Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception - Annual Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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A N N U A L l 9 3 6 0 0 that Catholicity was essentially opposed to any form of government suitable to regulating the affairs of a nation as large as Mexico. The fact that ninety percent of the Mexican people Were, and still are, Catholic, did not deter the powerful anti-clerical minority. The fact that Mexico owes her independence to the indefatigable and fearless efforts ,of a country priest named Hidalgo did not influence the greedy rulers to respect and reverence the position of the Catholic Church in Mexico. The fact that larger and better countries than Mexico have been most successfully ruled in the past, although they were entirely Catholic, did not seem to impress these bigoted and self-blinded men. The argument that it was the wealth of the Church herself which led to the enmity between Church and State is palpably false. Up to l832 the work of the Church in Mexico was quite wonderful. Any traveller in Mexico may see, even in the small villages, the beautiful old churches and the schools and the hospitals which the rich and selfish Church built and maintained gratis for the people. Here is the wealth of the Church employed in caring for the spiritual, temporal and social needs of the people themselves. lt can be seen that any restrictions placed upon the Church's power to perform these vital and necessary offices for the betterment of the people cannot be excused on any grounds. These first persecutors of the Church are known as anti-clericals. They have continued their opposition to the Church, but in recent years have been joined by a more virulent, aggressive and harmful party, the Communists. The Communists, who are pledged to wipe out all religion, found willing allies in the older anti-clericals and the two factions united to present a strong front against Catholicism. Because they control the government and the military, this insignificant minority is enabled to hold in bondage the vast majority of the people. Their godless so-called reforms are so offensive to the funda- mental principles of liberty and justice that the nations of South America have felt constrained to remonstrate with the Mexican Government and to petition the United States to intervene. The extent and ferocity of the persecution can be judged by a document submitted to the A.B,C. powers by Chile. ln this appeal, signed by eighty-one of the leading officials of Chile, the three great mediatory powers of South America were requested to employ their good offices to bring about a restora- tion of religious liberty to the millions of Catholics in Mexico now deprived ot that liberty. The document reminds us that when recognition was accorded the revolutionary government in Mexico, then headed by Venustiano Car- ranza, in l9l5, by the United States of America, acquiescense of six Latin American countries came only after the Carranza Government had promised that liberty of worship to the individual each according to his conscience would be strictly complied With. lt then makes the point that representations against the persecution in Mexico today would be logical since the successors of the Carranza Government have not lived up to that pledge. These words taken from the appeal give evidence of the scope of the persecution: ln one country on our continent the vast majority of the people are practically held in bondage by their government, and, Your Excellency, they are held in bondage because of their religion. That country is Mexico. Sl

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OOCATHEDRAL COLLEGE The Persecution of the Catholic Church in Mexico OUR hundred and seventeen years ago, when Cortez with his six hundred venturesome conquistadores disembarked on the shores of Mexico, a strange and weird country lay before him. A New World civilization, three or four thousand years later than those of the Old World, prevailed under which the inhabitants worshiped their gods in a gruesome and terrible man- ner. The Aztecs, for thus were the people of that region called, yearly butch- ered thousands of humans before their god, Huitzilipotli. The stench of human blood and degrading cannibalism reeked throughout the land. Today in Mexico the clock has been put back four centuries and again we behold the period of human sacrifices. The scene, however, is slightly altered. Instead of bodies the rulers of Mexico are butchering the souls of the children before the Moloch of the Mexican Communist totalitarian state. Mexico of today reeks with the stench of moral corruption, systematically and deliberately planned by the high priests of Bolshevism. The innocent minds of children are being perverted by the false and vicious doctrines of Com- munism and Atheism. The godless, satanic minority who hold the reins of the government are making a determined and concerted effort to wipe out all religion from the minds and hearts of sixteen millions of trusting, simple souls. They would make a practical sacrifice at the altars of Marx and Lenin, their gods, a sacrifice entailing the eternal welfare of an entire nation. Before undertaking a discussion of the situation in Mexico at the present time it is necessary to obtain a glimpse of the background and beginnings of the prevalent religious persecution. It is entirely wrong to suppose that the opposition to the Church on the part of the government is of recent origin. Calles was by no means the author of the anti-religious movement, nor were Obregon and Carranza before him. They merely renewed and intensified the antagonism which has existed between the Church and State since l833, when the North American Freemasons instigated a persecution of the Catholic Church in a futile endeavor to wean the people away from all religion. At the time of the inception of this persecution, greedy and avaricious men were in power, unscrupulous individuals, who coveted the wealth of the Church. The subversive propaganda of Freemasonry found fertile fields in the minds of these government officials, who saw an opportunity of confiscating the wealth and property of the Church. This explains why the Church and State have remained opposed for so many years. The State, to make legal the seizure of Church property, forced the acceptance of legislation contrary to the principles of Catholicism. Any objection on the part of the Church might be construed as a move against the State and would leave her open to the assaults of her enemies on the grounds that she opposed the established and recognized government. The confiscation of Church property would then be ordered to combat the enemy of law and order. The excuse for persecuting the Church, then, was based on the assumption SU

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OOCATHEDRAL COLLEGE lt goes on to tell of the hundreds of members of the clergy and laity that were put to death, the thousands thrown into prison and the hundreds of thousands who were forced to seek refuge in foreign lands to escape the fury of the persecution. Such a thing, says the petition, has not been seen in the normal life of any civilized nation during the nineteen centuries of Christianity. A total of 3,500 priests, all Mexicans, the petition notes, cannot today per- form their spiritual duties, and in fourteen of the thirty Mexican States not one priest is authorized to perform his duties or exercise his ministry. Even the sanctity of the home, it states, has been invaded. Briefly, the petition states, Mexican Catholics and in general every inhabitant of Mexico who professes any religion whatever has been despoiled of those rights which man possesses by his very nature-the right to practise religion publicly and privately, the right to educate his children in accordance with his convictions, and those liberties which, rightly exercised, are the very essence of civilization andof domestic life-freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly and the most sacred of all, the liberty to elect their own Government. Fifteen million Mexicans, in their own country, are made outcasts by their own country. What need have we of making any further statements concerning the persecution when we have this first-hand information clearly indicating its intensity? Why go into the lives and deaths of the individual 'heroes and martyrs whose sufferings have done so much to awaken the poor Peons to their danger and incite them to fight for their rights? The stories of Father Pro and the Lion of lalisco, Archbishop Francisco Orozco y limenez, could fill many pages and would make any Catholic proud of his heritage, but they are too lengthy to relate in full here. The execution of Father Pro without even the semblance of a trial raised such a storm of protest that even Obregon voiced his disapproval. Unfortunately, however, the deed had already been accomplished under the orders of the Strong Man, Plutarco Calles. The life of Archbishop Orozco presents another View into life in Mexico for the past few years. His Excellency Don Francisco Orozco y limenez, Archbishop of Guadala- jara, was known throughout the length and breadth of Mexico as the Lion of laliscof' He gained his reputation by his fearless stand against the Com- munists and Atheists who are in power. Refusing to submit to their harsh and oppressive and godless legislation, he was forced to spend bitter years in exile. For months he had to hide in mountain fastnessesg a price had been set upon his head. Yet he never ceased his ministrations of the Sacraments of Penance, of the Holy Eucharist, of Confirmation, of Holy Orders. He even taught in the wretched cellar which once housed his seminarians, The lawful property of the Archdiocese had been confiscated by the revolutionary Government and utilized as barracks, garages, cantinas, Socialist schools. His library was scat- tered to the four winds, while his art treasures reposed in public galleries, More than once his own life was forfeit, but, in spite of huge rewards offered for his betrayal, the thousands of lndians who recognized him on the streets of Guadalajara or in the ravines of lalisco never dreamed of touching the 52