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A Guide to Mexican Anti-Catholicism in the 1900sRead Part One: A Guide to Mexican Anti-Catholicism in the 1800sG.K. Chesterton famously said “Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died.” This reflects the 20th century history of Mexico. Chesterton continues that quote with “Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.”The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920)It has also been said that a revolution always eats its own. The Mexican Revolution was no exception. Many of its leaders, from Francisco Madero (1913, age...

On 24 July 1936, exactly a week after the Spanish Civil War broke out, three women, who had taken up the habit of their countrywoman, Saint Teresa of Avila, were brutally executed by the anti-Catholic Republican faction in the Castilian city of Guadalajara. Their names were Sister Maria Pilar of St. Francis Borgia, age 58; Sister Maria Angeles of St. Joseph, age 31; and Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus and St. John of the Cross, who was only 27 years old when she was martyred with her two friends. The three had fled from their Discalced Carmelite monastery two...

Spotlights Mexican government's anti-clerical historyMEXICO CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - Mexican bishop Miguel Ángel Alba Díaz has asked the president of his country to issue an apology for murders and persecution of the Catholic Church committed by the Mexican government in the 1920s. Bishop Alba Díaz, who presides over the diocese of La Paz in Baja California, was responding to repeated demands by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that the Catholic Church and the government of Spain beg forgiveness for the evangelization and conquest of Mexico in 1521. Most recently, the president's wife, Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, visited Pope Francis Oct. 10 to...

St. Pedro de Jesús Maldonado Lucero Knights of Columbus Council 2419Chihuahua, MéxicoPedro de Jesús Maldonado Lucero was born in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, on June 15, 1892. When he was 17 years old, he entered the conciliar seminary of that diocese. Cheerful, friendly and kind, he is remembered by his classmates for his exemplary behavior and dedication to his studies.The suppression of the seminary in 1914 sent him back home. With the political situation in Mexico, he left to study for the priesthood in El Paso, Texas where he was ordained on Jan. 25, 1918.Depite the risk, he returned to Chihuahua to...

Please click on the Relevant Radio link above. Patrick Madrid, of Mexican descent, is an expert on the Cristero War, Rebellion, Movement,

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Eight years ago, doctors in Mexico disconnected an infant named Ximena Galvez from life support, convinced that she was brain dead.On Sunday, Ximena was giving Pope Francis a big hug during Mass in St. Peter’s Square.The eight-year-old’s incredible story came into the spotlight as José Sánchez del Río, a martyr of Mexico’s Cristero War, was declared a saint of the Church.Paulina Galvez, Ximena’s mother, is convinced it was through the intercession of St. Jose—affectionately called St. Joselito by Mexicans—that her daughter was spared death. And the Church agrees with her, using the medically-unexplainable healing as a sign from God that...

Father Pro: A Mexican HeroROBERT ROYALMiguel Pro and the other Mexican martyrs provided millions of people with inspiration to resist the most anti-Catholic government ever seen in the Americas. On Nov. 22, 1927, a man dressed in street clothes was led through a crowd of photographers and politicians on his way to a firing squad in Mexico City. The photographers were present for this illegal execution — there had been no trial or even formal charges — because the Mexican president, Plutarco Elias Calles, the most rabidly anti-Catholic leader in the world at the time, wanted them to record the...

Today the Church commemorates the lives and deaths of 22 parish priests, along with three lay Catholics, who were killed between 1915 and 1937 in Mexico because they professed the Catholic faith. These martyrs were all active members of the Cristeros Movement, which rose up against the Mexican government's persecution of Catholics. The Church has confirmed these men as saints: Pope John Paul II canonized them in 2000. It is humbling to reflect on these men and to wonder whether we would be willing to give our lives for our faith. St. Christopher Magellenes, pictured above, built a seminary...

orn in Sahuayo, Michoacan, 28 March 1913, son of Macario and Maria Sanchez del Rio, Jose Luis was murdered on 10 February 1928, during Mexico's religious persecution known as The Cristero War.The Cristeros were a large group Mexican Catholics leveled against the oppression of the regime of Plutarco Elías Calles. A year before his martyrdom, José Luis had joined the forces' Cristero »General Prudencio Mendoza, nestled in the town of Cotija, Michoacan. The martyrdom was witnessed by two children, one of seven years and the other nine, who later became founders of religious congregations. One of them is the Rev....

The story of the persecution of Mexican Catholics in the 1920s is being told anew, in an English translation of a book by a scholar of Mexican culture and history. “This was a period of enormous suffering and loss of life, as the government of Mexico in the 1920s sought to all but extinguish the faith that was fervently practiced and loved by the people,” Joseph Cullen, senior communications specialist with the Knights of Columbus, told CNA July 19. “Mexican President Plutarco Calles’ violent crackdown killed many, and many more fled north.” The English-language edition of Jean Meyer’s book “La...

“¡Viva Cristo Rey!” (“Long Live Christ the King.”) That was the rallying cry for millions of Mexicans during the second and third decades of the 20th century, as revolutionary governments, modeled after the Bolshevik regime in Russia, unleashed round after round of persecution and terror throughout Mexico. For Greater Glory, the newly released epic film starring Andy Garcia and Eva Longoria, provides a stirring introduction to the “Cristero War,” or “Cristiada” (1926-1929), a heroic chapter of Mexico’s history that, until now, has been almost virtually unknown in the United States (as well as in Mexico, where the government has suppressed...

Most Americans haven’t the foggiest idea that a quasi-Stalinist, violently anti-Catholic regime once existed on our southern borders. Those who don’t know how bad Mexico was in the late 1920s are about to learn, though: at least those who see For Greater Glory, a recently-released movie about the Cristero War, a passionate (and bloody) defense of Catholicism that’s remembered today, if at all, because of Graham Greene’s novel, The Power and the Glory.There’s been a strange silence about all this for almost a century. Even Catholics aware of the extent of twentieth-century martyrdom seem to have little sense of...

It’s opening day in the US for a widely-anticipated film that recounts a war of which few have even heard. For Greater Glory has already opened to packed houses and long lines in Mexico for the past month, as many filmgoers connect with a part of their nation’s history that has rarely been discussed. The film stars Andy Garcia as Enrique Gorostieta, an agnostic who took up the cause of religious freedom when the socialist government of President Plutarco Calles (Ruben Blades) tries to suppress the Catholic Church, provoking a civil war (called the Cristiada or Cristero War) that lasted...

When I first heard "For Greater Glory" (originally titled "Cristiada," which I prefer) was being shot, I was stunned -- and skeptical. It never could be produced by Hollywood. In fact, it wouldn't be a theatrical release, maybe a short documentary, certainly with a small budget. On the former, I was correct; it was made in Mexico. On the latter, I was wrong; it's a full-fledged major motion picture with grade-A talent. And it's wonderful. The cast includes Andy Garcia, Eva Longoria, Peter O'Toole (in a cameo role as a murdered priest, the octogenarian is splendid), Ruben Blades and...

The film shows a burning crucifix, gun-toting priests and the torture of a young boy. And the Roman Catholic hierarchy is loving it. The film, “For Greater Glory,” hits theaters on June 1 and tells a little known chapter of Mexican history — the Cristero War of 1926 to 1929, which pitted an army of devout Catholic rebels (led in the movie by Andy Garcia) against the government of Mexican President Plutarco Calles (played by Ruben Blades). For Catholics enraged by the Obama administration’s proposed contraception mandate, the film about the Mexican church’s fight in 1920s is a heartening and...

Starring Andy Garcia and Peter O'Toole, "For Greater Glory" is a compelling war film based on the true story of the Cristero War -- a conflict caused by the brutal government crackdown on the Mexican Catholic Church in the 1920s. Released at a time when religious freedom, especially for Catholics, is being attacked in the United States and elsewhere, the picture is also particularly timely. Beautifully shot across the plains of northern and central Mexico and accompanied by a stirring soundtrack by Hollywood composer James Horner, the movie takes the audience through the harrowing violence and suppression of the Church...

Source URL's used/referenced: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutarco_El%C3%ADas_Calles -- In particular, the heading Cristero War: Anticlerical [Anti-Catholic] legislation enactmenthttp://milujciesie.org.pl/nr/catholic_church/painted_by_a_heavenly.html -- Painted by a Heavenly Hand In the 1920s and 1930s, the infamous Calles Persecution occurred in Mexico. During this time, Freemasons tried to bomb the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The bomb did go off, but not even the glass was cracked, which was not bullet proof and very thin [supernatural protection, apparently]. A 5 foot brass cross on the altar was not as fortunate. The tremendous force of the blast caused the cross to be curved. Many Roman Catholic priests were martyred...

Thomas Craughwell   Other Articles by Thomas Craughwell   A Patron Saint for the Falsely Accused November 23, 2006 On the morning of July 31, 1926, for the first time in the 400-year history of Catholic Mexico, no priest mounted the steps of an altar to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. By order of the Mexican bishops, and with the approval of Pope Pius XI, the celebration of Mass, the administration of the sacraments, and the day-to-day cycle of devotional exercises were suspended in every cathedral, church, chapel and shrine throughout the country. It was not an...

Father Rafael González, postulator of the cause for sainthood of Bishop Rafael Guízar Valencia of Veracruz, Mexico, was interviewed for the February issue of Columbia. Additional questions and answers not included in the print edition are published here.How did you learn about Bishop Rafael Guízar Valencia?Father González: My family has had a devotion to him for many years, since my childhood. During the persecution, St. Rafael hid in my grandparents’ house. My grandmother would cook for him and all his priests. The last retreat he preached was in my grandparents’ house and there were 40 priests present. Every blessing in...