**I wonder if such terrible government oppression could ever come upon the U.S.**
Of course it could! The leaders of Mexico, except for the previous one to our day, were all avowed Masons who hated the Catholic Church and did everything they could to shut it down, including shutting all the churches and expelling all the missionaries and putting the priests and nuns out of their monasteries and convents. Priests were forced to wear regular garb and work in regular jobs.
bttt