Church, State, and Civil War in Revolutionary Mexico

Throughout the history of modern Mexico, the relationship between church and state has been at the center of Mexican politics and much of Mexican historiography. The Catholic church has been a major political player as well as a continuous political target since the revolution of 1910, especially after the passage of a radical constitution in 1917 which drastically restricted the economic, social, political, and educational activities of the church. Between 1917 and 1924, there was growing political friction between the revolutionary administrations and the church, but that friction was largely kept under control by limited enforcement of the constitution. The arrival in the presidency in 1924 of the anticlerical Plutarco Elías Calles brought a major confrontation between church and state as Calles began to enforce strictly the anticlerical provisions of the constitution of 1917. In response, the Catholic church went on “strike” in 1926, officially suspending religious services and the sacraments. Civil war soon developed, the Cristero Rebellion, which lasted from 1926 to 1929 and received its name from the rebels' cry of Viva Cristo Rey (“Long Live Christ the King”). The civil war led to an even greater attack on the Catholic church by Calles, sparking growing concerns among American Catholics that the U.S. government was not doing enough to protect Catholics in Mexico. The historiography of the Cristero Rebellion is extensive; particularly notable are the works of Jean A. Meyer and David C. Bailey. Meyer's classic multivolume work on the rebellion, La cristiada, sees the rebellion as not just a conflict between church and state but also as a popular, rural revolt. Bailey's Viva Cristo Rey: The Cristero Rebellion and the Church-State Conflict in Mexico examines the internal politics driving both church and state. He also discusses American involvement in the conflict and its settlement, but does not provide an extended examination of American Catholics as a pressure group trying to persuade the U.S. government to take a more active role in defending church interests.1

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