MM#285--Happy Thanksgiving & Catholic Contributions

Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, David Kaiser.

Hello, I'm David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute. I want to wish each and every one of you a very happy Thanksgiving. I hope each of you enjoyed the blessings of faith in God and family and freedom in the United States this Thanksgiving. So in today's Mojo Minute, let's clear up some of the confusion around Thanksgiving. You see, for every untruth that is spoken these days in digital media, there are many unannounced fact checkers who are waiting to pounce on them. You saw this with the complete debacle of the New York Times 1619 History Project, where they tried to say that the United States was founded by slaves in 1619. Before the usual trope of the year 1620, which is actually our first year of the founding in America, but in just the last 10 years I would have probably believed that. You see, our public school history is taught at least in the 1990s, when I was there is uniquely terrible. So much so, in fact, that it took me going to college to get a full picture of the United States's history and actually delve deep into US history. And from what I'm hearing these days from my friends, the public school education has slid further and further down the slope. I can't imagine how bad it is today. But that is not the thrust of today's Thanksgiving message. Nope, as an American Catholic, I will say American Catholics don't even know their own history or their country's history. And to illustrate my point, I will offer three examples. First, did you know that the first actual Thanksgiving was given on American soil in 1565, in St Augustine, florida, and not the Mayflower in Plymouth, massachusetts, in 1621. Nope, the Spanish began coming to the New World and it is certainly right that Christopher Columbus landed and founded and claimed the Bahama Islands in 1492. But technically, you should say, the first actual American Thanksgiving was celebrated on September 8th, the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin, in 1565 at St Augustine, florida. And what do we know about that event? Well, we know that the Native Americans attended and the Spanish settlers around St Augustine attended. They held a feast and a holy mass was offered. Keep in mind, the holy mass is an offering of Thanksgiving. Eucharistia in Greek means Thanksgiving. We know, don Pedro Menendez came ashore in 1565 amid the firing of guns and military slutes to claim the land for King Philip II of Spain. The ship's chaplain, father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Graliales, chanted the today in prayer as he approached the land and presented a crucifix which Menendez ceremoniously kissed. There were some 500 soldiers on hand, as well as 200 sailors, 100 families, along with the local Timunacan I believe I'm pronouncing that right Timunacan Indians, who also celebrated the holy sacrifice of the mass in gratitude to God. That was 56 years before the Puritan pilgrims of Massachusetts celebrated with their lot. The founding of St Augustine is part of a much longer tale of the Spanish in North America which I'm reading right now and it is quite fascinating. So the Spanish began heavily traveling to the current United States in the early 16th century. So much so, in fact, that even the second Thanksgiving on American soil could be said to have happened in Texas in 1589. By, again, the Spanish explorers. At the time. You see, the Spanish were in North America much before the English were in what we now call the American colonies. Now most people object and say but Florida didn't come in as part of the United States and of America until 1845. So you could make that argument, but most people who do make that argument forget that at the time Massachusetts wasn't an American colony either. So I submit that Florida and even Texas's thanksgivings should be recognized when telling the American story. Now my second example that most American Catholics don't know about Thanksgiving, in addition to when the actual first Thanksgiving was held in St Augustine, is that? Did you know that it was a Catholic Indian who saved the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock? Yes, in fact, squanto the savior of the Plymouth Thanksgiving was actually Catholic. His story is fascinating. You can read all about it in a wonderful, interesting book called 150 People, places and Things you Never Knew, or Catholic, by Jay Cop. In fact, let's go to the book to hear the story. We all know the story of the first Thanksgiving in 1621 and how Native Americans helped the pilgrims grow food. Well, as Paul Harvey would say, here's the rest of the story. A Catholic Native American made it all possible, considering what he knew of the White Settlers and how he had been treated by them up to that time. It was something of a miracle. In 1614, captain John Smith of Pocahontas fame led two British ships to Maine. One of his lieutenants sailed one of those ships to Cape Cod, where the British explorers encountered a tribe of Native Americans. He invited two dozen of them, curious about these strange seafarers, to the ship, where they were forced into irons and taken as slaves back across the Atlantic to the island of Magala, near Spain. One of them was a man named Squanto. Spain was a Catholic nation and Pope Paul III and 1537 had issued a papal bull that forbade the enslavement of indigenous peoples of the Americas. The Native Americans, he ruled, were rational human beings who had the right to freedom, even if they were heathen. So before Squanto could be sold into chains, rather excuse me Franciscan friars released him and diligently taught him the Catholic faith. Squanto wanted to return home, but the friars instead were able to send him to London as a free man. He there learned English and then finally secured a passage back to the Americas in 1619. Squanto made his way to Plymouth Rock, but his tribe was gone. It was wiped out by diseases transmitted by white settlers. He was taken captive by a chief Nade, massacois, whose own powerful Wampong tribe also had greatly been reduced by disease. Massacois had to decide what to do about the white settlers who had arrived, the pilgrims. He was not sure he could trust them. They had stolen ten bushels of maize. Their thievery helped keep them alive. That first winner. Little had gone right for them since they sailed from England and half of the 102 people aboard the Mayflower were dead by the end of that first winner, massacois probably could have easily killed the settlers, but he had his own rivals to deal with and the pilgrims had cannons and guns and weapons that might make his rivals hesitate to attack him. So he sent Squanto as an emissary to them, and the pilgrims were astounded at his ability to speak English. The Catholic Squanto taught the pilgrims how to plant native corn and how to fish, and he saved their lives in another way. In serving as an emissary and interpreter, he almost certainly turned Massacois away from an attack. The great irony is that the pilgrims were hostile to Catholics and religious freedom. They left England to establish a settlement free of other forms of Christianity. The great GK Chesterton once cracked that England ought to celebrate Thanksgiving in gratitude that the intolerant pilgrims left England. Sadly, squanto did not live. Long after his memorable kindness to the pilgrims, he succumbed to a European brought disease in 1622. His last words, according to William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colony, were to pray for him that he might go to the quote Englishman's God in heaven. Squanto, tricked and kidnapped as a slave by white settlers, still treated the pilgrims as friends. We equate thanksgiving with gratitude for blessings, of course, but Squanto, in exemplifying forgiveness and charity, helped bring to the New World, to the often narrow-minded, pinch-faced pilgrims, the ethic of love at the heart of Christianity, call it his first instance of reverse evangelization. So that is a fascinating story about Squanto. Most Americans don't know that story. Most American Catholics, frankly, do not know that story. And as the great Paul Harvey said from our quote, now you know the rest of the story. Now, finally, there's one third example I'm going to demonstrate because most American Catholics don't know this history either. Did you know that there was a Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence and that he was a good friend of our first American president, the great George Washington? Let's go to the book for that story. Maryland was a glorious exception among the original 13 colonies. Generally excluded from influence and power, catholics faced myriad of legal, social and religious barriers. To be a person of influence and power in the early days of the America required you to be white, protestant and a man Sound familiar. As the colonies grew increasingly dissatisfied with British rule and as support for independence group, catholics continued to be kept on the sidelines and marginalized. 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence. Only one was Catholic Charles Carroll. Carroll was an extremely wealthy Maryland landowner, one of the richest men in the colonies, if not the richest. Even so, protestants had regularly challenged his patriotism, questioning whether his ultimate loyalty was to Rome or not. Like the other signers, his backing of the American independence put his life and wealth at risk. Carroll risked as much as, if not more than, any other signer. When John Hancock asked if indeed he would sign the Declaration of Independence, he replied most willingly. A bystander blithely remarked there goes a few million. Incidentally, carroll's cousin, john, served as the nation's first bishop in Baltimore. Sensitive to American suspicions about Catholics, he asked Rome in 1787 to allow US Catholics to celebrate mass in English. Not quite ready for Vatican II, the Pope refused this unusual request. Charles Carroll served as a US Senator After the revolution. President Washington considered him a close friend and an ally of and it was an ally of Carroll. He asked him to support a Foreign Service appropriation. The first time a president ever, over alert, overtly attempted to influence legislation. Carroll adroitly persuaded the House of Representatives to reverse its opposition to this appropriation. Carroll enjoyed a long and distinguished public career. Besides being a Senator, he helped to develop Maryland's first constitution and its declaration of rights, and never went too shy away from a public duty. He even laid the cornerstone of the B&O Railroad. When he died at age 95, he was the last remaining signer of the Declaration. So those are just several examples of how we have misread our own history here in the United States. So in today's Mojo Minute again, I want to wish you, each of you, a happy and hearty thanksgiving. May you enjoy your feast and, most importantly, give thanks for your faith in God. For this wonderful country, its religious freedom that it allowed Puritans and Catholics and all peoples of goodwill, despite their differences, to live a flourishing life here. So a happy thanksgiving everyone.

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