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What are your sources? The article is about what happens to Catholic priests who try to minister to their people.Did you know that priests and religious were not even allowed to wear their religious cloths?It may have changed since then but I don't think so.

My post was made with no disrespect for Miguel Agustin Pro. I'm sure he was a brave man who died for his beliefs.

I'm also aware that there was a lot of religious persecution of Catholics in Mexico during the period of the 20's and 30's.

However, you must be aware that the Mexican Revolution of 1910 (which lasted 10 to 20 years, depending on when you figure it ended) was against a political system that was based on an alliance between the Catholic hierarchy and a few hundred families who essentially owned all of Mexico, as well as its inhabitants, who were for most purposes slaves of the landowners.

The American Revolutionists, by comparison, had only trivial complaints against British rule. When the revolutionists took control, they unfairly transferred their justified antagonism against the hierarchy which had oppressed them to all practice of Catholicism.

My reference books on the subject, unfortunately, are in storage.

I did find a pretty good website(http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/history/jtuck/jtcristero1.html) on the Cristero Rebellion. There are a lot of others.

Warning: this is not recommended reading for anyone who wants to believe that priests or others fighting for Catholicism are incapable of committing atrocities.

American Catholic’s Saint of the Day

God calls each one of us to be a saint.

November 23, 2006

Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro

(1891-1927)

¡Viva Cristo Rey! (Long live Christ the King) were the last words Father Pro uttered before he was executed for being a Catholic priest and serving his flock.

Born into a prosperous, devout family in Guadalupe de Zacatecas, he entered the Jesuits in 1911 but three years later fled to Granada, Spain, because of religious persecution in Mexico. He was ordained in Belgium in 1925.

He immediately returned to Mexico, where he served a Church forced to go “underground.” He celebrated the Eucharist clandestinely and ministered the other sacraments to small groups of Catholics.

He and his brother Roberto were arrested on trumped-up charges of attempting to assassinate Mexico’s president. Roberto was spared but Miguel was sentenced to face a firing squad on November 23, 1927. His funeral became a public demonstration of faith. He was beatified in 1988.

Comment:

In 1927 when Father Miguel Pro was executed, no one could have predicted that 52 years later the bishop of Rome would visit Mexico, be welcomed by its president and celebrate open-air Masses before thousands of people. Pope John Paul II made additional trips to Mexico in 1990, 1993 and 1999. Those who outlawed the Catholic Church in Mexico did not count on the deeply rooted faith of its people and the willingness of many of them, like Miguel Pro, to die as martyrs.

Quote:

During his homily at the beatification Mass, Pope John Paul II said that Father Pro “is a new glory for the beloved Mexican nation, as well as for the Society of Jesus. His life of sacrificing and intrepid apostolate was always inspired by a tireless evangelizing effort. Neither suffering nor serious illness, neither the exhausting ministerial activity, frequently carried out in difficult and dangerous circumstances, could stifle the radiating and contagious joy which he brought to his life for Christ and which nothing could take away (see John 16:22). Indeed, the deepest root of self-sacrificing surrender for the lowly was his passionate love for Jesus Christ and his ardent desire to be conformed to him, even unto death.”