Sudden and still – hurrah!
Bolt from Iberia!
Don John of Austria
Is gone by Alcalar.
 
These are Chesterton’s rousing lines about Don John of Austria en route to his victory at Lepanto in 1571, passing “by Alcalar”, the site of a Christian victory over the Moors in 1246. Chesterton’s poem and the Church Militant that it glorifies continue to resonate in our own beleaguered days in which the old Islamic foe is assisted by the apparent death wish of modern Europe. Today, as in the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, Europe needs a champion to whom its people can rally. It was, therefore, with a leap of the heart that I heard about the recent mass rally in Madrid in which more than a million people protested against the socialist government’s plan to promote abortion on demand. A broad cross-section of Spanish society was represented, according to the BBC’s Madrid correspondent – “old and young, parents with babies, priests, nuns, immigrant families and organised groups coached in from all over the country”. This pro-life army gathered in the heart of Madrid under an enormous blue banner the height of a two-storey building emblazoned with the simple message: “Every life matters.” It is unlikely that Spain’s socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, will heed the words of the protesters. His anti-Catholic government has already legalized homosexual “marriage” and has undermined the traditional family still further by liberalizing divorce laws. Nonetheless, one has to hope that this huge demonstration, this “bolt from Iberia”, represents the resurrection of Iberian resistance to the culture of death and the destruction of Europe that it portends.
 
The sight of such a healthy army of Catholic Christians on the march against the infidel in Iberia reminds us of the heroics of El Cid and Don John, but it also reminded me of a huge crowd of pilgrims in Portugal, a few short years ago. I was in Lisbon, one of my favourite cities, giving some talks as part of a Eucharistic conference. The culmination of the conference was the procession of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima   through the centre of the city. I couldn’t believe how many people followed behind the statue, singing hymns. It must have equalled the number of pro-life demonstrators in Madrid. Hundreds of thousands, more than a million, carrying torches and marching behind the Mother of God in a stunning show of devotion. It was simply breathtaking. A sea of torches as far as the eye could see. An ocean of faith! Next morning, national television reported this stunning event by showing a handful of old ladies, some hours before the huge crowds gathered, singing out of tune. This was the image that the secular media sought to project: a handful of old women, destined to die within a few years along with the superstitions they cherish. They did not show film footage of the sea of flame, nor did they show the cross-section of Portuguese society that was present: “old and young, parents with babies, priests, nuns, immigrant families and organised groups”. Such footage would show the truth but it would not show the people what their political and media masters want them to see. We have to be cajoled into thinking that the Faith is finished and that, to echo Nietzsche, God is dead. The fact remains, however, that God is not dead and nor is His Church. Perhaps these examples of the Church Militant on the march are indeed the first stirrings of an Iberian resurrection. Perhaps the ghost of Don John is stirring:
 
Vivat Hispania!
Domino Gloria!
Don John of Austria
Has set his people free!