Buenos Aires, Argentina, Oct 12, 2003 / 22:00 pm
The Bishop of the Diocese of the Military in Argentina, Antonio Baseotto, celebrated Mass in the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján, the principal Marian devotion in the country, in which he said that in order to overcome the “profound crisis” that the country and the Military and the Security Forces face, we should “go to our Mother with total confidence” and in this struggle utilize “the weapon which our ancestors used, the Holy Rosary.”
As Military personnel made their pilgrimage to the Marian shrine and closed out the Year of the Rosary, Bishop Baseotto, reminded them that “history bears witness” to the vale of the Rosary.
“In the fifteenth century when the destruction of Christendom seemed imminent because of the holy war being carried out by the Ottoman Empire, the Battle of Lepanto changed the course of history. All of Christendom implored the Blessed Mother through the recitation of the Rosary,” he said.
The Bishop also recalled that “at the end of World War II, when everything indicated that all of Eastern Europe would fall under the grasp of Communism, a humble Austrian Franciscan called for a Rosary Crusade, and although surrounded on all sides, Austria did not fall to red flag of Communist Russia.
Bishop Baseotto continued saying, “Argentina is like an insignificant drop in this ocean which is our globalized society”, where anti-values reveal “the seven-headed beast of the Apocalypse, and through its seven heads, it spreads all kinds of threats and blasphemy and with its claws it seeks to destroy whatever traces remain of the triumph of the Lamb, who was sacrificed on the Cross for the salvation of mankind.”
“This seven-headed monster, which spreads everywhere through the media and the power of money, seeks to destroy the innocence of children, the value of the family and even the sense of patriotism,” the Bishop said.
Bishop Baseotto insisted that “the beast of the Apocalypse is enraged by redemption of mankind through the Blood of the Lamb, and wishes to destroy him at the moment of his conception through abortion, in childhood through the breakdown of the family, in adolescence and young adulthood by stripping away true education and access to employment, thereby depriving man of his daily sustenance. It seeks to destroy man through the proliferation of drugs and immoral lifestyles.”
In the face of apparent “impotence and defeat,” and “a chaotic world from which our country is not spared,” the Bishop encouraged those present to look to Mary as “the star which guides our way. We cannot let go of the weapon which has brought so many victories to the Christian people throughout history: the Rosary.”
“Let us go to Mary with the Rosary, knowing that she is the star, she is our hope. Although we are surrounded by darkness and life appears hopeless, by the feeling that there are no true values, and the powers of the Beast assail us, let us have recourse to the strength that flows from the humility of the Woman God chose to be His Mother, and our country chose to by its Patron,” he concluded.