Persecution of Christians in Mexico
Encyclopedia
The modern history of Mexico
has often been characterized by deep conflicts between the government and the Catholic Church, sometimes including outright persecution of Catholics in Mexico.
. Its first constitution
was enacted in 1824 and stated in the article 3 that the religion of the nation is and will perpetually be the Roman Catholic Apostolic, it also prohibited any other religion. After the Revolution of Ayutla, nearly all of the top figures in the government were Fremasons and fierce anticlericals
. In 1857 a Constitution was adopted which attacked the property rights and possessions of the Church. After a civil war and the dominance by the supporters of that Constitution under Benito Juárez
, the supporters of tradition backed an ill-advised Mexican Empire supported by the French. When the Emperor Maximillian was deposed and killed, the country descended into a series of anti-clerical governments. After the rule of Porfirio Díaz
who was relatively moderate in his stance toward the Church, an increasingly violent and extreme anticlericalism erupted. In 1917, a new Constitution was enacted, hostile to Church and religion, which promulgated a draconian anti-clericalism of the sort seen in France during the Revolution. The new Mexican Constitution was hostile to Church as a consequence of the support given by the High Mexican Catholic Clergy to the dictatorship of Victoriano Huerta
. The 1917 Constitution outlawed teaching by the Church, gave control over Church matters to the state, put all Church property at the disposal of the state, outlawed religious orders, outlawed foreign born priests, gave states the power to limit or eliminate priests in their territory, deprived priests of the right to vote or hold office, prohibited Catholic organizations which advocated public policy, prohibited religious publications from commenting on public policy, prohibited clergy from religious celebrations and from wearing clerical garb outside of a church and deprived citizens of the right to a trial for violations of these provisions. One political scientist stated that the gist of the 1917 constitution was to "effectively outlaw the Roman Catholic Church and other religious denominations".
Another article of the Constitution emboldened Marxist and then Communist labor unions which subsequently incited even more anti-religious governments.
Recent President Vicente Fox
stated, "After 1917, Mexico was led by anti-Catholic Freemasons who tried to evoke the anticlerical spirit of popular indigenous President Benito Juarez of the 1880s. But the military dictators of the 1920s were a lot more savage than Juarez." Fox goes on to recount how priests were killed for trying to perform the sacraments, altars were desecrated by soldiers and freedom of religion outlawed by generals.
(also known as the Cristiada) of 1926 to 1929. This was a civil war between catholic rebels called Cristeros and the anti-clerical Mexican government of the time that was mainly localized in central Western states in Mexico.
The Cristero War came about in response to the anti-clerical laws of the Mexican Constitution of 1917
, and its interpretation by the "violent atheist" President Plutarco Elías Calles
. Though conflict between state and church marked the presidency of Álvaro Obregón
(1920–1924), who "accused the clergy of being insincere and of producing conflict" but "spoke of Jesus Christ as 'the greatest socialist who has been known to Humanity'", it was with Calles' election in 1924 that anti-clerical laws were stringently applied throughout the country. Calles also added his own anti-clerical legislation including a requirement that prohibited priests from ministering unless licensed by the state. State officials then began to limit the number of priests so that vast areas of the population were left with no priest at all. After a zealous persecution of unlicenced ministry, decrepit churches were soon expropriated for use as garages, museums and the like, and the Mexican Bishops, deported or underground, as a last resort of protest suspended all remaining ministry and urged the people to protest the persecution of their faith. Calles presided over the worst persecution of Catholics and clergy in the history of Mexico, including the killing of hundreds of priests and other clergy.
One contemporary is quoted as saying that "while President Calles is sane on all other matters, he completely loses control of himself when the matter of religion comes up, becomes livid in the face and pounds the table to express his hatred." Wearing clerical garb outside of churches was outlawed during his rule and priests exercising their right of political speech could be imprisoned for five years.
On November 18, 1926, Pope Pius XI
promulgated the encyclical
Iniquis Afflictisque
decrying the severe persecution of the faithful in Mexico and the deprivation of the rights of the faithful and the Church.
The formal rebellion began on January 1, 1927 with the rebels calling themselves Cristeros because they felt they were fighting for Christ
himself. The Cristeros' battle cry was ¡Viva Cristo Rey! ("Long live Christ the King!"). When Jalisco federal commander General Jesús Maria Ferreira moved on the rebels, he calmly stated that "it will be less a campaign than a hunt." Just as the Cristeros began to hold their own against the federal forces, the rebellion was ended by diplomatic means, in large part due to the pressure of United States Ambassador Dwight Whitney Morrow. The war had claimed the lives of some 90,000: 56,882 on the federal side, 30,000 Cristeros. Numerous civilians and Cristeros were killed in anticlerical raids, while Cristeros killed atheist
teachers and people suspected of supporting the government, and even blew up a passenger train.
The persecution was worst under the rule of Tabasco
's notorious governor Tomás Garrido Canabal
. Garrido's rule, which marked the apogee of Mexican anti-clericalism, was supported by the Radical Socialist Party of Tabasco (PRST) of which he was the leader. In 1916 his predecessor Francisco J. Múgica had restored the name of the state capital Villa Hermosa de San Juan Bautista ("Beautiful Town of St. John the Baptist") to Villahermosa
("Beautifultown"). Garrido Canabal founded several fascist paramilitary organizations "that terrorized Roman Catholics", most notably the so called "Red Shirts
".
The Catholic Church has recognized several of those killed in connection with the Cristero rebellion as martyr
s. Perhaps the best-known is Miguel Pro
, SJ. This Jesuit priest was executed by firing squad on November 23, 1927, without benefit of a trial, after trumped up charges. The Calles government hoped to use images of the execution to scare the rebels into surrender, but the photos had the opposite effect. Upon seeing the photos, which the government had printed in all the newspapers, the Cristeros were inspired with a desire to follow Father Pro into martyrdom for Christ. His beatification
occurred in 1988. On May 21, 2000, Pope John Paul II
canonized
a group of 25 martyrs from this period. (They were beatified on November 22, 1992.) For the most part, these were priests who did not take up arms, but refused to leave their flocks, and were executed by federal forces. Thirteen additional victims of the anti-Catholic regime have been declared martyr
s by the Catholic Church, paving the way to their beatification. These are primarily lay people, including the 14-year-old José Sánchez del Río
. The requirement that they did not take up arms, which was applied to the priest martyrs, does not apply to the lay people, though it had to be shown that they were taking up arms in self-defense.
On September 29, 1932 Pope Pius XI issued a second encyclical on the persecution, Acerba Animi
. The effects of the war on the Church were profound. Between 1926 and 1934 at least 40 priests were killed. Where there were 4,500 priests serving the people before the rebellion, in 1934 there were only 334 priests licensed by the government to serve fifteen million people, the rest having been eliminated by emigration, expulsion and assassination. By 1935, 17 states had no priest at all.
Open hostility toward the Church largely ceased with the election of Manuel Ávila Camacho
(1940–46), who agreed, in exchange for the Church's efforts to maintain peace, to nonenforcement of most of the anticlerical provisions, an exception being Article 130, Section 9, which deprived the Church of the right of political speech
, the right to vote, and the right of free political association
.
History of Mexico
The history of Mexico, a country located in the southern portion of North America, covers a period of more than two millennia. First populated more than 13,000 years ago, the country produced complex indigenous civilizations before being conquered by the Spanish in the 16th Century.Since the...
has often been characterized by deep conflicts between the government and the Catholic Church, sometimes including outright persecution of Catholics in Mexico.
Beginning of Anticlericalism and Persecution
In one form or another anticlericalism has been a factor in Mexican politics since independence from Spain, which is attributable to the frequent change in government and those governments' eagerness to access wealth in the form of the property of the Church. Mexico was born after its independence as a confessional stateConfessional state
A confessional state is a state which officially practices a particular religion, and at least encourages its citizens to do likewise.Over human history, most states have been confessional states; the idea of religious pluralism in modern terms is relatively recent, and until the beginning of the...
. Its first constitution
1824 Constitution of Mexico
The Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1824 was enacted on October 4 of 1824, after the overthrow of the Mexican Empire of Agustin de Iturbide. In the new constitution, the republic took the name of United Mexican States, and was defined as a representative federal republic, with...
was enacted in 1824 and stated in the article 3 that the religion of the nation is and will perpetually be the Roman Catholic Apostolic, it also prohibited any other religion. After the Revolution of Ayutla, nearly all of the top figures in the government were Fremasons and fierce anticlericals
Anticlericalism and Freemasonry
The question of whether Freemasonry is Anticlerical is the subject of debate. The Catholic Church has long been an outspoken critic of Freemasonry, and Catholic scholars have often accused the fraternity of anticlericalism. The Catholic Church forbids its members to join any masonic society under...
. In 1857 a Constitution was adopted which attacked the property rights and possessions of the Church. After a civil war and the dominance by the supporters of that Constitution under Benito Juárez
Benito Juárez
Benito Juárez born Benito Pablo Juárez García, was a Mexican lawyer and politician of Zapotec origin from Oaxaca who served five terms as president of Mexico: 1858–1861 as interim, 1861–1865, 1865–1867, 1867–1871 and 1871–1872...
, the supporters of tradition backed an ill-advised Mexican Empire supported by the French. When the Emperor Maximillian was deposed and killed, the country descended into a series of anti-clerical governments. After the rule of Porfirio Díaz
Porfirio Díaz
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori was a Mexican-American War volunteer and French intervention hero, an accomplished general and the President of Mexico continuously from 1876 to 1911, with the exception of a brief term in 1876 when he left Juan N...
who was relatively moderate in his stance toward the Church, an increasingly violent and extreme anticlericalism erupted. In 1917, a new Constitution was enacted, hostile to Church and religion, which promulgated a draconian anti-clericalism of the sort seen in France during the Revolution. The new Mexican Constitution was hostile to Church as a consequence of the support given by the High Mexican Catholic Clergy to the dictatorship of Victoriano Huerta
Victoriano Huerta
José Victoriano Huerta Márquez was a Mexican military officer and president of Mexico. Huerta's supporters were known as Huertistas during the Mexican Revolution...
. The 1917 Constitution outlawed teaching by the Church, gave control over Church matters to the state, put all Church property at the disposal of the state, outlawed religious orders, outlawed foreign born priests, gave states the power to limit or eliminate priests in their territory, deprived priests of the right to vote or hold office, prohibited Catholic organizations which advocated public policy, prohibited religious publications from commenting on public policy, prohibited clergy from religious celebrations and from wearing clerical garb outside of a church and deprived citizens of the right to a trial for violations of these provisions. One political scientist stated that the gist of the 1917 constitution was to "effectively outlaw the Roman Catholic Church and other religious denominations".
Another article of the Constitution emboldened Marxist and then Communist labor unions which subsequently incited even more anti-religious governments.
Recent President Vicente Fox
Vicente Fox
Vicente Fox Quesada is a Mexican former politician who served as President of Mexico from 1 December 2000 to 30 November 2006 and currently serves as co-President of the Centrist Democrat International, an international organization of Christian democratic political parties.Fox was elected...
stated, "After 1917, Mexico was led by anti-Catholic Freemasons who tried to evoke the anticlerical spirit of popular indigenous President Benito Juarez of the 1880s. But the military dictators of the 1920s were a lot more savage than Juarez." Fox goes on to recount how priests were killed for trying to perform the sacraments, altars were desecrated by soldiers and freedom of religion outlawed by generals.
Calles Presidency and Cristero War
As a reaction against the strict enforcement of the above anti-clerical articles in the constitution of 1917 in Mexico, specifically Article 130, armed conflict broke out in the Cristero WarCristero War
The Cristero War of 1926 to 1929 was an uprising and counter-revolution against the Mexican government in power at that time. The rebellion was set off by the strict enforcement of the anti-clerical provisions of the Mexican Constitution of 1917 and the expansion of further anti-clerical laws...
(also known as the Cristiada) of 1926 to 1929. This was a civil war between catholic rebels called Cristeros and the anti-clerical Mexican government of the time that was mainly localized in central Western states in Mexico.
The Cristero War came about in response to the anti-clerical laws of the Mexican Constitution of 1917
Constitution of Mexico
The Political Constitution of the United Mexican States is the current constitution of Mexico. It was drafted in Santiago de Querétaro, in the State of Querétaro, by a constitutional convention, during the Mexican Revolution. It was approved by the Constitutional Congress on February 5, 1917...
, and its interpretation by the "violent atheist" President Plutarco Elías Calles
Plutarco Elías Calles
Plutarco Elías Calles was a Mexican general and politician. He was president of Mexico from 1924 to 1928, but he continued to be the de facto ruler from 1928–1935, a period known as the maximato...
. Though conflict between state and church marked the presidency of Álvaro Obregón
Álvaro Obregón
General Álvaro Obregón Salido was the President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. He was assassinated in 1928, shortly after winning election to another presidential term....
(1920–1924), who "accused the clergy of being insincere and of producing conflict" but "spoke of Jesus Christ as 'the greatest socialist who has been known to Humanity'", it was with Calles' election in 1924 that anti-clerical laws were stringently applied throughout the country. Calles also added his own anti-clerical legislation including a requirement that prohibited priests from ministering unless licensed by the state. State officials then began to limit the number of priests so that vast areas of the population were left with no priest at all. After a zealous persecution of unlicenced ministry, decrepit churches were soon expropriated for use as garages, museums and the like, and the Mexican Bishops, deported or underground, as a last resort of protest suspended all remaining ministry and urged the people to protest the persecution of their faith. Calles presided over the worst persecution of Catholics and clergy in the history of Mexico, including the killing of hundreds of priests and other clergy.
One contemporary is quoted as saying that "while President Calles is sane on all other matters, he completely loses control of himself when the matter of religion comes up, becomes livid in the face and pounds the table to express his hatred." Wearing clerical garb outside of churches was outlawed during his rule and priests exercising their right of political speech could be imprisoned for five years.
On November 18, 1926, Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...
promulgated the encyclical
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...
Iniquis Afflictisque
Iniquis Afflictisque
Iniquis Afflictisque is an encyclical of Pope Pius XI promulgated on November 18, 1926, to denounce the persecution of the Catholic Church in Mexico. It was one of three encyclicals concerning Mexico, including Acerba Animi and Firmissimam Constantiamque...
decrying the severe persecution of the faithful in Mexico and the deprivation of the rights of the faithful and the Church.
The formal rebellion began on January 1, 1927 with the rebels calling themselves Cristeros because they felt they were fighting for Christ
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
himself. The Cristeros' battle cry was ¡Viva Cristo Rey! ("Long live Christ the King!"). When Jalisco federal commander General Jesús Maria Ferreira moved on the rebels, he calmly stated that "it will be less a campaign than a hunt." Just as the Cristeros began to hold their own against the federal forces, the rebellion was ended by diplomatic means, in large part due to the pressure of United States Ambassador Dwight Whitney Morrow. The war had claimed the lives of some 90,000: 56,882 on the federal side, 30,000 Cristeros. Numerous civilians and Cristeros were killed in anticlerical raids, while Cristeros killed atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
teachers and people suspected of supporting the government, and even blew up a passenger train.
The persecution was worst under the rule of Tabasco
Tabasco
Tabasco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tabasco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa....
's notorious governor Tomás Garrido Canabal
Tomás Garrido Canabal
Tomás Garrido Canabal , was a Mexican politician and revolutionary. Garrido Canabal served as dictator and governor of the state of Tabasco from 1920 to 1924 and again from 1931 to 1934, and was particularly noted for his anti-Catholic persecution...
. Garrido's rule, which marked the apogee of Mexican anti-clericalism, was supported by the Radical Socialist Party of Tabasco (PRST) of which he was the leader. In 1916 his predecessor Francisco J. Múgica had restored the name of the state capital Villa Hermosa de San Juan Bautista ("Beautiful Town of St. John the Baptist") to Villahermosa
Villahermosa
Like most of the Tabasco, Villahermosa has a tropical climate. The city specifically features a tropical monsoon climate. Temperatures during spring and summer seasons reach upwards of 40°C , with humidity levels hovering around 30% during the same period...
("Beautifultown"). Garrido Canabal founded several fascist paramilitary organizations "that terrorized Roman Catholics", most notably the so called "Red Shirts
Red Shirts (Mexico)
The Red Shirts were a paramilitary organization, existing in the 1930s, founded by the virulently anti-Catholic, atheist and anticlerical Governor of Tabasco, Mexico, Tomás Garrido Canabal during his second term. As part of their attempt to destroy the Church, they systematically destroyed...
".
The Catholic Church has recognized several of those killed in connection with the Cristero rebellion as martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
s. Perhaps the best-known is Miguel Pro
Miguel Pro
Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez , also known as Blessed Miguel Pro, was a Mexican Jesuit priest, executed without trial during the persecution of the Catholic Church under the presidency of Plutarco Elías Calles after trumped up charges of involvement in an assassination attempt against former President...
, SJ. This Jesuit priest was executed by firing squad on November 23, 1927, without benefit of a trial, after trumped up charges. The Calles government hoped to use images of the execution to scare the rebels into surrender, but the photos had the opposite effect. Upon seeing the photos, which the government had printed in all the newspapers, the Cristeros were inspired with a desire to follow Father Pro into martyrdom for Christ. His beatification
Beatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
occurred in 1988. On May 21, 2000, Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
canonized
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
a group of 25 martyrs from this period. (They were beatified on November 22, 1992.) For the most part, these were priests who did not take up arms, but refused to leave their flocks, and were executed by federal forces. Thirteen additional victims of the anti-Catholic regime have been declared martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
s by the Catholic Church, paving the way to their beatification. These are primarily lay people, including the 14-year-old José Sánchez del Río
José Sánchez del Río
Blessed José Luis Sánchez del Río was a young Mexican Cristero who was put to death by government officials because he refused to renounce his Catholic faith. He has been declared a martyr and was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on November 20, 2005.-Life:José Luis Sánchez del Río was born on March...
. The requirement that they did not take up arms, which was applied to the priest martyrs, does not apply to the lay people, though it had to be shown that they were taking up arms in self-defense.
On September 29, 1932 Pope Pius XI issued a second encyclical on the persecution, Acerba Animi
Acerba Animi
Acerba Anima is an encyclical of Pope Pius XI promulgated on September, 29, 1932, to denounce the continued persecution of the Catholic Church in Mexico. It was the second of three encyclicals concerning persecution Mexico, including Iniquis Afflictisque and Firmissimam Constantiamque...
. The effects of the war on the Church were profound. Between 1926 and 1934 at least 40 priests were killed. Where there were 4,500 priests serving the people before the rebellion, in 1934 there were only 334 priests licensed by the government to serve fifteen million people, the rest having been eliminated by emigration, expulsion and assassination. By 1935, 17 states had no priest at all.
Mid-twentieth Century
As Mexico entered the mid-twentieth century the more violent oppression of earlier in the century had waned, but it remained severely suppressed. By 1940 it "legally had no corporate existence, no real estate, no schools, no monasteries or convents, no foreign priests, no right to defend itself publicly or in the courts, and no hope that its legal and actual situations would improve. Its clergy were forbidden to wear clerical garb, to vote, to celebrate public religious ceremonies, and to engage in politics," but the restrictions were not always enforced.Open hostility toward the Church largely ceased with the election of Manuel Ávila Camacho
Manuel Ávila Camacho
Manuel Ávila Camacho served as the President of Mexico from 1940 to 1946.Manuel Ávila was born in the city of Teziutlán, a small town in Puebla, to middle-class parents, Manuel Ávila Castillo and Eufrosina Camacho Bello. He had several siblings, among them sister María Jovita Ávila Camacho and...
(1940–46), who agreed, in exchange for the Church's efforts to maintain peace, to nonenforcement of most of the anticlerical provisions, an exception being Article 130, Section 9, which deprived the Church of the right of political speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
, the right to vote, and the right of free political association
Freedom of association
Freedom of association is the individual right to come together with other individuals and collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests....
.
Removal of many anticlerical provisions from the constitution
In 1991 President Salinas proposed the removal of most of the anticlerical provisions from the constitution, a move which passed the legislature in 1992.Martyrs
- Saints of the Cristero WarSaints of the Cristero WarOn May 21, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized a group of 25 saints and martyrs arising from the Mexican Cristero War. The vast majority are Roman Catholic priests who were executed for carrying out their ministry despite the suppression under the anti-clerical laws of Plutarco Elías Calles. Priests...
- José Sánchez del RíoJosé Sánchez del RíoBlessed José Luis Sánchez del Río was a young Mexican Cristero who was put to death by government officials because he refused to renounce his Catholic faith. He has been declared a martyr and was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on November 20, 2005.-Life:José Luis Sánchez del Río was born on March...
- Mateo Correa MagallanesMateo Correa MagallanesSaint Mateo Correa Magallanes was born on 23 July 1866 at Tepechitlán, Zacatecas, Mexico. He was a Knight of Columbus, of Council 2140. He attended the seminary at Zacatecas on a scholarship, in 1881. He was ordained as priest in 1893 at the age of 27...
- Miguel ProMiguel ProMiguel Agustín Pro Juárez , also known as Blessed Miguel Pro, was a Mexican Jesuit priest, executed without trial during the persecution of the Catholic Church under the presidency of Plutarco Elías Calles after trumped up charges of involvement in an assassination attempt against former President...
- Anacleto González FloresAnacleto González FloresAnacleto González Flores was a Mexican Catholic layman and lawyer, executed during the persecution of the Catholic Church under the presidency of Plutarco Elías Calles...