Mexican bishops: Cristero War centennial ‘a time of grace’

Mexico’s bishops have released a message in which they state that the centennial of the Cristero War, an uprising in defense of religious freedom that gave the Church numerous martyrs, “is not merely an anniversary; it is a time of grace.”

The Aug. 4 video message was presented by the president of the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM, by its Spanish acronym), Bishop Ramón Castro Castro, and the CEM’s secretary-general, Bishop Héctor Mario Pérez Villarreal.

“A hundred years ago in Mexico, the bells of the churches were silenced,” the prelates recalled, but “their blood spoke instead.”

“For two years, the churches were closed, and the religious conflict pitted Mexicans against one another,” they stated.

The bishops lamented that “what happened in Mexico a century ago bears that tragic face. It was not a nation invaded by outsiders but a people divided against itself.”

“On both sides of the trenches and the battalions were children of the same land — baptized in the same parishes, heirs to the same culture, and sharing the same mother in their hearts: the Virgin of Guadalupe,” they added.

“Today, a hundred years later, we, the bishops of Mexico, wish to address everyone,…