A National Prayer Movement
to Help God Save America
Mary's Mantle Covers America!
to Help God Save America
A photo-diary by Bud Macfarlane
October 30, 2020
For Father John Anthony Boughton and myself, the first Operation True Cross initiative was a covert spiritual warfare operation. You can listen to Father John Anthony's own account on this podcast:
Yet it was a joyful kind of spiritual warfare. Our weapons, before we even boarded our first flights from Ohio and New York respectively for Washington State, were daily Eucharistic Adoration, the Holy Rosary, calling upon angels and saints (especially the magnificent Guardian Angel USA), exorcism prayers, and reliance on Our Lady to steer us past draconian west coast Covid lockdowns.
Your prayers gave us a kind of spiritual invisibility shield.
First Mass, July 23, 2020: Blaine, WashingtonThe night before, after recovering from our cross-country flights to the west coast, Father John Anthony and Father Innocent offered a sublimely simple Mass followed by one hour of Eucharistic Adoration in our hotel.
On a sunny, warm Thursday morning, we set out early for Blaine, a quaint town just below the southern border of Canada. The two-hour drive consisted of the Rosary and constant prayers for spiritual protection (especially to Saint Michael and Our Lady), prayers for your intentions, including asking for the intercession of all citizens of Washington State in heaven.
Our moods were determined yet serene.
Because the Catholic churches were shut down statewide, we drove into town, praying to find a location. Father Innocent graciously heard my Confession as we drove up and down the side streets.
You may know Father Innocent from his show on EWTN, Sunday Night Prime, which he shares with his twin brother Father Angelus. Neither one has actually seen their own show because CFRs do not have TVs or cellphones!
Less than a minute after receiving absolution and praying my penance, we passed a cozy woods called Halverson Park on the waterfront leading out to the Pacific Ocean. Think: opening scene of Bambie.
Our leader, Father John Anthony, announced, "This is the place."
We swiftly carried a little makeshift altar (a folding table we picked up at a store on the way up) and all the sacred items needed for Mass, including a flash drive with your intentions, the relic prayer medals (for burial), along with my precious relic of the True Cross.
Unworthy of this daunting task designed to dramatically impact the history of the United States, each priest heard the other's Confession directly before Mass. This was striking for me to witness:
Father John Anthony then blessed and performed exorcism prayers on the heavy blocks of salt that he and Father Innocent had carried onto their flights. We prayed the powerful daily Auxilium Christianorum exorcism prayers of Father Ripperger, the famous exorcist and lecturer.
They began the concelebrated Mass ad orientem. It was peaceful in the little hollow facing the ocean, a natural cathedral. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with a CFR priest is always reverent beyond description. I lost myself in it, feeling intensely the responsibility of being the lone layman representing all of the CatholiCity Citizens who were praying with us on that very day.
As would be the case in three of the four Mantle of Mary Masses, they offered the Mass of the Immaculate Conception, Patroness of the USA, whose very mantle we were asking the Father through his Eucharistic Son to permanently "pin down" at this location.
Why three blocks of blessed salt? Because Mary is the daughter of the Father, the spouse of the Holy Spirit, and the mother of the Son.
Directly after Mass we prayed Archbishop Vigano's beautiful prayer for the United States, and then adored Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament for an hour (all CFRs do this every day).Jesus inside me and in front of me, I prostrated myself on the loamy ground, praying the Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet for your intentions. Halfway through adoration, a man came through the woods with his son and his big, happy dog. I walked over and explained these were Catholic priests offering a Mass. He was a bit standoffish, literally keeping a fifteen yard distance between us, and left us.
OPERATION TRUE CROSSAnd Then the Police Arrived
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Just after finishing the Benediction, while we were packing up, two local police officers, a man and a woman, armed, hiked over to our arboreal chapel.
After determining our harmlessness, we chatted amiably. They were Christians and shared their frustrations with the heavy state lockdowns (at that time, who didn't?). They even shared with us the names of their children who needed prayers.
As Father John Anthony later joked, "two bearded guys wearing hooded cloaks in the woods" must have appeared sketchy.
I wondered: how many hundreds of thousands of Catholic missionaries over the past two thousands years, including early Jesuits in this very territory (whom we had called upon for protection during our drive up), have had similar encounters with "local authorities" while bringing the Eucharist to the world?
After the officers left, the padres stashed the salt blocks below the earth in a giant tree stump to "pin down" Mary's mantle, I buried your intentions and the relic prayer medals. We lugged everything back to the rental car to drive back to Seattle.
Second Mass, July 25: Imperial Beach, CaliforniaOur flight the following day to San Diego was uneventful. "San Diego," which means Saint James, is a city where fearless Franciscan Friars had founded a mission hundreds of years earlier. As Providence ordained, the second Mantle of Mary Mass would take place on the Feast of Saint James the Apostle, so we began praying to him and to Saint Junipero Serra for guidance.
They did not let us down.
After the police encounter during our impromptu outdoor Mass in Blaine, we desperately needed find a Catholic church on the southwest border. Unfortunately, the Governor of California had shut down all the churches!
Into the breach rode CatholiCity Citizen, Sandi Watson. Through her contacts with a former pastor at Saint Charles Church in Imperial Beach, she helped us arrange "wink wink" access to a little chapel there. She and Father John Anthony Boughton's cousin, who lives in the area, joined us for this second Mantle of Mary Mass, "Catacomb Edition." Father Innocent offered the Mass of the Feast of Saint James, as this auspicious day fell on his feast day (nearby San Diego tranlates "Saint James").
See the salt blocks under the altar? Same drill: Mass, Eucharistic adoration, exorcism prayers, and prayers for the United States with your intentions and relic prayer medals on the altar.
Afterwards, we repaired for a laid back lunch (Cali is always laid back) and Father John Anthony blessed Sandi's home, where we buried the intentions and medals. We placed the blocks to pin down Our Lady's mantle in her backyard prayer garden.
Miracles at the Beach
We had a few hours before our flights back east, so the padres and I took a walk on the beach. As happened at every hotel lobby, restaurant, and airport, their distinctive CFR habits attracted people for counseling or a kind word. On the long ocean pier, one man, after years aways from the Church, gave his Confession to Father Innocent under in the baking sun.
We decided to walk down to the border of Mexico, which we could see across a large swampy field at the dead end of a street with many humble retirement apartments. There we prayerfully buried a Saint Joseph medal touched to his first class relic and my relic of the True Cross.
While walking back, an elderly woman on her balcony three stories up recognized Father Innocent from his television show on EWTN! She called down to invite us up. When we reached her, she proclaimed joyfully that she had been a "bad bad lady" in her youth. Now over eighty, she had found her faith again.
After inviting us in, I learned she had not been to Confession in over fifty years! In my horrific Spanglish, I assured her we would gladly miss our flights rather than leave until she recognized that Jesus loved her so much that He had sent these wonderful Franciscans (including her favorite TV star!), who were fluent in her native language, to hear her Confession!
A few minutes later, Our Lord welcomed her all the way home through the profound Sacrament of Reconciliation. (Pat yourself on the back; without your financial sacrifice to cover these poor Franciscans' travel expenses, this would never have happened.)
After this miraculous detour, we rushed back to the rental car, raced to the airport, and just made our flights.
OPERATION TRUE CROSSThird Mass, August 6: Key West, Florida
• Pray the Daily Prayers
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• Be Free of Demonic Influence
• Give Alms to Atone for Sin
Two weeks later I picked up Father John Anthony in Miami on the other side of the country, then drove for three hours past all the long bridges and islands to the farthest tip of the southern United States. It was extremely hot and very, very humid.
Upon arriving at the Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea in Key West, the pastor, Father Baker, was very welcoming and gave us a tour.
Although we never let up on our constant exorcism prayers, rosaries, and adoration, Father John Anthony later remarked it was as if we were in a "bubble of grace" during this entire leg of the project, even though Key West has been known for decades as a cultural center of sinful licentiousness.
Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more! The Basilica features a cemetery with graves of pre-American revolution Jesuit founders, a full reproduction Lourdes Grotto, and a Memorial to the Unborn.
The crowning feature: a free-standing 24-hour Eucharistic Adoration Chapel in use for thirty-five years (2nd below) where we completed our Holy Hour. The pastor personally supervised permanently placing the salt blocks in the Lourdes grotto.
Father John Anthony celebrated the Immaculate Conception Mass ad orientem and we performed all the Operation True Cross prayers. When I buried your intentions on the flash drive, Our Lady confirmed that her mantle was pinned down in the form of an unusual and beautiful statue outside the rectory. Have you ever seen her hands holding up her mantle like this?
OPERATION TRUE CROSSFourth Mass, August 12: Lubec, Maine
• Pray the Daily Prayers
• Distribute the Daily Prayers
• Be Free of Demonic Influence
• Give Alms to Atone for Sin
This time Father John Anthony drove up from New York City with the spectacularly-bearded Father Malachi to pick me up the night before in Portland, Maine.
The next morning, after four hours of prayer, laughter, and brotherly chat (and navigating single lane roads via GPS, beyond cell service), we arrived in the town of Lubec at the northeastern tip of America. Lubec has been devastated financially by the draconian lockdowns. Many businesses had signs indicating they were closed permanently.
It was so foggy we could barely see the nearby Atlantic ocean from the hilltop church, the aptly named Saint Peter the Fisherman. After the Mass, the Operation True Cross prayers, and the holy hour in Adoration, we all felt a real sense of closure.
After weeks of crazy cross-country travel, we had finally and completely covered the U.S. continent under our Our Lady's protective mantle by placing the final three big rocks of salt literally under the foundations of a church named after the Rock of Peter.
Mission accomplished. Amen.
Sporting hair worthy of a lobsterman, I deftly took the world's worst selfie with Father Malachi:
At the only local restaurant serving meals indoors, Father John Anthony and Father Malachi were treated to lobster rolls by a local Catholic barfly:
Father Malachi and I spent the hours driving back to Portland discussing his Master's thesis, which focused on how the Church can and should minister to people afflicted with gender confusion issues. His vocation, he shared, is for the souls "at the edges" of society.
As always, his unique Franciscan blend of sacrificial poverty, charity, and intelligence gave me hope that regardless of obvious problems in the Church hierarchy, in the battlefield of souls where we all live, God is raising up extraordinary saints like the Friars of the Renewal.
The Need for Thanksgiving MassesGiving thanks to Our Father, as you know from traditional catechesis, is as crucial as the intercessory prayer which precedes it. Thus, on October 19th, Feast of the North American Martyrs, Father John O'Brien SJ and Father John Anthony Boughton simultaneously offered Mantle of Mary Thanksgiving Masses for your personal intentions at the site of the martyrdom of Saint Jean Brebeuf in Canada and in the lovely South Bronx, New York.
Father O'Brien and a few college students hiked four hours both ways to reach the remote location in Ontario. Mantle of Mary Masses were offered all along the timeline in numerous states, including Alaska and Hawaii, and in countries as far away as Nigeria.
God the Father ActsDuring this entire spiritual warfare campaign, your presence was always on my mind and in my heart. For prudential reasons, I left out of this diary the creepy demonic attacks I experienced (including a death threat). I took these as a humbling reminder of what is at stake: the future of America.
Back in July I promised that this project would change history. It will.
Soon after the Mantle of Mary Masses were completed, God the Father acted with gusto. Seemingly out of nowhere, He went to great lengths to place responsibility upon CatholiCity for the new book about the Warning.
It will help millions of souls choose heaven. This potent little Warning book is but a first fruit, which will be obvious to you when the amazing true stories within it impact your life and the lives of those you love in just a matter of weeks.
Without the prayers, generosity, and support of CatholiCity Citizens like you from all over the world, none of this would have happened. I leave you with just two words, my favorite words, the best words:
Thank you.
With Mary,
Bud Macfarlane, Founder
October 30th, 2020
A Spiritual Warfare Campaign
Help God Save America
As described above, it all began in 2020 when Father John Anthony Boughton CFR and Bud Macfarlane "pinned" the Mantle of Mary on the extreme four corners of the United States. Countless Catholics participated nationwide through prayer and fasting.
Pray with UsSince then, over two hundred thousand people have joined Operation True Cross by offering the 12-minute Daily Prayers to Save America:
To protect themselves spiritually, many are now adopting the extraordinary Three Angelus Cure from the world-renowned exorcist, Father Chad Ripperger, to receive personal deliverance from demonic influence, deeply-rooted sin, and even serious mental illness:
The True Cross Pilgrimage
Bud Macfarlane led a small team of brave men as they carried an authentic Relic of the True Cross 4,500 miles to complete a grueling walking pilgrimage to form a living "Crucifix of Reparation" over America.
We pray. God wins. No matter what your particular circumstances or where you live, you can join all of us spiritually while learning more here:More About Operation True Cross
What is the True Cross Pilgrimage?
What is the Three Angelus Cure?
Read: Why This Movement Exists
Podcast: Carrying the True Cross
Meet the Founders
Father John Anthony Boughton, CFRFather John Anthony Boughton, General Servant of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, is a grizzled Texan who graduated from the Virginia Military Institute and served in the United States Navy. He is the first Catholic in his family line in over five hundred years.
Bud Macfarlane, Troublemaker
Father John Anthony enlisted his friend, Bud Macfarlane, bestselling novelist and the tireless leader of the Mary Foundation, to bring this prophetic act of faith into reality through its tens of thousands of worldwide supporters.
OPERATION TRUE CROSS
• Pray the Daily Prayers
• Distribute the Daily Prayers
• Be Free of Demonic Influence
• Give Alms to Atone for Sin
Our supporters have distributed tens of millions of life-changing Catholic gifts since 1991, making us America's largest producer of high-quality, super-affordable tools for evangelization. Join our work today!
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