This weekend our Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christ the King and every year I think of the Cristeros of Mexico, an often forgotten chapter in the story of Catholicism in the Americas. In the early turn of the last century Mexico experienced a horrific oppressive revolution. Fueled by anti-clerical Marxist ideology and Masonic superstition, the government declared de facto war against the Catholic Church. Hundreds of priests and bishops had to decide whether to stay or flee. The many who left had to register with the government and in some cases renounce their beliefs; those who stayed were often hanged or shot. In 1926, the president of Mexico, Plutarco Elias Calles, added teeth to the persecution with additions to the penal code. The “Calles Law,” as it came to be known, called for uniform enforcement throughout the country of the Constitution’s anti-clerical articles. It threatened severe sanctions for violations and for government officials who failed to enforce them. “As long as I am President of the Republic, the Constitution of 1917 will be obeyed,” he vowed, saying he would not be moved by the “wailing of sacristans or the pujidos (groans) of the over-pious” (David C. Bailey, ¡Viva Cristo Rey!: The Cristero Rebellion, and the Church-State Conflict in Mexico, 65). Some may remember that this is the same setting in which Graham Greene’s nameless “whiskey priest” is martyred in his novel “The Power and the Glory.”
The 2012 film “For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada,” depicts the story of how Catholics fought back against their oppressors. Though unevenly directed and, to be frank, the story deserves a better film, it does manage to inspire thoughts of all our unknown and uncelebrated martyrs of the Church.
If you’re like me, it is often hard to relate to the deep persecution of the early (and some modern) Christians. Whenever I hear of the unspeakable evil occurring in our world against Christians, I pray for them and for myself that, if ever the occasion were to arise, I could be as brave as them and proclaim my proud faith. I worry, too — I’m not exactly a t-shirt wearing Catholic, though I have been referred to as the Pope of the Pub for my proselytizing!
I’m kidding, but I do think of those who gave everything for something I take for granted. Then I think of this weekend’s celebration of Christ the King. It is a bit of an awkward title for a man who lived, died and was raised in sacred poverty, but if He is a King then He must have a Kingdom, and then I think of that essential Christian hope: Heaven. I think of how we look back to our brothers and sisters whose “blood was the seed of the Church,” and how they looked forward to us. Let us be a Church worthy of their sacrifice.
- ¡Viva Cristo Rey!