Dear Friends in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Our good friend The Rt. Rev. Father Abbot Leonard Giardina, O.S.B., founder of the Abbey of Christ the King in Cullman, Alabama is being called Home to be with God as I write this missive. He has been ill for a while as you all know and has suffered a stroke, (maybe a series of small strokes, as is common with his condition and at his age) and is now in the Cullman Regional Hospital. I am asking all of you to pray for him as he leaves the planet. We believe in the Communion of Saints and I know that prayer is powerful and that it will help him as he prepares to meet the good Lord Whom he loves so much and for Whom he fought with all his strength and talent.
It is my belief that the terrible treachery that befell him at the end from those that should have been his staunchest allies and friends, his very Benedictine Family of monks, this could very well be the cause of his dry martyrdom and could also have led to his earthly end by causing such stress and sadness. I do not know. God knows and it is God to Whom we must all answer.
I am so very grateful for the great witness to Divine Love that was the work of Father Abbot and I consider him my Father in the Faith and will miss him terribly. His passing will be a great blow to the True Faith both in the country and all over the world. He never faltered in his Love for God and the Catholic Faith and left all that was familiar and safe to follow the footsteps of the Lord Jesus, which are bloody footsteps! He could not abide the tearing down of the Holy in the aftermath of the False Council and made a place that is holy indeed and has been a refuge for thousands over the years.
Now that Satan has shifted the monks of the Abbey like wheat no one knows what will happen to this magnificent place. It is reported that the two monks who are left, the ones who threw everybody else out and who waited to do this when Father Abbot was too ill to vote or even have a say, are in discussion with the Newchurch that Father Abbot loathed! Will they turn over the property and bank accounts to the local diocese, of which Father Abbot wanted no part? Will they allow the barbarians inside the Gates of the Holy City? Time will tell. What is terrible is that instead of having his beloved monks and nuns around his bed praying for him as he died, which every holy abbot should have and that includes Abbot Leonard!, he is dying in a cold hospital which precludes the countless visitors that would be filling the Abbey Church and offering their prayers in union with his final agony!
God has asked much of this good monk. God has asked him to die with strangers and outside the monastery which he founded; Away from those whom he loved and thought loved him! Like Our Blessed Lord and Saviour the Chosen have abandoned him and he is left with those who officially have accepted the architects of the False Council. Who could have thought of this turn of events? Only God and it is to God that Father Abbot goes.
The last time I was privileged to visit the Abbey the good Abbot told me personally that: “They think I’m crazy! All I talk about is the Love of God. That is all that is important and all that I stress now and they think I don’t know what’s important. They are preparing something and I fear the worst. What matters is that we are right with God and that we are prepared to meet Him when He calls. That final day is what you should be ready for! Never stop loving God and never forget you are a priest!” I will never forget and I will also never forget the wonderful apostolate of this great man who is dying after having been betrayed. To God all hearts are open; All desires known and from Him no secrets are hid! God knows and God will have mercy on him. He is leaving this life a hero of the Faith. He is leaving this life as a faithful Benedictine monk and nothing anyone now does can rob him of the reward Almighty God has prepared for those who love Him. Onwards and upwards, dear Father Abbot! Go to God in the Heart of Mary Immaculate and leave this Vale of Tears! What beauty awaits you! What joy! What Love!
