Mexican Church holds colloquium on forgotten period of fierce persecution

“It seems very important to fully understand this history, a history that has been erased from Mexico’s history books,” stated Bishop Héctor Mario Pérez Villarreal, secretary general of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference, as he encouraged participation in the colloquium “ One Hundred Years Since the Start of the Cristero Resistance ,” taking place this week in Mexico City.

At a press conference ahead of the Oct. 14-16 event, Pérez Villarreal, who is also an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Mexico, noted that in commemorating the centennial of the religious conflict experienced in the country, known as the Cristiada or Cristero War, “rather than celebrating the tragic nature of this event, the violence, or the war, we commemorate the witness of faith of so many Mexicans.”

“Mexicans, primarily the laity, went to the defense of their faith, self-defense, and their ability and freedom to express what they believed,” he noted.

The prelate recalled that Mexican Catholics in the first half of the 20th century faced “a situation in which the law was clearly violating a fundamental right: the right to freedom of faith and religious expression.”

Amid rising tensions between the…