Mexican Bishops’ Modernist Distortion of Cristero Martyrs’ Legacy

The Catholic News Agency portal (November 15, 2025) reports on a message from the Mexican Bishops’ Conference commemorating the 2026 centenary of the Calles Law and Cristero Resistance. While invoking the Cristero martyrs’ cry of “¡Viva Cristo Rey!”, the conciliar sect’s document betrays their legacy through doctrinal ambiguity and conciliarist concessions to modernity. The “bishops” lament violence and migration while ignoring the root cause: society’s rejection of Regnum Christi (the Reign of Christ) over nations. Their selective historical memory omits how the Cristeros fought not merely for “religious freedom” but for the total social kingship of Christ the King – a truth explicitly condemned by Vatican II’s declaration on religious liberty.

Reduction of Martyrs’ Witness to Private Piety

The conciliar document claims the Cristeros died proclaiming “Christ is King, not the oppressive state“, yet perverts this into a neo-Gnostic spiritualization. Contrast this with Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas (1925): “Nations will be happy and peaceful only when individuals and governments submit to the reign of our Savior“. The Cristero martyrs understood this, taking up arms against a regime enforcing Masonic laicism through Article 130 of Mexico’s 1917 Constitution which declared: “The law recognizes no juridical personality in religious groups“.

The current “bishops” reduce this conflict to mere “defense of faith with radicalism” while ignoring their predecessors’ explicit condemnation of religious indifferentism. Cardinal José Mora y del Río declared in 1926: “We reject, condemn, and declare heretical Article 130 which establishes equality between the true religion and false sects“. Today’s conciliar shepherds dare not make such clear distinctions.

Conciliar Ecclesiology Undermines Martyrdom’s Meaning

The document’s reference to “Pope” Leo XIV’s “call to unity” reveals its poisoned ecclesiological foundation. When Pius XI canonized Cristero martyr Blessed Miguel Pro in 1952, he praised those “who preferred to die rather than betray their faith and Christian unity“. Today’s antipope demands unity with modernists who deny the very faith for which the Cristeros died.

The 1917 Code of Canon Law (Canon 1325) defined heresy as “the denial or doubt of any truth to be believed by divine and Catholic faith“. By contrast, these “bishops” speak of “walking together” with those embracing Vatican II’s errors – the same errors condemned in Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors (1864): “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which he shall consider true” (Error #15).

Guadalupe Exploited for False Ecumenism

The document’s treatment of Our Lady of Guadalupe exemplifies post-conciliar manipulation of traditional piety. While correctly noting her 16th-century apparition, they distort her role into a “bridge between cultures” rather than the destroyer of false gods – a truth attested by the 8 million conversions following her appearance.

The conciliar vision of Guadalupe as “reconciliation” mirrors Bergoglio’s syncretism in contrast to Pius XII’s 1945 radio message: “Mexico: Land of Guadalupe, remain always faithful, always Catholic!“. Nowhere do these “bishops” mention that Guadalupe’s tilma bears the pregnant Woman of Revelation 12 who crushes the serpent (Genesis 3:15) – the true answer to Mexico’s “control by the violent“.

Naturalistic Solutions Replace Supernatural Faith

In discussing violence and migration, the “bishops” propose purely sociological analysis: “This cancer of organized crime… has spread its tentacles“. They ignore St. Pius X’s warning in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907): “Modernists place the root of religion in mere human sentiment“.

Where are the calls for public consecration to Christ the King? Where the processions with the Blessed Sacrament that sustained the Cristeros? Their document laments “disintegrated families” while remaining silent on conciliar errors causing this disintegration:

Acceptance of contraception (contra Casti Connubii 1930)
Promotion of sex education (condemned in Pius XI’s Divini Illius Magistri 1929)
Silence on Freemasonry’s role in Mexico’s anti-Catholic laws (Pius IX’s Etsi Multa 1873)

The True Legacy Betrayed

Blessed Anacleto González Flores, Cristero martyr beatified in 2005, declared before execution: “I forgive you from the heart, but remember you shall stand before God’s tribunal“. This supernatural perspective – judgment, eternity, reparation – finds no echo in the conciliar document’s therapeutic language.

When the Cristeros shouted “¡Viva Cristo Rey!”, they affirmed the entire social doctrine articulated in Pius XI’s Quas Primas: “Rulers of nations must publicly honor and obey Christ“. Today’s “bishops” have abandoned this total claim, reducing Christ’s kingship to private devotion while tolerating the state’s usurpation of divine prerogatives.

Their document concludes with empty rhetoric about “Christian hope” while omitting the martyrs’ final cry: “¡Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!” – the battle standard under which Mexico must reconquer its Catholic identity through penance, not dialogue with modernity.

Source:
‘Christ is King, not the oppressive state’: Mexico’s bishops recall Cristero legacy (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 15.11.2025