Two Treatments of the Witness of Luis Moscardó
- Kelvin Sandigo
- Apr 13
- 6 min read
Selection from Going His Way (1946) by Rev. Gerald T. Brennan
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The Boy Hero
IN YOUR geography classes you've learned about sunny Spain. Well, my story this morning is about Spain, but it's not about sunny Spain. My story is about a sad Spain, because Spain was at war. Spain was at war with her enemies.
It seems that the enemies of Spain were attacking the city of Toledo. In the city of Toledo there was a large castle which the Spanish people had turned into a fort. In this castle, or fort, there were about a thousand people — a few children, some women, and a large number of soldiers. The soldiers were under the charge of Colonel Moscardo.
For three days the enemy tried to make Colonel Moscardo and his soldiers stop fighting. The enemy used all kinds of tricks and schemes, but Colonel Moscardo refused to give up.
In the midst of the fighting, Colonel Moscardo was called to his office. There was a very important telephone call for the Colonel. Someone wanted to speak to Colonel Moscardo.
The Colonel hurried up the stairs of the castle and entered his office. He sat before a large wooden desk. He picked up the phone.
"Hello!" said the Colonel. Then he waited.
"We have captured your son, Luis," said the voice of one of the enemy over the phone. "He is here with us now. If you don't stop fighting within ten minutes, your son will be shot."
"My son?" called out the Colonel. "I don't believe you. You're trying to trap me with one of your schemes. If my son is there, let me speak to him!"
For a moment, there was silence. Then another voice came over the wire. The voice of a sixteen-year-old boy. It was the voice of Luis Moscardo, the son of the Colonel.
"Father!" said the boy. "They've told me that they'll kill me if you don't stop fighting. What shall I do? I'll do whatever you tell me."
Colonel Moscardo's face turned pale. He tried to think... Should he give his country to the enemy and save his boy, or should he tell his boy to die and save Spain for his people? There was only one answer.
Colonel Moscardo's voice was very clear. "Luis," he said, "I can't stop fighting. I can't give my country to the enemy. You must die for your country. Beg God to help you, and die like a hero!"
The Colonel listened. "Father," he heard, "I'll die for my country. I’ll die for you."
The father listened for more words from his son, but no other words were spoken. Then a terrible sound came ringing over the wire into the Colonel's ears. It was the sound of a shot from a gun. Then, the Colonel heard a noise as if something had fallen heavily upon the floor.
Yes, Luis Moscardo, the Colonel's son, had been shot. Luis Moscardo died because his father asked him to die. Luis Moscardo died for his country. If there ever was a hero, it was Luis Moscardo.
Children, on the first Holy Thursday night, Jesus Christ knelt in a garden. And Jesus called up to His Father in heaven and asked His Father what He should do. And what did God, the Father, ask His Son to do? God asked Jesus, His Son, to give up His life — to die for us. And what did Jesus answer? Children, you know the answer Jesus gave. Jesus, too, told His Father that He would do whatever His Father wanted Him to do. And the very next day, the first Good Friday, Jesus did what His Father asked Him to do. Jesus gave up His life by dying on a cross. Jesus died for you, for me. Yes, Jesus died for the whole world. The world's greatest Hero — Jesus Christ!
That isn't all, children! Oh, no! Every morning God lets His Son die again on our altar. In every Mass, Jesus dies again. And why does Jesus die? To free the world from sin! Jesus dies for our sins. He dies to wash away our sins. He dies to win us from sin.
Children, there isn't any prayer that pleases God more than the Mass. The Mass is the greatest prayer, the best prayer. That's why God wants us to come to Mass often. Jesus doesn't die just once a week. Jesus dies every day. That's why God wants us to come to Mass not just once a week, but every day if it is possible. God wants us to pray the Mass every single day. God wants us to give Him the best prayer every single day. Why, then, don't you come to Mass more often?
Why don't you get up a little bit earlier each, morning, and stop in for Mass on your way to school? Hundreds and thousands of people, men and women, go to Mass every day. Why don't you? You'll meet Christ at Mass. You'll get so many, many graces — graces that you need — graces that will help you all through the day.
The Mass, children, is for you. The Mass is Jesus dying for you. Show Jesus that you are grateful for what He is doing for you! Come to Mass! Come to Mass often!
Selection from The Last Crusade: Spain: 1936 © 1996 by Warren Carroll
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July
[...]
At seven o'clock in the morning of that day of horror in Toledo [July 23], Moscardó's 24-year-old son Luis was picked up for questioning by a militia patrol who did not know who he was. In Toledo as in many other cities of republican Spain, a committee of militant Socialists and anarchists had been set up to question persons suspected of disloyalty to the Republic. These committees were universally called “checas,” the Spanish spelling of the name Lenin had given to the first Soviet secret police, CHEKAs. The head of Toledo's checa was a lawyer named Candido Cabello. He knew Luis Moscardó by sight. The moment he saw him, he decided to use him to bring about the surrender of the Alcázar. He picked up the telephone and called the boy's father. It was ten o’clock.
After identifying himself, Cabello said, “You are responsible for all the crimes and everything else that is happening in Toledo. I give you ten minutes to surrender the Alcázar. If you don’t, I'll shoot your son Luis who is standing here beside me.”
Moscardó's face did not betray his feeling. “I believe you,” he said.
“And so that you can see it’s true,” Cabello continued, “he will speak to you.”
Luis was then given the phone. “Papa!” he cried.
“What is happening, my boy?”
“Nothing,” Luis answered. “They say they are going to shoot me if the Alcázar does not surrender. But don’t ‘worry about me.”
“If it is true,” replied Moscardó, “commend your soul to God, shout 'Viva España!' and die like a hero. Good-bye, my son, a kiss.”
“Good-bye, Father, a very big kiss.”
When Cabello was on the phone again, Moscardó said, "You might as well forget the period of grace you gave me. The Alcázar will never surrender!”
In the Diputación, Cabello slammed down the receiver violently and cursed briefly. Then he said to the militiamen around him, “Since his father wants it, do whatever you please with him.” Luis Moscardó was led out.
In the Alcázar, Colonel Moscardó stood for some moments in stony silence, his staff too stunned even to condole him, Without a word to anyone, he walked into his sleeping quarters in the next room and quietly shut the door.
Luis was not killed immediately; but he was shot exactly one month later, on August 23, while the siege of the Alcázar still continued. But at almost exactly this time Moscardó's oldest son, Pepe, was arrested in Barcelona, where after the defeat of the rising he had disguised himself for five days as a hospital orderly. He was about to board a train out of the city when a medal of the Blessed Virgin Mary slipped out of his pocket and was seen by another passenger in the station. A few days later he was executed like so many others in that now demonic city.
In the otherwise completely restored Alcázar of Toledo today, the room where Colonel Moscardó received that telephone call from Candido Cabello is preserved exactly as it was sixty years ago. On its scored and battered walls hang translations of this conversation in most of the principal languages of the world. A contemporary Socialist government, no longer revolutionary but hardly sympathetic, has removed all the most vivid and shocking mementoes of the great siege—all but this, which they have not dared to touch.
[...]
