I watch various
videos primarily on YouTube, Rumble, X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook. (I have not entered the world of other
platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, etc. because
of the element of time and certain priorities in my life currently.) Some of
the videos have illustrated how certain high profile people recently became
Catholics such as Candice Owens, Russell Brand, J.D. Vance, Shia LaBeouf, and Rob Schneider, to name a few. While this
is not meant to be an endorsement of any of these people in particular, it was
the Candice
Owens story that caught my attention. She got in trouble on social
media for acknowledging Christ the King publicly and has
not backed down from her position.
This then brought to mind the phrase used by the Cristeros in Mexico. When I heard about the sacrifices that the Cristeros made and the tortures that they endured for their Catholic faith, I was speechless with a pain deep in my heart. During a three year period (1926-1929) in Mexico’s history, approximately 90,000 people died in what was called the Cristero War. In an interview with Ruben Quezada in 2012, the author of For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada, he explains the background to the war:
When
Plutarco Calles took over as president of Mexico, he did not want the church to
be part of any moral teachings to its citizens. He did not want God to be
a part of anyone’s life. After the Mexican Revolution the two presidents
that followed (Venustiano Carranza and Alvaro Obregon) abused their power to
wage their personal attacks against the Catholic Church as well. There
were similar persecution incidents and abuses towards the clergy and Catholics
alike, and we have a few Mexican Martyrs from those persecutions who were not
part of the Cristero War. When
President Calles came into power, he wanted to bring Mexico’s population to
belong to a Socialist state. He would insist that the Church was poisoning
the minds of the people and that its teachings were a threat to the
Revolutionary mentality which it stood for. Calles wanted to ensure that all
citizens were going to be educated under the government’s dictatorship and
secular mindset. He wanted to ensure that only the government would have
the freedom to form the minds of its citizens and insisted that the church was
poisoning the minds of the people. In order to enforce this new law it was
necessary to expel all clergy, except for a few priests who would oversee the
spiritual needs of the people and with the supervision of the state
authorities. This led to various states of Mexico going without a single
Mass being celebrated for a long time.
A total of 35 martyrs have been canonized and fifteen were beatified as a result of this persecution. The motto of the Cristeros was “¡Viva Cristo Rey!” (“Long Live Christ the King!”) which so many refused to denounce even when facing torture and death. With some subsequent thought, the following questions keep haunting me:
- What sacrifices would I make in order to offer the Mass or to practice my Catholic faith freely?
- What suffering would I be willing to endure for my Catholic faith?
- Would I be able to hold fast to my Catholic faith in the face of torture or a threat of death?
- How much do I value religious freedom?
- Would I have the courage to proclaim: “¡Viva Cristo Rey!” like the Cristeros?
A special recognition
needs to be given to the Knights of Columbus who helped
the Mexican people during this war. Again, according to Quezada:
In
August 1926, just days after the Calles Law took effect, the U.S. Knights
passed a resolution to support the Church in Mexico. They established a fund
that raised over a million dollars to offer relief services for those exiled
from Mexico, to provide for exiled seminarians to continue their priestly
formation, and to educate the American public about the true situation. The
Order printed and distributed five million pamphlets about the Cristiada and two million copies of the
Pastoral Letter of the Catholic Episcopate of the United States on the Religious
Situation in Mexico. The U.S. Knights also sponsored over 700 free
lectures and reached millions by radio.
The film A Greater Glory: The True Story of the Cristiada, which only had only a very limited theater run in most areas, is a story of fidelity to the Catholic faith in the face of torture and persecution. It illustrates what people are willing to sacrifice to preserve their religious freedom. I certainly recommend viewing this film. (Beware, however, of the intense violence at times—the reason it received an “R” rating.)
Long Live Christ the King!
Fr. Ed Namiotka
Pastor
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