Figure 1.--This photogrph shows officers and family members of the Cristeros Castañon fighting regiment with their regimental banner. The photograph was repotrtdly taken January 1, 1926. The Crusdteos War was a rebellion against th the atheist campign of the PRI.

There are many times that Christians have been persecuted, of course with birth of the early Church in the Roman Empire. They have been persecuted both in countries where Christians were once a majority (Europe and the Americas) and in countries where they were a minority (Asia and the Middle East). The major example in Latin America was in Mexico with the Cristeros War (1926-29). A major theme in Latin America history is the competition between secular liberals and Catholic conservatives. The most extreme episode in this political and cultural conflict was the Mexican Cristeros War, also known as La Cristiada. It was actually more of a rebellion than a war. The rebellion was instigated as a response tresident Plutarco Elías Calles order to strictly enforce Article 130 of the Constitution--Calles Law. President Calles decided to destroy the power of the Catholic Church in Mexico. The Calles administration came to believe the Church was challenging its revolutionary initiatives and legal basis. The Nexica Revolution began as a democvratic opposition to the Porfiriuatio (Díaz dictatorship). It was led by Francisco Madero who helped form the Partido Católico Nacional (National Catholic Party). The Mexicn Revolution had, however, nothing to do with democracy. Which is why PRI leaders were never chosen democratically. We say that Calles ttgeted the Catholic Church, but because the Catholic Chyrch was the only relgion of any importance, it was in fact anb attack on religion. Calles wanted to pursue his policies and saw the Church as an obstcle. He thus attcked the Church and its affiliated organizations and also suppress popular religiosity in Mexico--esentially an atheist campaign. La Cristiada coincided with the even more intense Soviet Atheist Campaign. Such atheist campaigns are a common feature of totalitarian societies. The current Mexican Constitution was adopted in the final tears of the Revolution--the same year the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia (1917). The Constitution had strong socialist leanings, explaining why Mexico made so little economic progress for so many years. It also had anti-clerical provisions. They included prohibitions on the clergy teaching primary school, open public worship, church property, clerical standing in legal matters, and monastic orders. Article 27 granted the state the power of expropriate which the Mexican Government used to seize the property of the Church. A reaction to the PRI's anti-clericalism was the Cristeros War. The reaction to the PRI's edicts werewas srobest in central western Mexico. There is no exact accounting, but some 100,000 people were killed and many more displaced. Priests were executed and there were the forced renunciation of orders. The number of priests in Medico fell by 90 percent. Nuns were rapped or subjected to various forms of public v humiliation. The Catholic Church was so appalled that 26 martyrs of the rebellion were made saints and 14 more were beatified. This resulted in the first wave of Mexican immigrants to the United States. The Cristeros War is often neglected by Mexican and American historians because it does not project the narrative the mostly left-wing authors like to tell, but it was undeniably a major event in modern Mexican history. Hollywood made a film on the Cristada--'For greater glory' (2012). It was based on a French novel involving two young teenage boys. They are helping the Catholic forces. One is captured and tortured to denounce his faith, but the boy will not yield and dies before he can be rescued. We know of no Mexican film. The American film was shot in Mexico and the film garnered an enthusuiastic Mexican box office. Predictably in America, reviwers panned the film as pro-Catholic, largely because it accurately depicted government atrocities with images of bodies hanging from telephone poles.

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Created: 3:08 AM 6/11/2022
Last updated: 3:08 AM 6/11/2022