La Cristiada: Struggle for Faith in Mexico

1. The Cristero War or Cristero Rebellion (1926–1929), also known as La Cristiada, was a widespread struggle in many central-western Mexican states against the secularist, anti-Catholic, and anticlerical policies of the Mexican government. 

2.  The rebellion was set off by enactment under PresidentPlutarco Elías Calles, inspired by freemasonry, of a statute to enforce the anticlerical articles of the Mexican Constitution of 1917 (also known as the Calles Law). Calles sought to eliminate the power of the Catholic Church and organizations affiliated with it as an institution, and also suppress popular religious celebration in local communities. The massive, popular rural uprising was tacitly supported by the Church hierarchy and was aided by urban Catholic support.

3. SECRET HANDSHAKES

4. The Masonic letter G  reminds us that our every act is done in the sight of the Great Architect of the Universe.  "By letters four and science five, this “G” aright doth stand, in due Art and Proportion; you have your answer, friend.” What are the "letters four"?  It is believed that they stand for "YHWH", the name of the Great Architect of the Universe (pronounced "Yahway". (sometimes pronounced Jehovah) in the ancient Hebrew language, from which the Bible was translated:  Which is the 5th science?  Geometry. The Letter G stands for "Geometry", which is the mathematical science upon which Architecture and Masonry were founded. When did the letter G become part of the Square and Compass?  No one knows exactly, but it is believed to be somewhere between 1730 and 1768, here in the United States. The "G" is not used in the center of the square and compasses in all jurisdictions around the world.

5. Mexican government forces publicly hanged Cristeros on main thoroughfares throughout Mexico, including in the Pacific states of Colima and Jalisco, where bodies would often remain hanging for extended lengths of time. U.S. Ambassador Dwight W. Morrow brokered negotiations between the Calles government and the Church. The government made some concessions, the Church withdrew its support for the Cristero fighters, and the conflict ended in 1929. It can be seen as a major event in the struggle between Church and State dating back to the 19th century with the War of Reform, but it can also be interpreted as the last major peasant uprising in Mexico following the end of the military phase of the Mexican Revolution in 1920.

6. Where did anti-clericalism come from in Latin America?

7. Andrea Pozzo, Allegory of the Jesuits’ Missiona-ryWork, 1640 By the 18th century, the intellectual standards, economic power and social influence of the Jesuits was unmatched. Their economic power derived from enormous plantations in the central valley of Chile, ranches in the River Plate region and large urban and rural estates in Peru and Mexico. There were Jesuit-owned workshops in Paraguay, Peru and Ecuador, and mining interests in the Chaco area of New Granada, now Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Panama.

8. Anti-clericalism was an integral feature of 19th-century liberalism in Latin America. This anti-clericalism was based on the idea that the clergy (especially the prelates who ran the administrative offices of the Church) were hindering social progress in areas such as public education and economic development. The Catholic Church was one of the largest land owning groups in most of Latin America's countries. As a result, the Church tended to be rather conservative politically. Beginning in the 1820s, a succession of liberal regimes came to power in Latin America.[2]Some members of these liberal regimes sought to imitate the Spain of the 1830s (and revolutionary France of a half-century earlier) in expropriating the wealth of the Catholic Church, and in imitating the 18th-century benevolent despots in restricting or prohibiting the religious orders. As a result, a number of these liberal regimes expropriated Church property and tried to bring education, marriage and burial under secular authority. The confiscation of Church properties and changes in the scope of religious liberties (in general, increasing the rights of non-Catholics and non-observant Catholics, while licensing or prohibiting the orders) generally accompanied secularist, and later, Marxist-leaning, governmental reforms.[3]

9. Enlightenment-style “liberalism” included the idea that all religious belief was simply a matter of opinion, that religion had no place in social or political affairs, and that all organized religion was a form of tyranny and domination. This type of anti-clericalism had deep roots in Spanish history, especially evident in the period following the upheaval caused in Spain and the rest of Europe by the French Revolution and Napoleon’s conquests. It was also common among Socialists and among the members of Spain’s large Anarchist party and labor union. Illustration in the French anti-clerical magazine La Calotte in 1908. 1931-1932: The Second Spanish Republic and Spanish anticlericalism

11. High-ranking members of the racist and anti-Catholic U.S. organization, the Ku Klux Klan, in the mid-1920s offered President Calles $10,000 to help fight the Catholic Church. The offer came when the Knights of Columbus in the U.S. secretly offered a group of Cristero rebels $1,000 of financial assistance for guns and ammunition. This was made after the fact that Calles also sent a private telegram to the Mexican Ambassador to France, Alberto José Pani Arteaga advising that the "...Catholic Church in Mexico is a political movement, and must be eliminated in order to proceed with a Socialist government free of religious hypnotism which fools the people... within one year without the sacraments, the people will forget the faith...."[36] Two children wearing Ku Klux Klan robes and hoods stand on either side of Dr. Samuel Green, a Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon, at Stone Mountain, Georgia on July 24, 1948.

12. The Second Klan saw threats from every direction. A religious tone was present in its activities: "two-thirds of the national Klan lecturers were Protestant ministers," says historian Brian R. Farmer.[88] Much of the Klan's energy went into guarding "the home;" the historian Kathleen Blee said its members wanted to protect "the interests of white womanhood."[89] The pamphlet ABC of the Invisible Empire, published in Atlanta by Simmons in 1917, identified the Klan's goals as "to shield the sanctity of the home and the chastity of womanhood; to maintain white supremacy; to teach and faithfully inculcate a high spiritual philosophy through an exalted ritualism; and by a practical devotedness to conserve, protect and maintain the distinctive institutions, rights, privileges, principles and ideals of a pure Americanism."[90]

13. The Calles Law, or Law for Reforming the Penal Code, was a statute enacted in Mexico in 1926, under the presidency of Plutarco Elías Calles, to enforce the restrictions against the Catholic Church in Article 130 of the Mexican Constitution of 1917. Article 130 declared that the church and state are to remain separate. To that end, it required all "churches and religious groupings" to register with the state and placed restrictions on priests and ministers of all religions. Priests and ministers could not hold public office, canvass on behalf of political parties or candidates, or inherit property from persons other than close blood relatives.

14. President Calles applied existing laws regarding the separation of church and state throughout Mexico and added his own legislation. In June 1926, he signed the "Law for Reforming the Penal Code", which became known unofficially as the "Calles Law." This law provided specific penalties for priests and individuals who violated Article 130 of the 1917 Constitution. For example, wearing clerical garb in public was punishable by a fine of 500 pesos (approximately 250 U.S. dollars at the time, or worth $4250 in 2010.[1]A priest who criticized the government could be imprisoned for five years.[2] Some states enacted further measures in the name of church and state separation. Chihuahua, for example, enacted a law permitting only a single priest to serve the entire Catholic congregation of the state.[3]To help enforce the law, Calles seized Church property, expelled all foreign priests, and closed monasteries, convents, and religious schools.[4]

15. One result of the Calles Law was the Cristero War, a popular uprisings of Catholic peasants in regions of central Mexico against the federal Mexican government. Between 1926 and 1934, at least 40 priests were killed during the war.[5]Whereas Mexico had some 4,500 Catholic priests prior to the Cristero War, by 1934 only 334 Catholic priests were licensed by the government to serve Mexico's 15 million people.[5][6] By 1935, 17 states were left with no priest at all.[4] Under President Lázaro Cárdenas, the Calles Law was repealed in 1938, and constitutional freedom of worship was officially restored.[7]

16. On November 23, the day of his death, Father Pro prayed and forgave his executioners. He bravely refused the blindfold, but faced the firing squad with a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other, extending his arms in the form of a cross, crying out, "Viva Cristo Rey!" ("Long Live Christ the King!)

17. In 1927, someone tossed a bomb at the Mexican president’s car from an automobile previously owned by one of Miguel’s brothers. All three brothers were arrested on false charges. The youngest was exonerated, but Father Pro and his brother Humberto were sentenced to death (without the benefit of a trial) via a firing squad.

18. The Mexican constitution prohibits outdoor worship, which is only allowed in exceptional circumstances, generally requiring governmental permission. Religious organizations are not permitted to own print or electronic media outlets, governmental permission is required to broadcast religious ceremonies, and ministers are prohibited from being political candidates or holding public office.[71]Despite remnants of anti-clerical statutes, there is no real enforcement of them, and the Catholic Church enjoys liberties from the Government, as well as devotion from the people.

19. The Virgin Mary is our protector and defender when there is to fear She will vanquish all demons at the cry of "Long live Christ the King!" (x2) Soldiers of Christ: Let's follow the flag, for the cross points to the army of God! Let's follow the flag at the cry of "Long live Christ the King!"

20. She steps on the gods of the Aztecs In the midst of the winter She gives the Cristeros hope admist the unjust Calles laws and persecutions