The Last Letter of Garcia Moreno

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The Last Letter of Garcia Moreno



Gabriel Garcia Moreno 1821-1875

Margaret Galitzin, TIA [slightly reformatted and adapted] | April 14, 2025

Gabriel Garcia Moreno (1821-1875) had ruled over the Republic of Ecuador for nearly 15 years and was in the act of entering on his third presidency, to which he had been re-elected by the a great majority of the people, when he was assassinated by an order of the German Freemasonry on August 9, 1875. The atrocious crime took place in the square of the Presidential Palace in Quito.

On commencing his government this illustrious man found the State in great disorder, ruled by a Masonic and Liberal anti-clerical government. By means of his profound genius, his skill in action, his firmness in carrying out his plans, and above all by his piety and confidence in God, he not only reformed the customs, but also put order in every department of political administration, and made the country a paragon of a truly Catholic commonwealth at a time when this seemed impossible.

Garcia Moreno was remarkable for his piety. Though pressed by the incessant and weighty cares of office, he always found time to hear Mass every morning and to say his Rosary every evening. Before undertaking any important action, he would go before the Blessed Sacrament to draw light from the Fountain of Wisdom. In fact it was just after leaving the church that be received the fatal thrust of the assassin’s dagger.

This religious fervor gave birth in him to a great zeal for God’s glory and a strong devotion to Christ’s Vicar. Suffice it to say that when there was question of concluding a Concordat with the Holy See, he sent his ambassador to Rome with a document that had nothing written on it but his signature. As an act of trust in the Pontiff Pius IX, he desired that the Holy Father should fill out the blank sheet with whatever seemed to him just and conducive to the good of the Church and the true well-being of the people.

Garcia Moreno signs the Concordat between Pope Pius IX & the Republic of Ecuador, 1862

When the revolution entered Rome triumphant through the breach of Porta Pia in 1870, bringing an end to the Papal States, Garcia Moreno alone stepped forward among rulers to protest solemnly against the sacrilegious usurpation. And to relieve the sufferings of the plundered Pontiff, who had become a veritable "prisoner in the Vatican," he petitioned the Congress to vote a considerable sum of money to be sent to the Pope monthly as the country’s tribute of fidelity.

His piety and filial devotion to the Church is perhaps best expressed in the message he composed to the Congress, which he finished writing a few hours before his death. That bloodstained letter was found in his bosom after the assassination.

It ran thus:

“Senators and Representatives. Of all the great gifts which God has vouchsafed our Republic from the inexhaustible treasure of His mercy, I consider that the greatest is to see you reunited, through His protecting support, beneath the shadow of the peace that He grants to us and preserves in us, although we are nothing, capable of nothing, and know not how to reply to His paternal goodness except by an inexcusable and shameful ingratitude.

Carrying a large cross down the streets of Quito during Holy Week

“But a few years ago, Ecuador was daily experiencing those sad words, first uttered by the ‘liberator’ Bolivar in his last message to the Congress of 1830: 'I blush to confess it, independence is the only good we have acquired, and that at the cost of every other.'

“Since that time, however, placing all our hope in God, we have distanced ourselves from the torrent of impiety and apostasy that storms the world in this age of errors, and today have reorganized into a truly Catholic nation. And we see that everything has turned out to the good and prosperity of our dear country.

“Ecuador was a corpse, from which life had fled; like a carcass it laid, preyed upon by the multitude of horrible insects that liberty or putrefaction was continually breeding in the darkness of the sepulchre. But today, at the command of that supreme Voice which bade Lazarus rise from his fetid tomb, our country also has returned to life, though it still retains the bands and winding-sheet of death, that is, the remains or the wretchedness and corruption in which we were buried.

“To prove the truth of my words, I need but give a brief account or the advances made by us in the two last years, just as I find them recorded in greater detail in the documents and particular reports of each minister. And in order to ascertain more exactly how far we have proceeded during this period of regeneration, I shall compare the present state of affairs with the one from which we took our start; not, indeed, with a view to our own praise, but in order to glorify Him to whom we owe all, and whom we adore as our Redeemer and Father, as our Protector and God.” (Here follows an enumeration or all the advantages obtained, which he summarizes).

Garcia Moreno with Jesuits, whom he returned to the country after they were expelled by a previous Masonic government

“To the full liberty which the Church possesses among us and to the apostolic zeal of our virtuous pastors are due the reform of the clergy, the improvement in morals and the diminution of crime, which is so striking that in a population of more than one million, there is not to be found a sufficient number of criminals to people our penitentiary.

“To the Church again are we obliged for those religious congregations that produce such an abundance of good fruits by the instruction they give to children and youth, and the help they extend towards the sick and abandoned. We are their debtors for the renewal of the religious spirit in this year of jubilee and sanctification, and for the conversion of 9,000 savages on our eastern province to a Christian and civilized life.

“On account of the vast tract of country there is urgent need in this province of a second Vicariate. If you authorize me to treat this matter with the Holy See, I will see to its establishment. I intend, moreover, to further its commerce by rooting out the speculations and violent exactions to which the poor inhabitants have long been subject on the part of inhuman traders. Yet laborers are wanting; and, to form these, we must yearly come to the aid of our venerable and most zealous Archbishop in the building of a large seminary, which he has not hesitated to commence, relying on the protection of Heaven and our own efficacious cooperation.

“Do not lose sight of the fact that our small successes would be short-lived and useless had we not founded the social order of our Republic on the ever-assailed and ever-victorious rock of the Catholic Church. Her divine teaching, which neither individuals nor nations can reject without losing themselves, is the rule of our institutions and the law of our legislation.

“As faithful and docile children of that venerable, august and infallible Pontiff, whom all the powers of earth have abandoned as a vile and cowardly impiety besets him, we have continued to send him every month our small pecuniary succor, set aside by you for him in 1863. Since our want of strength obliges us to remain passive spectators of his slow martyrdom, may this poor gift be at least a proof of our good will and affection, and a pledge to him of our obedience and fidelity.

“In a few days my present term of office will expire. The Republic has enjoyed six years of peace, interrupted only by a momentary rising in 1879 of the natives of Riobamba against the white population. During these six years we have marched forward with rapid strides on the way to true progress under the visible protection of Providence. The results would certainly have been far more magnificent had I possessed the qualities for governing, which unfortunately I lack, or endeavored to be more fervent about the accomplishment of good.

“If I have committed defects, I ask your pardon a thousand times, and with sincere sorrow do I implore forgiveness of all my fellow-citizens, being persuaded that my will had no part in them. If, however, you think that I have succeeded in anything, attribute it to God first and to the Immaculate Dispensatrix of the inexhaustible treasures of His mercy, and next to yourselves, the people, the army, and to all who have assisted me with their advice and fidelity in the fulfillment of my arduous duties.

Signed, Gabriel Garcia Moreno
Quito, August 1865

This is how a Catholic ruler speaks. This testimony was sealed indeed with his very blood, for he wrote it just a short time before he was surprised by his assassins. It is a testimony all the more poignant as it seems that he foresaw that tragic moment when, as that blameless father, he asked the pardon of his subordinates, as if he had done anything else but selflessly bestow on them so many benefits.


Garcia Moreno confronts Liberalism

It seems fitting to close with a brief resume of how this valiant leader confronted and conquered – with God’s help – the liberal spirit of his times:

• Garcia Moreno began with God, and placed God at the head of the government of his people. Liberalism wants an atheistic State and deems it a disgrace even to mention the name of God in public acts.

• Garcia Moreno desired an intimate union with the Catholic Church, declaring that she must be the foundation of the social order, and that her teaching must be the guide for all human laws and institutions. Liberalism not only separates the Church from the State, but raises also the State above the Church, making civil laws the standard to which all ecclesiastical enactments most be referred

• Garcia Moreno wanted the pastors of the Church to have full freedom, and obtained from them in return the reform of the clergy and the morality of the people. Liberalism clogs the action of bishops, urges the low clergy to rebel against their superiors, and tries to remove the people from the influence of both bishops and priest.

• Garcia Moreno supported the already existing religious establishments and added others to their number. Liberalism abolishes them.

• Moreno respected ecclesiastical property and helped to fund new seminaries. Liberalism confiscates the goods of the Church and closes the seminaries.

• Moreno entrusted the education and instruction of youth to the clergy and to religious orders. Liberalism enforces secular education, excluding every religious element as much as possible.

• Moreno removed from his Catholic people every scandal of a false worship. Liberalism publishes liberty of worship, and opens the door to every heresy and corrupting influence in public morals.

• Moreno saw in himself that weakness which is proper to man, and refered to God all the good which he accomplished. Liberalism, puffs up with satanic pride, thinks itself capable of everything, and ascribes all to the powers of man.

Thus Garcia Moreno put the true theory of Christian government into practice when, in perfect opposition to the principles and wishes of the Liberalism that prevailed in his days, he wisely applied it to the Republic of Ecuador.

Adapted from the article “Friend of the Sacred Heart & a Martyr to Justice, N.A., in The Messenger of the Sacred Heart, Volume III, 1976, Second Series, Baltimore, 1876, pp. 63-74

This monthly Bulletin of the the monthly magazine of The Apostleship of Prayer was founded in 19th century France by the Jesuits to fight the Liberalism and secularization that was ravaging nations and to return the faithful to Catholic traditional devotions, especially to the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus