James Gilhooley

The Outlaw Bishop Saint

In 1931, the Mexican governor of Vera- cruz issued a contract on Bishop Rafael Guizar of Valencia. He was to be shot on sight like a mad dog. The shooter would be rewarded. But the 53-year-old bishop had no intention of waiting for assassination. He called the governor's bluff in a High Noon scene. Marching into his office, the bishop dared him to kill him. The governor ran scared. The death sentence was revoked.

This is the measure of the man who was canonized saint on Oct. 15, 2006, by Pope Benedict XVI.

Rafael was born with a gold spoon in his mouth in 1878 in Mexico. Swapping that spoon for a base metal one, he was ordained a priest in 1901. His would be a thrill-a-minute priesthood.

When he was 33 years of age, a revolution broke out in Mexico. One of the revolutionaries' primary targets was the Church. Mexico became unhealthy territory for priests. Bookies declined to take bets on their survival.

Padre Guizar went underground. He was a walking DOA. He became a master of disguises. He was a hardware peddler, a physician, and an accordion player. The object of the dangerous exercises was to stay three steps ahead of his wannabe executioners. The Church had to stay alive.

He was an accomplished accordion player. He would gather crowds by giving impromptu open- air concerts on his squeeze box. He would entertain them with the top ten on the hit parade. Then he would teach them catechism.

The padre took to traveling with the anti-Church revolutionary army. He was self-appointed chaplain. He was one bold hombre. He ministered to the wounded on both sides. He gave them absolution and viaticum with the consecrated hosts he carried. He got used to being shot at. It was part of the job definition.

The revolutionaries were not dumb. They admired the macho padre. They took no pleasure in being made fools of though. After the successful revolution, they made renewed attempts to murder him.

The padre had been living on raw nerve and machismo for five years. His enemies had his scent and were running him down. He had run out of disguises. The Church did not need martyrs. It needed live priests. It was time to vanish and come back another day.

Like his countrymen before and after him, Guizar slipped out of Mexico in 1916 across the Rio Grande into the United States. He was an exhausted and ill 38-year-old. Years on the run are cruel to a man approaching middle age.

An Underground Bishop

He spent R & R in the States. Once refreshed, he proceeded to Guatemala where he worked as a priest for one year using false identity papers. From 1917 to 1919, he ministered in Cuba. There he learned that Rome had appointed him Bishop of Veracruz in Mexico. Bishop Guizar arrived in his diocese in early 1920. The Church persecution was still raging. He became an underground bishop. He had lost none of his moves. He had new disguises. He remained the greasy eel that the revolutionaries could not catch. He became a real life Scarlet Pimpernel.

The bishop proved to be a superb chess master. Every move the Veracruz government made against the Church, he would checkmate. Predictably, the government was not amused. Eleven years of being humiliated by the bishop was too much. The apoplectic officials put out still one more contract on his life in 1931.

The war against the Church raged another nine years. Bishop Guizar Valencia would find new names and endure more exiles. He died at 60 in 1938 in Mexico City.

Miracles are associated with him. However, the real miracle of his life was that he died in his own bed.

The adventures of his life are too many for a two-hour film. On the other hand, a weekly TV series. . . . TP

FATHER GILHOOLEY is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York.