I had a very unusual thing happen this weekend. I was attending the Catholic Radio Association’s National Conference in Birmingham,AL. We had 4 days at the Winfrey hotel full of people who are either currently involved with Catholic Radio or who are looking to buy stations etc.

In God’s funny sense of humor, He booked the leading Democratic Candidate for President directly across the hall from our 150+ person Catholic Radio Association Convention. On the 90th anniversary of Our Lady’s apparitions Fatima. Due to security concerns (I’m sure) no one had told us about this divine appointment until around noon on Friday.

Never have I seen the lines of good and evil so clearly drawn with the exception of my sidewalk prayer vigils at abortion clinics.

What did we do? We prayed. Along with all of you because it was 12 noon on Saturday when everyone else was going to be in prayer for the Fatima Anniversary. We prayed long and loudly and we sang every refrain of the Ave Maria between each decade. 150+ members of the Catholic Radio Association filling the ballroom we were in…two sets of doors wide open spilling out into the Winfrey’s hallway. It was beautiful! We knelt down and faced the gathered crowd in the hallway and Prayed like had been instructed so many times from Our Mother’s approved apparitions.

We were literally 20 feet across the hallway from the ball room where she was. We finished the rosary about the time she arrived, but many of us stayed out in the hall rosaries in hand to identify ourselves as Catholics. Our rather large Catholic Radio Association conference nametags hanging proudly from their brightly colored EWTN lanyards. There were also two – 6 foot high pictures of Mother Angelica and Fr. Mitch Pacwa adorning the Winfrey’s hallway where so many Hillary supporters were gathered.

I was asked by a reporter of the Birmingham News (Paper) if we were praying for her success or against her. I told him we were praying for her to have a change of heart about her pro-death (not pro-choice) stance along with every person in attendance with her. I talked about the 90th anniversary of Fatima and how Mary is the Patroness of the Pro-life movement. Because he was confused about whether we were praying for or against her, I also mentioned that Catholics traditionally have backed Democrats but the leadership of our Church along with bishops like Archbishop Raymond Burke have finally begun to teach publicly that we can not support a pro-abortion candidate and still be Catholic.

He didn’t ask me about Republicans, but I would have told him I personally couldn’t vote for either side if one was not pro-life. (Although, if both choices are personally pro-death I’ll vote for the one most likely to place conservative judges on the Supreme Court) Needless to say I was not quoted in the news. Nor was there any mention or video of our little demonstration in the paper or on TV that night. I even chided the TV crew to get the footage of us praying for the national news feed, but no one there (in the secular media anyway) wanted to report on anything that would disrupt Hillary’s press coverage. Even the reporter who spoke with me asked this question “I was wondering if you were praying for or against us?” Not if we were praying for or against Hillary’s success. So we were heard in heaven and in spirit by all of you even if they absolutely squashed the story locally. However, as Paul Harvey likes to say, now you know the rest of the story.

Peace in Christ through Mary!

Michael A. Barone