If I could epitomize Donald Howard with any Exhibit, it would be 28. He summarized 450 years of history and hundreds of moving parts in just 2 sentences, told an anecdotal story, and then concluded that God hates Communism. All to whitewash the politicide and genocide of 400,000 - 2,000,000 people by right-wing paramilitary gangs akin to the Hitler Youth. Presenting the information this way credits God with the gang rape of Indonesia - which is emphatically the opposite of what happened.
It’s interesting to see miracles used in that way, but anything but unique.
In the Estado Novo dictatorship of Portugal, (Blessed) Alexandrina da Costa (https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20040425_da-costa_en.html for basic details) is supposed to have eaten and drank nothing but the Holy Eucharist for the last thirteen years of her life. Although I possess no clear evidence, I am very suspicious that this miracle was aimed to protect Salazar’s regime against the threats posed to it by the generally pro-Communist working classes of Europe’s remaining democracies.
The earlier Miracle of the Sun (1917) was more definitively used to that end, and in fact Salazar’s regime heavily influenced a wave of anticommunist films in Hollywood after World War II.
It’s interesting to see miracles used in that way, but anything but unique.
In the Estado Novo dictatorship of Portugal, (Blessed) Alexandrina da Costa (https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20040425_da-costa_en.html for basic details) is supposed to have eaten and drank nothing but the Holy Eucharist for the last thirteen years of her life. Although I possess no clear evidence, I am very suspicious that this miracle was aimed to protect Salazar’s regime against the threats posed to it by the generally pro-Communist working classes of Europe’s remaining democracies.
The earlier Miracle of the Sun (1917) was more definitively used to that end, and in fact Salazar’s regime heavily influenced a wave of anticommunist films in Hollywood after World War II.