Review article
CROATIAN CATHOLIC PRESS ON PROSECUTIONS OF THE CHURCH IN MEXICO (1926 – 1929)
Daniel PATAFTA
Abstract
Author discusses bloody prosecutions of the Catholic Church in Mexico in the period between 1926 and 1929. The prosecutions started when Plutacro Elias Calles, known as a keen anti-clericalist and Mason, came to power. Still, these prosecutions were not
caused only by Calles’ rule but they were result of a long lasting struggle between Catholic Church and liberal state of Mexico that was founded in the nineteenth century. Mexican Constitution of 1917 in many ways constrained social and religious activities of Catholics
in Mexico, and at the same time such a constitution was a good basis for many anticlerical laws that Calles imposed in 1926. All this in perspective gave a solid ground to the prosecution of Catholic Church in Mexico, and this prosecution provoked a rebellion of peasants, who were supported by the National league for defense of religious freedom. Quite soon this uprising grew into a war that is remembered in historiography as Guerra Cristera or Cristiada. Intensity of this conflict finally resulted with softening of the
anti-clerical laws in 1929 and cease of the prosecutions, though even later activities of Catholic Church in Mexico were quite limited. The analysis of intensity of these events and prosecutions was based on the texts published in the Croatian Catholic weekly press
Katolički list and Katolički tjednik.
Keywords
Mexico; Catholic Church; liberalism; anti-clericalism; Constitution of 1917; Plutarco Elias Calles; prosecution; Guerra Cristera
Hrčak ID:
126297
URI
Publication date:
18.6.2014.
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