inside america

Past Persecutions
Embolden Our Faith
More than a folkloristic gesture, the American tour of relics of modern day martyrs serves as a powerful reminder of the Incarnation and Resurrection. A certainty that leads us to the need to protect our religious liberty.

by lorenzo albacete

The celebration of the Mexican-American feast, Cinco de Mayo (5th of May), received considerable media attention nationally, showing once again the political and cultural importance of the Latino presence. I don’t know how the Catholic dimension of this presence was treated elsewhere, but in the national media I saw no reference to one of the most important events of the week, namely the tour of the relics of the Mexican martyrs.
According to a May 3rd Zenit.org post, “A tour of the relics of six priests killed during Mexico’s Cristero War in the 1920s began a tour of the United States, starting last weekend in Houston. Pope John Paul II canonized the six martyrs with other victims of the Cristero War in 2000.”
The tour began at the co-cathedral of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, where the Knights of Columbus Texas State Convention was under way. The priest-martyrs were members of the Knights of Columbus.
Fathers Pedro de Jesús Maldonado Lucero, Miguel de la Mora de la Mora, José María Robles Hurtado, Luis Batiz Sainz, Rodrigo Aguilar Aleman, and Mateo Correa Magallanes were all martyred for their faith by the Mexican government during the religious persecution in the early 20th century. The relics will also visit Phoenix and Tucson, in Arizona, and Los Angeles, California, as well as San Antonio, Texas.
“For many years, this period of history has been all but forgotten on both sides of the border,” said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson. “This year, with the release of both a major motion picture and a book on this subject, the story of the struggle for religious freedom in Mexico will begin to be told. It is our hope that the pilgrimage of these relics will remind us all of the sacrifices made on behalf of religious liberty on this continent less than 100 years ago. It is a timely reminder that–from ancient Rome to 1920s Mexico to today–persecution does not stifle the faith, but emboldens it.”
For Greater Glory–a film being released in the United States June 1st and already meeting with huge success in Mexico–takes the history of this period to the big screen with an all-star cast including Andy Garcia, Peter O’Toole, and Eva Longoria.
Despite the support of the Mexican regime and its anti-Catholic policies by a number of American groups–including the Ku Klux Klan–pressure from the Knights of Columbus and others helped bring the persecution to an official end and, in 1929, the U.S. government helped broker an agreement between the Mexican government and the Catholic Church, ending the worst of the persecution.
I know Supreme Knight Carl Anderson and value highly his insights into the state of the Church in this country. His awareness of the role Hispanics can play in the cultural dimension of the new evangelization convinces me that the evangelization of Latinos in the USA will be given special consideration.
The veneration of relics, especially of martyrs, is not some morbid folkloric gesture with no significance today. Rather, it is a strong affirmation of the literalness of the Incarnation and the Resurrection and thus a testimony of the immeasurable dignity of the human body. The cultural implications of this conviction are obvious. But we should be aware that living this certainty will often invite persecution and martyrdom. Hence, the importance of protecting our religious liberty.