M Pro Page 3

In Testimony, at the process of his Beatification, it was reported that at the Consecration of the Mass he celebrated on the day before he was arrested, a brilliant light surrounded his entire body and his face and hands and vestments shown so brightly that those attending Mass could not look directly at him. Then he levitated.

The next day he was caught. A car previously owned by his brother had been used in an assassination attempt on General Obregon. The license plate was traced to Pro’s brother, and this led to an informant telling the police where the Pro brothers, who knew nothing about the plot, were lodging. They were put in jail and held without trial for ten days while the government trumped up charges falsely implicating Pro in the assassination attempt. On November 13, 1927 President Calles ordered Pro to be executed, ostensibly for his role in the assassination plot, but in reality for his defiance of the laws banning Catholicism.

As Fr. Pro walked from his cell to the prison courtyard, he blessed the firing squad, and approached a bullet-scarred adobe wall. He knelt and prayed silently for a few moments. Refusing a blindfold, he stood, faced the firing squad, and with a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other, he held his arms outstretched in the form of a cross and in a loud clear voice he cried out, "May God have mercy on your soul! May God Bless you! Lord thou knowest that I am innocent! With all my heart I forgive my enemies"! As the soldiers lifted their rifles, he said with his dying breath, "Viva Cristo Rey!"

A volley rang out, and Pro fell to the ground riddled with bullets. A soldier stepped up and discharged his rifle at point blank range into the priest’s temple.