reconciliation however they could. The Archbishop of
Morelia, vice president of the episcopal committee, and the Bishop of the state of
Tabasco, Pascual Díaz, met in secret with President Calles. They had a long and fruitless
conversation. The declarations made by Calles left no room for doubt:
I have already told you, you have only two courses of action: submit to the
law, but if you do not agree with its principles, then you will have to take up
arms and thus try to overthrow the present government in order to set up
another one that issues laws more in harmony with your own way of thinking.
In such a case, we are well prepared to defeat you.
40

With churches closed, with no possibility for Catholics to be heard in legal circles,
and with no arguments other than those left to them – force and weapons – an
insurrection against the government broke out spontaneously in some states of the
Republic. The uprisings, isolated at first, became more general. The bishops were
overwhelmed with the problem of the armed uprising. They were divided in their opinion
and in their way of acting. The LNDLR decided to support the uprising and organized
the insurrection. The Holy See, informed of the situation by the Bishop of Tabasco, who
was against the use of violence, avoided anything that might be construed as support for
the League and for the Cristeros [partisans of Christ].
The government then took its revenge: the Archbishops of Mexico City, Michoacán
and Puebla, together with the Bishops of Aguascalientes, Chiapas, Cuernavaca, Huejutla,
Papantla, Saltillo and Zacatecas were seized from their homes, and without any kind of
trial or time to put their affairs in order, with only the clothes on their backs, they were
taken by train under police escort and left at the border with the United States.
The people understood nothing about negotiations or diplomacy. They felt deeply
wounded in their hearts, in what was most sacred to them, and they took up arms to
defend what they thought was right. It was the last recourse they had to defend
themselves against a law that, once in force, would to all appearances wipe out the
practice of religion. Men and women, old and young, all responded valiantly to this
offense against the religion of their forefathers. Mexico and the world at large were
witnesses to the strength, integrity and the dignity of Catholics, to the capacity for self-
giving, for bravery and for sincerity of Catholic women. Who could measure the
sacrifices made in this struggle?
Some bishops wondered if the path of violence was the right one to take, and in the
end became convinced that the League was not right. Others were of the opinion that it
was not right to abandon the League, which had chosen the hard way. Division worked
like the domino effect, even among the clergy.
With or without the bishops’ assent, the armed struggle went on until 1929. The
conflict in Michoacán, Guanajuato and Jalisco started in August 1926 and by the end of
the year had spread to Zacatecas, Colima and Querétaro. The turning point came in
1928. The federal army was not capable of defeating the peasants’ guerrilla tactics,
despite their being poorly armed, poorly organized and despite their returning to their
homes during sowing and harvest times, just as the Zapatistas had done in their time.
People from the villages and the inland cities looked on the Cristeros with sympathy and
organized themselves to supply them with food, as “the army of Cristeros was made up
of even women and children, who mobilized for supplies, contacts and information.
They were fighting on all fronts: production, basic and moral education, health and
religion.”34
The participation of priests in the armed struggle was quite insignificant. In general,
they remained faithful and united to their prelates. League members requested the
appointment of military chaplains for the fighters, but the bishops did not consider this
41

appropriate. The cases of the Bishops of Guadalajara and Colima were exceptional, as
they opted for remaining hidden in their respective dioceses and by their example favored
the presence of priests in zones of combat. It is calculated that only one hundred and ten
priests stayed near Cristeros camps to offer them spiritual help. There are only five
documented cases of priests who actually joined the armed struggle.35
It is difficult to describe what this war meant for the Cristeros, who were not
prepared for battle against well-armed forces and a government who trampled them
underfoot. Jean Meyer wrote:
Who could describe the massacres, the unheard of cruelty, the suffering and
the insults inflicted on the corpses of the victims, the absolute contempt of
public opinion? What can we expect of a government that set up a press and
photography service to report on the victims’ last minutes and publish the
atrocities of their wounds?36
The bishops were in turmoil. Many of them saw that a prolonged suspension of
public worship would end up cooling people’s faith down and distancing them from the
Church. From the beginning, other bishops had criticized violence as a solution, although
not in public. Only intransigent people believed that the government would imminently
be overthrown and the laws changed.
Neither was Pope Pius XI content with the suspension of worship and he declared
that it “would be fatal if it went on for a long time.” According to Archbishop Ruiz y
Flores, the agreements to end the religious conflict were due above all to the Pope, who
was deeply concerned for the abnormal situation in Mexico, which had already been
prolonged for two years.
The Agreements of 1929 – Meat Offered to Idols
In an attempt to find a solution, the Pope commissioned the Apostolic Delegate in
Washington, Archbishop Fumasoni Biondi, to deal with the affair. He, in turn, sought the
help of Father John J. Burke, S.J., Secretary of the United States Permanent Bishops’
Committee in Washington, who enjoyed free access to the State Department. The State
Department in turn appointed Dwight W. Morrow, a diplomat and banker, as
Ambassador to Mexico. Thanks to negotiations between the United States Embassy and
President Calles, the latter met Father Burke in San Juan de Ulúa, Veracruz, on March
29, 1928. This was the first official step towards putting an end to the religious conflict
and the laying down of arms.
Pius XI wanted Archbishop Ruiz y Flores to come to Rome in person to deal with
the problem of religious conflict. During the seven-day trip, the Archbishop prepared a
memorandum in which he pointed out that the repeal of any law was not to be expected,
42

given that since 1857, no laws against the Church had even been mitigated, let alone
repealed. He also said that Calles had been absolutely inflexible in his determination to
keep the law unchanged, and therefore the most that could be hoped for was a modus
vivendi and a promise of non-violence that would be enough to reopen churches for
worship. He added that if the suspension of worship went on for much longer, Christians
would stop being Christians.
Once in Rome, the Archbishop handed his reflections over to the Secretary of State,
Cardinal Pietro Gasparri. The Chilean diplomat Miguel Cruchaga Torconal, who had
been in Mexico when the churches were closed and at the time was in the Eternal City,
supported the Archbishop of Morelia’s arguments in the presence of Pius XI. During the
interview with the Pope it was strongly stated that, in the opinion of those present, the
Catholic armed movement could never triumph due to a lack of organization.
The situation was very complex, because before Archbishop Ruiz y Flores arrived
in Rome, the bishops of the committee had already been there, led by Archbishop
González of Durango. That prelate was openly in favor of the armed struggle and
maintained a close relationship with the leaders of the League whom he encouraged,
telling them that they had papal support. Thus, when Archbishop Ruiz y Flores was
received by Pius XI, the only thing the Pope told him was that they would have to think
it over carefully and pray about it, since Calles was offering hardly anything in return.
The Archbishop of Morelia received an “invitation” from the Pope through
diplomatic channels to write a letter to the Mexican bishops, encouraging them to
recognize the advantages of reaching an agreement with the government. Archbishop
Ruiz y Flores accepted and wrote to the bishops, explaining that the Pope was aware of
both points of view – compromise and intransigence – adopted by the bishops concerning
the armed struggle. He added that, although the Pope knew that he could count on both
sides to reach an agreement, he could not freely make a provision until they arrived at a
common point of view. He invited the intransigent bishops to adopt the posture of “losing
in victory.”
The differences between the bishops gave rise to contradictory reports. In order to
set up a direct line of information, Rome sent the Jesuit, Edmund Walsh, to Mexico. He
was trusted by Pius XI and enjoyed a reputation as a good diplomat. Pius XI’s policy
was basically, “I will do whatever you want me to do, but agree among yourselves.”
Thus the old axiom that states, “What comes out of Rome is what was sent to her,” was
fulfilled once again. The agreements were practically sealed in Rome in May 1928, when
Alvaro Obregón, with whom the Holy See preferred to deal, was re-elected President.
In Mexico, meanwhile, the acting President, Emilio Portes Gil, made a statement in
the press thanks to the intervention of Ambassador Morrow, in which he declared that,
since the Cristeros had not taken part in the rebellion of Escobar, religious services could
be resumed if the bishops so decreed. The government showed a willingness to hold talks
with the clergy. The embassy in Washington suggested that Archbishop Ruiz y Flores
should reply to Portes Gil via the press, expressing the Church’s desire to negotiate an
43

end to the religious conflict, provided that the consciences of individual Catholics would
be respected.37 The President invited Archbishop Ruiz y Flores, once again through the
newspapers, to come back to Mexico for talks.
The Archbishop replied via Mr. Téllez, the Mexican ambassador in Washington, that
he did not officially represent either the Mexican episcopate or the Holy Father. Some
days later, Archbishop Ruiz received the appointment of Apostolic Delegate ad
referendum, granting him the necessary faculties from Rome while negotiations were
underway. Following the advice of the American Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop
Fumasoni Biondi, Archbishop Ruiz asked the Bishop of Tabasco, Pascual Díaz, to be his
secretary. The Bishop was in Louisiana at the time, but he accepted the offer. The two
bishops agreed not to receive any visits while negotiations were underway, “so that no
rumors would be spread among more or less biased people which would delay success.”
The other bishops were opposed to this measure of self-isolation. For the two bishops
who were negotiating this decision, this eventually led to many difficulties and
misunderstandings.
The first meeting was held at Chapultepec, Mexico. Archbishop Ruiz y Flores
presented a memorandum which showed the need to change some laws with regard to
worship. The document said that an official recognition of the episcopal hierarchy by the
President would be sufficient for the Pope. He asked that priests not be registered
without the approval of their respective bishops and that their number should be agreed
upon by the prelates. Portes Gil received the memorandum and promised to reply
quickly. A few days later, he sent such vague declarations that Archbishop Ruiz y Flores
said that he would not even send them to Rome, because they would not be accepted.
Shortly afterwards, Ambassador Morrow went to see the Archbishop of Morelia and
gave him some proposals in English, saying that this was the most that could be obtained
and nothing further should be insisted upon. This document became the basis for the
agreements.
On June 20, 1929, Archbishop Ruiz received an encrypted telegram from Pius XI
via the delegation in Chile, authorizing him to resume religious services in churches if the
following conditions were agreed to by the government:
A general amnesty for all armed combatants who would be willing to surrender;
All confiscated residences of bishops and priests would be returned;
The reliability of these returns would somehow be guaranteed.
The next day, Leopoldo Ruiz y Flores and Pascual Díaz went to the presidential
palace to present the telegram from the Pope. The President immediately declared an
amnesty wherever there were Cristeros, demanding that they give up their weapons and
offering soldiers free transport to their homes. He also ordered all churches and priests’
houses that were not occupied to be returned at once. As for the houses that had been
occupied, the necessary steps would be taken to evacuate them and return them as soon
as possible.
44

Both the president’s and the archbishop’s declarations were prepared by
Ambassador Morrow, who also took care of delivering them to the national press. The
whole affair was not without some irony. Before signing the declarations, Portes Gil
asked Ruiz y Flores and Díaz – as a favor and “not as a condition” – to see to it that
Archbishop Orozco of Guadalajara, who was in hiding in his archdiocese, although the
President thought he was in exile, Archbishop González of Durango and Archbishop
Manríquez of Huejutla would stay out of Mexico for a good while, because the
government believed that their absence was essential for the pacification of the country.
Nobody was satisfied with the agreements, despite the fact that of the thirty-eight
bishops who were in Mexico, most desperately wanted peace and wanted the Church to
be “legal” once again. During the uprising, only three or four prelates were openly
favorable to the League. Neither the bishops nor the League leaders had been consulted
about the agreements, and the combatants were not taken in consideration. The
explanation given by the agreements’ authors was that “they were prepared in secret” so
that they could be effectively carried out. This was the most convenient method for
everyone, given that the Pope was fully aware of the situation and had dictated the terms
of the modus vivendi. Well aware of what was coming his way, Archbishop Ruiz y
Flores declared:
The Pope has been correctly informed of all the different opinions for solving
the matter at hand and has approved the agreement reached in our talks with
the President. There is therefore no reason for distrust, not even from the most
fearful. We prelates and priests are in total agreement with the Pope in
conviction and in discipline. It is therefore just that all sincere Catholics accept
what has been agreed upon with all their hearts.38
Archbishop Ruiz y Flores tried to present the agreements as the work of the Pope,
who accepted the previous laws as the lesser evil in order to avoid the greater evil of
keeping religious services suspended indefinitely. It was a way of avoiding the full
responsibility for the modus vivendi that had been agreed upon.
The Mexican Church was traumatized. The mysticism, the nobility and the
selflessness of a brave people, willing to undergo martyrdom in order to win back their
religious freedom, were destroyed by those who, in theory, should have safeguarded
them. At least, such was the opinion of the common people. Although there was no
formal condemnation of the bishops and they were able to overcome publicly any loss of
prestige, the people’s feelings had been hurt. It must have been exceptionally hard for the
Cristeros – who were willing to shed their blood to defend their faith – to be threatened
with excommunication by some bishops, such as Bishop Guízar y Valencia from
Chihuahua and Plascencia from Zacatecas. It was a tragedy for the faithful and for
Catholic Mexico, a tragedy that marks the course of history and is taking many long
years to overcome.
45

The Church enjoyed only two years of peace after the agreements. From 1929 to
1931 the bishops sought to accommodate the government in every way they could, in
accordance with the agreements. They wanted to do their part to reach a lasting peace.
They condemned Catholics who opposed the modus vivendi, together with any armed
movement that used religious pretexts. They longed for peace.
In February 1932, the Apostolic Delegate Leopoldo Ruiz y Flores published a
pastoral letter condemning all recourse to violence. Over the following months, the
bishops wrote numerous pastoral letters forbidding priests and the faithful from
maintaining relationships with the rebel Cristeros. They wanted to avoid another
insurrection; they feared it might be more violent. But the assassination of Obregón
submerged Mexico in the Maximato, a political crisis in which General Calles made and
unmade government decisions at his own personal whim. This situation lasted until 1937.
Calles did not trust Obregon’s successor, Pascual Ortiz Rubio, and manipulated him
as he wished. He removed him from the government, perhaps because he feared a coup
d’état, and immediately replaced him with General Abelardo Rodríguez, who was elected
by acclaim in Congress. Rodríguez was a millionaire who had made his fortune running a
customs post in California. Calles did not treat him any better than Ortiz Rubio, but at
least he was able to finish his term in office.
Both Abelardo Rodríguez and Pascual Ortiz Rubio were under pressure from a
serious economic situation which was the result of both national and international causes.
Mining and agriculture were in total disorder and the crash of 1929 seriously affected
Mexican emigration. Over 400,000 Mexicans were deported from the United States
between 1930 and 1934. The peso collapsed and was devalued fifty percent in
comparison to the dollar, which led to a change from currency minted with precious
metals to paper money, which the people refused to accept.
Even so, General Calles was an able politician who had established long term bases
and knew how to come through a crisis. On November 30, 1934, General Lázaro
Cárdenas del Río took office as President of the Republic, obviously with Calles’
approval. A new political and social age had begun for Mexico and, quite naturally, more
conflicts for the Church.
Patience
Under these turbulent political and social conditions, Conchita wrote the
Confidences. One thing that is surprising in the life of this woman, given the times and
the style of the Church at that moment, is that she was a friend to many priests and
bishops. What is even more surprising, something that can be seen in her Account of
Conscience, is that she often went to them to ask for support, advice, spiritual guidance
and consolation.
On frequent occasions, however, it was Conchita who helped the “Lord’s ministers”
46

with her own words and advice. Her word had a spiritual value, as it were, although
spirituality is never far removed from political and social matters. Conchita was a
privileged witness to the longings, the struggles, the stumbling, the successes and the sins
of the shepherds of her time. Conchita knew the Church “from within.” She knew it
much better than most other people of her time. Her sensitivity and her profound
religious feelings were constantly illuminated or darkened by the qualities or
imperfections of those who should have been teachers of holiness.
Such deeply conflictive times as the ones suffered by the Church in Mexico can be
attributed, for the most part, to the infidelity of priests. Conchita kept in her prayer the
martyrdom of the Mexican Church together with the abuses and sins of priests. On
September 22, 1927, she recorded the following dialogue with Jesus:
– My Jesus, my Adorable Heaven! What can I tell You? Your sorrow is my
sorrow; You know that in all of me I have no will apart from Yours. I will fulfill
Your desires and with my soul’s blood I will ask the bishops, my spiritual
director and the priests and those who belong to the Works [of the Cross] I can
reach, to listen to Your complaints and do something about them. And yet,
Jesus, look and take consolation. There is much that is good in Your vineyard.
Many souls long to give You glory, to be crucified for You, longing for You to
carry out Your will in them and through them.
– That is true, My daughter, but you do not know how deeply the sins of these
chosen souls, that have cost Me so much, hurt Me. One sin of theirs is for Me
like a thousand sins of the common people who have not received such a
superabundance of charisms. You cannot measure My love for those souls
joined with My love for the Church, the universal center of all My loves. You
cannot understand the exquisite torture I feel from their ingratitude.39
Her high regard for priests also affected Conchita’s spirits. Father Félix de Jesús
Rougier, with whom she had maintained a close friendship since 1903, had a remarkable
influence on her. Father Félix, a fiery character, transmitted his ideal of priestly ministry
to her, which in turn he had assimilated from the French school of spirituality in which he
had been formed. According to this ideal, the reform of habits and of the Christian life in
general should begin with priests, since they are invested with the greatest dignity that
could exist on earth, a mirror of manners and morality for the people. It was enough to
take a look at the situation of the Mexican Church to see where the profound corruption
came from. To reform the priests was to reform the people. Both Conchita and Father
Rougier were of the opinion that no sacrifice was too great to eradicate such a great evil,
an evil that held the people in misery and that offended Jesus.
Conchita was also a close friend of Archbishop Leopoldo Ruiz y Flores. This
relationship might have had some effect on the composition of the Confidences.
47

Conchita met Ruiz y Flores in 1903, when he was Bishop of León. The Bishop was a
true and faithful friend, a man who believed her, admired her, understood her and loved
her with the constancy of a true friend. The letters they wrote to each other are a witness
to their friendship from 1903, when they met, until March 1, 1937, two days before
Conchita died. In the private realm of friendship one can perceive the soul and
countenance of the two protagonists without the formality of official documents. Their
single-mindedness, their communion of ideals, their mutual help, trust, admiration and
appreciation of each other can be seen in simple and direct language. The letters are
really a manual of friendship between a laywoman and a priest.
Archbishop Leopoldo’s personality helps us to understand the origins of the
Confidences. He had the qualities of natural goodness, an ease for conciliation and a
horror of extremes. He was capable of laughing at himself, but never at others. Wherever
he went, his generous and frank character won him the trust of other priests.
Archbishops and bishops granted him their trust and friendship, preferring his
intervention and advice to that of other prelates. The Holy See showed its trust in
Archbishop Ruiz y Flores on many occasions, in delicate matters that called for
mediation and objective judgment. It is enough to recall that he was entrusted with the
complicated process of the agreements of 1929.
Archbishop Ruiz y Flores had the chance to meet many priests in his various offices
and pastoral posts, and he sensed the needs of the priests of his time. His opinion about
the role of priests in the difficult situation the country was undergoing is clearly expressed
in a letter he wrote on February 17, 1913, to the Apostolic Delegate in Mexico at the
time, Tomasso Boggiani:
In my opinion, Your Excellency, we priests need to make genuine amends to
Our Lord, setting out to reform our lives in the ministry based on the inner
reform of each one of us. This will be much easier to obtain with a meeting of
all the bishops or maybe just the archbishops, which could be prepared for
when the time is right, that is, later on, when some minimal peace has been
consolidated. We could decide to promote the sanctification of the clergy at this
meeting. Everything else would follow on from this.
In Archbishop Ruiz y Flores’ opinion, the upright and moral life of the people
depended on the holiness of the clergy. Thus, the same idea that moved the principal
characters of the French school of spirituality – Monsieur Olier, St. John Eudes, St.
Louis Maria Grignon de Montfort and St. Vincent de Paul himself – prevailed in his
mind. It seems clear that this ideal was widely shared and spoken about in Archbishop
Ruiz’ intimate relationship with Conchita. She echoed these concerns and lifted them up
in prayer, personally seeking to make amends through mortification and sacrifice for the
immense tragedy that was constantly taking place before her eyes.
Perhaps the most convincing proof of the trust that Archbishop Ruiz had in
48

Conchita can be seen in the letter that he wrote to her in June 1929, while he was in self-
imposed isolation in Mexico City waiting to meet the President of the Republic and enter
into the negotiations that he hoped would put an end to the religious conflict:
Daughter, here I am. I am not seeing anybody. I will not see anybody until I
have spoken to the President. I will let you know or show up soon.
Meanwhile, do not forget that I am in your hands. You cannot imagine the fear
I feel. My only consolation is that I have souls that remember me and that it
will be the Pope who will have the last word.
When Conchita started to speak about the Confidences to her friend, Archbishop
Ruiz y Flores, he was the first to be enthusiastic about them. He asked her to sort out the
writings addressed to priests. He showed them discreetly to some bishops who were his
friends and asked them for their opinion. He suggested publishing the first edition in
1928, so that it would become known as soon as possible. Showing great prudence, he
had it translated into Latin, so that it would be read only by those for whom it was
written. He wrote the prologue and granted the nihil obstat. He himself distributed it
among the bishops and recommended it to seminary rectors. He was so convinced of the
good that the Confidences could bring about among the clergy that he personally took
them, beautifully bound in white satin, to Pope Pius XI so that His Holiness could drink
directly from the doctrine God had given his friend.
Conchita was influenced by truly great priests, bishops and archbishops. This is how
she got to know the soul of the priest so profoundly, a knowledge that is reflected in her
writings. Conchita received spiritual direction from men who were profoundly coherent
in their faith and their ministry: Archbishop Ramón Ibarra, apostle of the Cross, a pious
and austere shepherd; Archbishop Leopoldo Ruiz y Flores, an educated, simple, pleasant
and most faithful friend; Father Félix Rougier, most zealous for God’s interests, obedient,
in love with the Eucharist and the Virgin Mary; her brother, Primitivo Cabrera, S.J., a
dedicated missionary to the people and an enthusiastic priest. These examples had some
influence upon Conchita’s lofty and perfect vision of the priest.
The pages of the Confidences overflow with ideals and optimism. They send the
shepherds in search of the footprints of Jesus, the High Priest full of mercy and
compassion for His own, although He is not unaware of the sins of those who are called
to the priestly ministry and yet are deaf to the voice of the one and only Priest. The work
contains a vision of resurrection: good triumphs over evil, love conquers death, life is
poured out onto the world through the priests that Jesus has chosen on earth to continue
the work of salvation, in spite of their weaknesses and falls.
But what were the clergy really like? Was there as much sin and laxity in priests’
lives as the Confidences suggest? It is not easy to document this exactly. Conchita even
suggests that the Church in Mexico needed “bleeding” because, in her opinion, priests
were lacking love for God. They had let secularism and impurity into their lives. She
49

Priests of Christ - Concepcion (Conchita) Cabrera de Armida

Priests of Christ - Concepcion (Conchita) Cabrera de Armida

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