1. The Roman Catholic Church
in Mexico
Los Medios en Mexico

2. 1519
Hernán Cortès brought the Catholic Church to Mexico. His expedition included
a friar, Bartolomé de Olmedo and a priest, Juan Díaz. Conversion of the Indians
was part of their mandate. In 1492, Pope Alexander VI had ordered that natives
of the new lands discovered by Columbus, be instructed in Catholicism for the
“salvation of their souls.” Cortès accepted this wholeheartedly and acted
accordingly. At his first landfall in Cozumel he persuaded the natives to break
up their idols and erect crosses and a shrine to the Virgin. He continued these
efforts throughout the Conquest, sometimes after terrible battles. He was also
punctilious about christening women given to the Spaniards as slaves. It was
forbidden for his men to have intercourse with any woman until she had been
baptized.
This same order from Pope Alexander VI in the Sublimus dei acknowledged that
the natives had “souls” and this become an issue between the clergy and the
establishment. However, the same Papal declaration went on to say that those
who rejected Christianity could suffer war, punishment and slavery. Seemingly
contradictory orders. The conflict of interests between Church and State began
shortly after the Conquistadors toppled the Aztec Empire. The bone of
contention was the treatment of the natives.

3. The wording of Sublimus dei was a general pronouncement, framed in terms that applied
not only to Indians but to all unknown peoples. The principal passage reads:
The enemy of the human race, who opposes all good deeds in order to bring men to
destruction, beholding and envying this, invented a means never before heard of, by
which he might hinder the preaching of God's word of Salvation to the people: he inspired
his satellites who, to please him, have not hesitated to publish abroad that the Indians of
the West and the South, and other people of whom We have recent knowledge should
be treated as dumb brutes created for our service, pretending that they are incapable of
receiving the Catholic Faith. We, who, though unworthy, exercise on earth the power of
our Lord and seek with all our might to bring those sheep of His flock who are outside into
the fold committed to our charge, consider, however, that the Indians are truly men and
that they are not only capable of understanding the Catholic Faith but, according to our
information, they desire exceedingly to receive it. Desiring to provide ample remedy for
these evils, We define and declare by these Our letters, or by any translation thereof
signed by any notary public and sealed with the seal of any ecclesiastical dignitary, to
which the same credit shall be given as to the originals, that, notwithstanding whatever
may have been or may be said to the contrary, the said Indians and all other people who
may later be discovered by Christians, are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or
the possession of their property, even though they be outside the faith of Jesus Christ; and
that they may and should, freely and legitimately, enjoy their liberty and the possession of
their property; nor should they be in any way enslaved; should the contrary happen, it
shall be null and have no effect.

4. 1519-24
The Requerimiento, instituted in the New World since 1513, demanded
that the local populations accept Spanish rule and allow preaching to
them by Catholic missionaries; on pain of war, slavery or death. The
Requerimiento did not demand conversion. This claim provided a legal
loophole for enslavement of the population as rebellious vassals if they
resisted, and the document stated: "We emphasize that any deaths
that result from this [rejection of Christian rule] are your fault…
Many critics of the conquistadors’ policies were appalled by the
flippant nature of the Requerimiento, and Bartolomé de las Casas said
in response to it that he did not know whether to laugh or to cry. While
the conquistadors were encouraged to use an interpreter to read the
Requerimiento, this was not absolutely necessary, and in many cases, it
was read out to an uncomprehending populace.

5. On behalf of Fernando V, King of Spain, Defender of the Catholic Church, subduer of barbarians, and on behalf of Queen Juana, his
beloved daughter, I, ( ), their servant, messenger, and captain, bring you word of God Our Lord, one and eternal. He is creator of
earth, of heaven, and of the man and woman from whom all of us are descended and from whom all future humans will descend. A
large number of humans have been born during the more than five thousand years since the earth was created. Since no one area
could sustain so many people, humans were forced to scatter widely and divide themselves into many kingdoms and provinces.
Our Lord selected one of these people, Saint Peter, to lead the humans on earth. All people, regardless of where they were or what
their nationality or religion was, were placed under his jurisdiction. The Lord instructed Peter to govern from Rome, which was the best
place from which to administer the earth. He also exercised power in other parts of the world so he could judge and govern
Christians, Moors, Jews, gentiles, and those of other faiths. Peter was referred to as the Pope, which meant admirable, elder, father,
and guardian. He was father and governor of all mankind. They regarded Peter as master, king, and ruler of the world that they
inhabited. The popes who have been elected since then have been regarded similarly. Future popes will also be treated in this way.
One of the pontiffs, who succeeded Peter, granted these islands and the mainland to our King and Queen and to their successors.
You can inspect the documents that recorded this grant. As a result of this property transfer, their Highnesses exercise sovereignty over
these islands and over the mainland. Almost everyone who has been informed of this grant has received their Highnesses and has
willingly obeyed and served them as subjects and has not offered resistance. As soon as they received this information, they
welcomed and obeyed the priests that our Highnesses sent to teach our Holy Faith. All of them freely, joyfully, and without reservation
became Christians and remain faithful. Their Highnesses received them with great joy and ordered that they be treated as other
subjects and vassals. You are obligated to act in a similar manner.
Finally, I implore you to fully consider what I have told you. You may take the necessary time to discuss this information and to
recognize the Church as owner and administrator of the entire world. You must also recognize our Holy Father, the pope, and the
King and Queen, our masters, as rulers of these islands and of the mainland. By virtue of the pope’s grant, their Highnesses have
dispatched priests to teach you our faith.
If you behave properly and perform your obligations to their Highnesses, I, in their name, will receive you with all love and kindness
and will protect your wives, children, and land, and will not impose servitude upon you. Rather than having Christianity forced on you,
you are free to do what you wish. After having learned of our Holy Catholic Faith, you may accept Christianity, as almost all the
residents of the other islands and of more distant lands have done. If you do so, His Highness will bestow many privileges on you and
will shower you with favors.
However, if you do not do this, or if you maliciously delay your response, you are hereby notified that, with God’s support, I will launch
an all-out attack to force you to submit and obey the Church and their Highnesses. Furthermore, I will enslave you and your women
and children, and dispose of them as our majesty may command. Also I will seize your goods and inflict harm on you. You will be
treated as disobedient vassals. You will be to blame for the resulting injury and death. The blame will not lie with me, their Highnesses,
or the soldiers who accompany me. You have been warned. I request that the scribe who is present with me record this warning. May
all who are present serve as witnesses.

6. In some instances it was read: to barren beaches and empty villages
long after the indigenous people and communities had left; to
prisoners after they were captured; and even from the decks of ships
once they had just spotted the coast. Nevertheless, for the
conquistadors it provided a religious justification and rationalization for
attacking and conquering the native population. Because of its
potential to support the enrichment of the Spanish royal coffers, the
Requerimiento was not generally questioned until the Spanish crown
abolished its use in 1556.
Between 1519 and 1524 when 12 Franciscan friars arrived in New Spain,
the process of conversion of natives was a simple baptism with no
follow up. It is highly unlikely that those “converted” had any real
comprehension of Christianity. Thus, Spaniards settlers claimed that the
baptized Indians were not true Christians, had returned to worshiping
their old Gods, and could be enslaved. Indeed, for many years, the
“Christianity” of the Indians was a thin veneer barely covering their old
pagan beliefs. The Conquistadors, interested only in personal wealth,
had seized vast tracts of land. Called encomiendas, the natives who
lived with their boundaries, baptized or not, were enslaved.

7. 1542: “New Laws”
The first to challenge the treatment of the natives in New Spain was
Bartolomé de las Casas. He was appointed Bishop of Chiapas in
1544. Twenty-five years earlier he had been expelled from Santo
Domingo for protesting the enslavement of Indians. Back in Spain, he
drafted new laws that outlawed slavery in the New World. These
“New Laws,” signed by the Spanish Emperor, Charles V. in 1542, were
ignored and then suspended by those who governed New Spain.
De Las Casas headed for Chiapas, fully committed to abolishing
slavery. Since the entire economy of the colony was based on free
native labor, he failed. Ironically, he suggested the importation of
black slaves from the Indies or from Africa as a possible solution. It
was the first time that a representative of the Church had
challenged the secular authority in New Spain.

8. The next Churchman to take up the cause of the Indians was Juan de
Zumarraga, appointed Archbishop of Mexico in 1527. Although more
moderate in his views than Las Casas, he soon came into conflict with the
ruling body of New Spain, an Audiencia, really a Church Court, headed
by Nuno de Guzmán. Called “Bloody Guzmán” because of his brutal
treatment of both Indians and Spaniards, a clash between the two men
was inevitable. When Cortès, a bitter enemy of Guzman, returned to the
colony as Captain-General, Bishop Zumárraga excommunicated the
Audiencia. But Guzman fled to what is now Jalisco where he continued to
wreak havoc among both Spaniards and Indians. Responding to
complaints from Zumárraga a new Audiencia was formed under the
newly arrived Don Vasco de Quiroga Don Vasco de Quiroga. With the aid
of Cortes, a friend of the Indians, and the approval of Don Quiroga and
the new Audiencia, Zumárraga established himself and the clergy as
“Protector of the Indians”.

9. Bishops were now appointed and the Church began to exercise a
moderating influence on the Spanish landowners. Although they
remained slaves, Indians could now turn to the Church with their
grievances. Schools for Indians were founded, and now the true
meaning of Christianity was made clear to those who had
converted. There can be little doubt that the firm grip of Catholicism
on Mexico can be traced back to the efforts of Archbishop de
Zumárraga. He confirmed the vision of “Our Lady of Guadalupe”. It
was he who set up the first shrine, later re-located, that still remains
the most popular religious site in Mexico.
Pilgrimages have been made to this shrine almost uninterruptedly
since 1531-32. The first basilica accommodated 2,000 worshipers the
new ultramodern basilica, inaugurated in October 1976,
accommodates up to 20,000 (10,000 seated) people. Juan Diego's
original cloak with the mestizo Virgin image imprinted on it hangs
above the altar of the new basilica. An estimated 20 million make
the pilgrimage each year.

15. The Virgin of Guadalupe
The Virgin of Guadalupe has long been a symbol enshrining the major aspirations
of Mexican society. According to Roman Catholic belief, in December 1531, the
Virgin Mary appeared on three occasions to a Christian Indian woodcutter
named Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac, six kilometers north of the zocalo. She
spoke to him in the Náhuatl and identified herself by the name of Guadalupe. The
Virgin commanded Juan Diego to seek out Bishop de Zumárraga and to inform
him of her desire to have a church built in her honor on that spot. After two
unsuccessful visits to the bishop's house, Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac and was
ordered by the Virgin to pick up some roses, carry them on his cloak, and attempt
to make a third visit to the skeptical bishop. Once in the bishop’s office, Juan
Diego unfolded his cloak to present the roses, and an image of a mestizo Virgin
had been miraculously imprinted upon it.

16. Don Vasco de Quiroga, although a layman, had allied himself with
Zumárraga. As head of second Audiencia, his punishment of the
members of the first Audiencia, sent a message to the colonists. The
Church, with government approval, would monitor the treatment of
Indians. When the Spanish landowners foiled efforts to force them to
grant Indians freedom, De Quiroga started to set up monasteries
and community centers in which Indian children could be
educated. Manned by friars, they gave instruction in Christianity plus
arts and crafts.
Then De Quiroga turned his attention to Michoacan. To repair the
damage, done by Guzmán both as head of the first Audiencia and
on the way to what is now Jalisco, Quiroga established himself in
Tzintzuntzan, the ancient Tarascan capital. Here he achieved
immediate results. Spaniards who exploited the natives were
brought to justice. Indians were given land, housing was provided.
Schools and hospitals were run by the church. In essence, a form of
socialism, with self-governing Indian communities, was established. In
1538 he was appointed to the newly formed Bishopric of Michoacan
despite being a layman. The organization of Catholicism he set up in
Michoacan was to set the pattern for the establishment of that
religion throughout what is now Mexico.

17. 1749
In 1749 the Spanish King, Ferdinand VI issued an order, transferring mission
centers from the control of religious orders to the regular clergy. The order
was largely ignored but in 1767 another royal order expelled the Jesuits. Their
property was sized and turned over to the Crown. It is estimated that there
were more than 2200 Jesuits in the country, ministering to over 700,000
Indians. Very unpopular, this order stirred up unrest in the country and started
protests against Spanish rule.
The Jesuits were among the last to arrive; their order was not founded by
Ignatius Loyola until 1534 — nor did the Order receive Papal blessing until
1540. Nevertheless, after the arrival of the first Jesuits in Mexico City in 1572,
their order-—considered by many scholars to be more zealous and
intellectual in this time period—-began to take the lead in aggressive
evangelism and education of the native population. The Jesuits built schools
and missions and taught agriculture to the natives, moving northward out of
Mexico City into the distant branches of the Sierra Madre Mountains. Native
Mexicans came to trust the Jesuits, who intervened and tried to protect them
from exploitation by other Spanish who needed cheap labor for cruel and
back-breaking work in the silver mines.

20. The success of the Jesuits in education and evangelism was so
powerful that they came to be seen as a threat to those in authority,
both secular and sacred, in both the Old and New Worlds. In addition,
their zeal and devotion to traditional Catholicism clashed with
fashionable new ideas of the European Enlightenment, and as such
they were repudiated by philosophical thinkers who advocated the
use of reason in challenging ancient Church doctrine. Pressure began
to grow to take the Jesuits down.
In 1767 King Charles III expelled the Jesuits from Spain and all of its
colonies, including Mexico. Seven years later, Pope Clement XIV
suppressed the Jesuit order. So influential and popular were the Jesuits
among the natives that there were uprisings in the Americas after the
Jesuits were expelled. The order was restored by Pope Pius VII in 1814,
and it remains an influential teaching order in Mexico into the 21st
century.

21. Mexican Independance
The history of the relationship between church and state
following independence involves a series of efforts on the part of
the government to curtail the church's influence. Nineteenth-
century liberals, trained in the law and influenced by the French
Revolution, were anticlerical. Liberals, who also were federalist
and favored free competition, were highly concerned that the
Roman Catholic Church, by owning between one-quarter and
one-half of the land and by controlling most schools, hospitals,
and charitable institutions, was practically a state within the
Mexican state.

22. 1806-15
The stage for the upheaval and dissatisfaction that gave rise to Mexican
independence was set by political and economic changes in Europe and its
American colonies of the late 18th and 19th centuries. The French revolution and
Napoleonic wars diverted attention of Spain from its colonies, leaving a vacuum
and increasing dissatisfaction and desire for local government. The forced
removal of Ferdinand VII from the Spanish throne and his replacement by Joseph
Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother presented opportunity for Mexican intelligentsia
to promote independence in the name of the legitimate Spanish king. From its
inception, the colonial government of New Spain was dominated by Spanish-
born Peninsulares or Guachapins, who held most leadership positions in the
church and government, in contrast to Mexican-born Criollos (Creoles) who were
the 10 to one majority. Neither Peninsulares or upper-class Criollos wanted to
involve the masses of native Indians and mestizos in government or moves for
local control. In 1808 the Peninsulares learned of Viceroy Jose de Iturrigaray’s
intent to form a junta with Creole factions, a move that he thought might make
him King of an independent Mexican kingdom. In an armed attack on the
palace, Peninsulares arrested Iturrigaray and replaced him with puppet Pedro
Garibay after which they carried out bloody reprisals against Criollos who were
suspected of disloyalty. Although reform movements paused, political and
economic instability in Europe continued as well as hardship and unrest in the
Americas.

23. One liberal organization that was forced underground was the Literary Club of Queretaro
which formed for intellectual discussion, but in practice became a planning organization
for revolution. Independence- and reform-oriented thinkers also began to consider enlisting
the native Indian, mestizo and lower-class masses in wresting control from the Peninsulares
and in armed independence movements. An active member of the group was Father
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a well-educated liberal priest who questioned policies of the
church including clerical celibacy, banning certain literature, infallibility of the pope and
the virgin birth of Christ. In Queretaro, Hidalgo met Capt. Ignacio Allende, a revolutionary
thinker in the Spanish army. In spring 1810, Allende and Hidalgo planned an uprising for
December of the year that leaked out to Spanish authorities and their arrest was ordered.

24. In September 1810, Father Hidalgo
was forced to prematurely
distribute the Grito de Dolores to
his parishioners and nearby
residents, which was an appeal for
social and economic reform. With
little organization and no training,
a mob of thousands of primarily
Indians and mestizos overwhelmed
royal forces in Guanajuato and
proceeded to murder and loot
both Peninsulares, Criollos and
other “whites” in their path. The
force continued to Mexico City
and defeated royalist forces on
the outskirts, but did not enter and
occupy the city after which the
ragged revolutionary army
returned home. Hidalgo and his
Creole officers were later able to
assemble an army of 80,000 by
payment with looted Peninsulare
gold and assets.

25. The Spanish viceroy responded to the insurgency with a vengeance and in
January 1811 Hidalgo suffered a serious defeat outside Guadalajara where
rebel forces were routed at Calderon Bridge. Bloody retaliation followed by
mass executions of suspected rebel sympathizers by Spanish crown forces. In
1811, Hidalgo and associates were captured and executed in Chihuahua.
After Hidalgo’s death, mestizo parish priest
José Morelos was able to organize a
number of the independent chieftains
across Mexico, established a Congress
which created a declaration of rights and
independence from Spain under King
Ferdinand VII and a Constitution which
included abolition of slavery and equality of
classes. Father Morelos was captured and
tried by both military tribunals and the
Inquisition. He was defrocked/degraded
and executed in December 1815.

26. 1833-40s
Between 1833 and the early 1840s, the Mexican government produced various
pieces of legislation to limit the power of the church. In 1833 the government
adopted several anticlerical measures, including one providing for the
secularization of education and another declaring that the payment of the
ecclesiastical tithe was not a civil obligation.
The rich and valuable lands held by the missions had long been a sore point
among newly independent Mexican citizens who felt that all California lands, not
only the government sponsored pueblos and the few grazing tracts granted to a
select group of favorites, should be opened up to settlement. Consequently,
increasing pressure was brought upon the government to recognize the temporary
intention of the missions under the old Spanish Laws of the Indies governing their
original establishment, and to support colonization attempts such as those
envisioned by secularization proponents Jose Maria Padres and Jose Maria Hijar.
Governor Echeandia issued decrees in 1826, 1830, and 1831 that weakened Indian
dependence of the missions and set in motion the process of secularization of the
21 Alta California missions. The orders were immediately revoked by his successor.
They were replaced by a secularization law adopted by the Mexican Congress in
1833. Finally, Governor Figueroa's proclamation of August 9, 1834, defined an
immediate plan for secularization and dispersement of mission property.

28. The secularization plan provided to each mission resident head of
family a lot 100 to 400 varas square and entitlement to the use of
mission common lands, as well as a portion of the mission livestock,
chattel, tools, seeds, and property. A civil administrator was appointed
to inventory and apply the remaining mission property to pay
outstanding debts and incurred expenses of secularization and civil
maintenance. The padres were given charge of the church itself, its
library and furnishings, and allowed a dwelling at the mission, and
were to receive an annual salary as curates. The mission assets were
also to cover church expenses and servants, as Indians were freed by
the decree from their role as personal servants to the padres.
In spite of the decreed purpose to release mission Indians from
conditions of near slavery and dependence and to open the land for
settlement by petitioners, the immediate effects of secularization
throughout California were to deprive a large percentage of the
remaining mission Indians of their rightful property, and to disperse
mission property quickly, frequently without regard for legal process, to
a relatively few fortunately situated individuals.

29. Juárez Laws 1855-57
The first major confrontation between
the Church and the state occurred
during the presidency of Benito Juárez
(1855-72). The 1855 Juarez Law
drastically reduced traditional
ecclesiastical privileges. On March 11,
1857, a new constitution was adopted
that denied all ecclesiastical entities the
right to own real estate and abolished
most remaining ecclesiastical privileges.
On July 12, 1857, Juárez confiscated all
church properties, suppressed all
religious orders, and empowered the
state governors to designate what
buildings could be used for religious
services. Mexico's first religious civil war
was fought between 1857 and 1860 in
reaction to the legislation

31. Emperor Maximilian: 1864-67
Maximilian of Austria was a European nobleman invited to Mexico in
the aftermath of the disastrous wars and conflicts of the mid-
19thcentury. It was thought that the establishment of a monarchy, with
a tried and true European bloodline, could bring some much-needed
stability to the strife-torn nation. He arrived in 1864 and was accepted
by the people as Emperor of Mexico. His rule did not last very long,
however, as liberal forces under the command of Benito Juarez
destabilized Maximilian’s rule. Captured by Juarez’ men, he was
executed in 1867.
Maximilian was first approached in 1859 with an offer to be made
Emperor of Mexico: he refused, preferring to travel some more,
including a botanical mission to Brazil. Mexico was still in shambles from
the Reform War and had defaulted on their international debts. In
1862, France invaded Mexico, seeking payment for these debts. By
1863, French forces were firmly in command of Mexico and Maximilian
was approached again. This time he accepted.

32. Maximilian and his wife Charlotte arrived in May of 1864 and set up their
official residence at Chapultepec Castle. Maximilian inherited a very unstable
nation. The conflict between conservatives and liberals which had caused the
Reform War still simmered, and Maximilian was unable to unite the two
factions. He angered his conservative supporters by adopting some liberal
reforms, and his overtures to liberal leaders were spurned. Benito Juarez and
his liberal followers grew in strength, and there was little Maximilian could do
about it.
When France withdrew its forces back to Europe, Maximilian was on his own.
His position grew ever more precarious, and Charlotte returned to Europe to
ask (in vain) for aid from France, Austria and Rome. Charlotte never returned
to Mexico: driven mad by the loss of her husband, she spent the rest of her life
in seclusion before passing away in 1927. By 1866 the writing was on the wall
for Maximilian: his armies were in disarray and he had no allies. He stuck it out
nevertheless, apparently due to a genuine desire to be a good ruler of his
new nation.
Mexico City fell to liberal forces in early 1867, and Maximilian retreated to
Querétaro, where he and his men withstood a siege for several weeks before
surrendering. Captured, Maximilian was executed along with two of his
generals on June 19. He was 34 years old. His body was returned to Austria the
next year, where it currently resides in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

33. New Constitution 1917
The constitution of 1917 highlighted and institutionalized many of the 19th-century
secular reforms. The new constitution included at least five articles that affected
all religious groups, regardless of denomination. These articles, which remained in
effect until 1992, appeared to preclude any national role for the Roman Catholic
Church. Article 3 forbade churches from participating in primary and secondary
education. Article 5 prohibited the establishment of religious orders. Article 24
mandated that all religious ceremonies occur within church buildings. Article 27
gave the state ownership of all church buildings.
Article 130 contained the most extensive restrictions on the Roman Catholic
Church. The article stated that the Roman Catholic Church lacks legal status;
ecclesiastical marriages have no legal standing; state legislatures can determine
the maximum number of clergy operating within their boundaries; and operation
of church buildings requires explicit government authorization. Among the most
contentious provisions of Article 130 was Section 9: “Neither in public nor private
assembly, nor in acts of worship or religious propaganda shall the ministers of the
religions ever have the right to criticize the basic laws of the country, of the
authorities in particular or of the government in general; they shall have neither
an active nor passive vote, nor the right to associate for political purposes.”

34. 1926-29: Cristero Rebellion
Beginning in 1926 and continuing until the late 1930s, various federal and state
administrations strenuously enforced these constitutional edicts and related laws.
Their actions paved the way for the second Mexican religious war, the bloody
Cristero Rebellion of 1926-29 in western Mexico. During this period, the governor of
Sonora ordered all churches closed, officials in the state of Tabasco required
priests to marry if they were to officiate at mass, and the Chihuahua government
allowed only one priest to minister to the entire statewide Roman Catholic
population.
Beginning on August 1, 1926, over 4,000 Priests were expelled or assassinated in
eight years. Only 334 priests were licensed (by the government) to serve some 15
million people. All Church property was seized, public worship became illegal (no
baptism, no Mass, no marriage), and priests were forbidden to vote or even
speak against the government.

36. The Cristero movement is an essential part of the Mexican Revolution.
When in 1926 relations between Church and state, old enemies and
old partners, eventually broke down, when the churches closed and
the liturgy was suspended, Rome, Washington and Mexico embarked
upon a long game of chess. These years were crucial, because they
saw the setting up of the contemporary political system. The state
established its omnipotence, supported by a bureaucratic apparatus
and a strong privileged class. Just at the moment when the state
thought that it was finally supreme, at the moment at which it
decided to take control of the Church, the Cristero movement arose,
a spontaneous mass movement, particularly of peasants, unique in its
spread, its duration, and its popular character.

40. Church-state conflict officially ended with the administration of
Manuel Ávila Camacho (1940-46). With the notable exception of
Article 130, Section 9, the government tacitly offered non-
enforcement of key constitutional provisions in exchange for the
Roman Catholic Church’s cooperation in achieving social peace.
Over the next four decades, enforcement of Article 130, Section 9,
served the interests of both the government and the Roman Catholic
Church. The constitutional restriction on ecclesiastical political
participation enabled the state to limit the activities of a powerful
competitor. It also permitted the Roman Catholic Church to sidestep
controversial political issues and to concentrate on rebuilding its
ecclesiastical structure and presence throughout the country.
The Roman Catholic Church hierarchy has emphasized that its
renewed interest in political affairs does not equate with church
involvement in party activities. According to the Mexican episcopate,
priests should be above all political parties and may not become
political leaders. However, the church hierarchy also argues that
priests have a moral responsibility to denounce actions that violate
Christian morality.

41. 1980s
By the early 1980s, however, this unspoken consensus supporting the
legal status quo had eroded. The Roman Catholic Church regarded the
constitution's anticlerical provisions, especially those governing
ecclesiastical political activity, as anachronistic. It demanded the right
to play a much more visible role in national affairs. At the same time, the
church became increasingly outspoken in its criticism of government
corruption. The Mexican bishops' Global Pastoral Plan for 1980-1982, for
example, contained a highly critical assessment of the Mexican political
system. According to the Roman Catholic hierarchy, democracy existed
only in theory in Mexico. The ruling PRI monopolized power, producing
apathy and frustration among citizens and judicial corruption. The
principal worker and peasant unions were subject to political control.
Peasants and Indians constituted an exploited, marginalized mass
barely living at a subsistence level and subject to continual repression.
During the mid-1980s, the bishops of Chihuahua and Ciudad Juárez
assumed prominent roles in denouncing electoral fraud in northern
Mexico. In the south, the bishops of San Cristóbal de las Casas and
Tehuantepec frequently accused the government of human rights
violations.

42. 1990s
The Salinas administration's 1991 proposal to remove all constitutional
restrictions on the Roman Catholic Church, recommendations
approved by the legislature the following year, allowed for a more
realistic church-state relationship. At the same time, however, tensions
remained in the relationship, particularly in southern Mexico in general
and in Chiapas in particular. Local government and PRI officials and
ranchers accused the Bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas of having
supported the rebellion that began in Chiapas in 1994, a charge that
the bishop denied. Federal soldiers repeatedly searched diocesan
churches in their pursuit of the rebels. The government also expelled
foreign clergy who were accused of inciting violence and land
seizures. In addition, the Vatican accused the San Cristóbal prelate of
theological and pastoral distortions and named a coadjutor
(successor) bishop for the diocese in the mid-1990s. For their part, the
rebels insisted that the bishop continue to serve as mediator in their
negotiations with the federal government.

43. Mexican Catholicism is extremely varied in practice. It ranges from those who
support traditional folk religious practices, usually in isolated rural communities, to
those who adhere to the highly intellectualized theology of liberation, and from
charismatic renewal prayer groups to the conservative Opus Dei movement. Lay
groups with different goals, purposes, and political orientations are well known
and common in contemporary Mexico. The largest and best known include
Mexican Catholic Action, Knights of Columbus, Christian Study Courses, Christian
Family Movement, Legionnaires of Christ, and a wide range of university students’
and workers’ organizations.
One creepy symbol is the skeletal figure of La Santa Muerte, Saint Death, who
serves as the patron saint of gangs. Santa Muerte is condemned by the official
church but worshiped in countless clandestine shrines. Nor is she the only
manifestation of a subversive pseudo-Catholicism that veers close to outright
diabolism. Another wildly popular folk saint is the 19th-century bandit Jesús
Malverde, "angel of the poor," patron of drug dealers and illegal migrants.
Devotees of San Juan Soldado (Soldier John) venerate a man executed in 1938
for raping and murdering an eight-year-old girl. While such beliefs demonstrate a
profound faith in spiritual realities, they also show the yawning gulf that separates
popular practice from any traditional concept of Christian faith.

53. Conclusion
In opposition to the Marxist vision of the Church that considers it an
instrument of the State to preserve the regime, we can see that,
throughout Mexican history in the 20th century, the characteristic position
of the institutional Church in the Mexican political spectrum has been that
of the opposition to the Mexican State, even if that opposition has
changed across time.
The Church is not an “ideological apparatus” of the State used to uphold
the status quo. Although is true that, in many occasions, the Hierarchy has
partnered with other elites, for example, the business and party elites; its
purpose has been to fight for its own socio-Christian project and defend its
own interests (such as obtaining legal recognition). The clergy supports lay
groups to pressure the government, but when the objective is to negotiate
with it, instead of using intermediates, the Hierarchy always prefers to deal
directly with the Presidents of the Republic19. The Church did that in the
arrangements to finish the Cristeros War, and with each and every one of
the governments of the institutionalized revolution, even with the
ultraliberal Salinas, to achieve constitutional modifications.

54. The Hierarchy in Mexico has been the hardest critic of the liberal and
socialist ideologies, but paradoxically, at the same time it has been an
important actor in opening the politics in Mexico, because of its role of
counterbalance to PRI’s governments, in the context of an authoritarian
and hegemonic party system.
The collaboration of the Church with the post-revolutionary
governments, known as Modus Vivendi, never was a Hierarchy’s
identification with or submission to the State; but a period to recover
energy after Cristeros War, and the coincidence of a common enemy of
the Church and the State: communism. In addition, in the same period,
the Church made itself into an important actor able to indict the
government. That fact, along with many other factors and actors,
managed to undermine the PRI’s hegemony and, as a consequence,
being an indubitable ingredient for Mexican democratization.