EWTN News portal reports that Bishop Sigifredo Noriega of Zacatecas, Mexico, speaking on the centenary of the Cristero War, urged Catholics to “defend your faith by knowing it better.” The bishop recalled the persecution under the Calles Law, the suspension of public worship in 1926, and the sacrifice of over 200,000 martyrs. He lamented that today, for many Catholics, “the religious principles governing our lives are not as solid,” and emphasized the need for deeper faith formation to prevent history from repeating itself.
The bishop’s call, while seemingly pious, reveals a profound spiritual and theological crisis: in an age of apostasy, merely “knowing the faith better” is insufficient without the grace of the true sacraments and the uncompromising defense of Christ’s social Kingship against the very secularism that caused the Cristero persecution.
The Cristero Martyrs and the Silence on the Root of Persecution
The Cristero War (1926–1929) stands as a stark testament to the violent consequences of secularism and laicism, errors condemned unequivocally by the pre-conciliar Magisterium. Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas (1925), warned that “when God and Jesus Christ were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The Mexican Constitution of 1917 and the Calles Law were direct fruits of the errors condemned in Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors, particularly the propositions that “the Church has not the power of using force, nor has she any temporal power” (DS 2924), and that “the State, as being the origin and source of all rights, is endowed with a certain right not circumscribed by any limits” (DS 2939).
Bishop Noriega’s commemoration, however, reduces the Cristero struggle to a historical event to be “remembered” and “reflected upon,” rather than recognizing it as a necessary defense of the social Kingship of Christ. The martyrs did not die merely for “religious freedom” or “principles and values,” but for the right of Christ the King to reign over Mexico and its laws. As Pius XI taught, “His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ” (Quas Primas, §6). To omit this is to strip the martyrs of their ultimate theological significance and reduce their sacrifice to a humanistic struggle for “rights.”
The Reduction of Martyrdom to “Knowing the Faith Better”
The bishop’s central exhortation—”defend your faith by knowing it better”—while containing a kernel of truth, is dangerously incomplete and reflects a modernist tendency to reduce faith to intellectual assent rather than a supernatural virtue. The martyrs of the Cristiada did not die because they had superior theological knowledge; they died because they possessed the grace of the sacraments, the virtue of fortitude, and the unwavering conviction that the Catholic Church is the one true Church outside of which there is no salvation.
In the current context, where the post-conciliar structures have emptied the sacraments of their propitiatory meaning, introduced ecumenism, and embraced religious liberty (condemned by Pius IX in Syllabus, prop. 77-78), “knowing the faith better” without access to the true sacraments and the integral magisterium is a recipe for spiritual disaster. The faithful are urged to “know” a faith that has been systematically diluted and contradicted by the very authorities who claim to teach it. As St. Pius X warned in Lamentabili sane exitu (1907), the modernist error is precisely to treat dogma as subject to “continual and indefinite progress” (prop. 5), rather than as immutable truth.
The Omission of the Social Kingship of Christ
Perhaps the most glaring omission in the bishop’s reflection is the absence of any call to restore the social Kingship of Christ over Mexico and all nations. Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King precisely as a remedy against “the secularism of our times, so-called laicism, its errors and wicked endeavors” (Quas Primas, §21). The Cristero War was a direct consequence of the rejection of this Kingship. To commemorate the martyrs without demanding the public recognition of Christ’s authority over the state is to betray their sacrifice.
Instead, the bishop hopes that “it will no longer be necessary to take up any kind of arms to defend religious freedom.” This statement, while pragmatic, is theologically deficient. It implies that the goal is merely “religious freedom”—a concept rooted in the modernist religious liberty condemned by the Syllabus—rather than the establishment of Christ’s Kingdom on earth. The Church does not seek mere “freedom” to exist alongside error; she seeks the recognition of the truth that “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
The Crisis of Faith in the Post-Conciliar Era
Bishop Noriega laments that “the religious principles governing our lives are not as solid.” This is a profound understatement. The crisis is not merely one of weak formation but of systemic apostasy. The post-conciliar “Church” has embraced the very errors that led to the Cristero persecution: religious indifferentism, ecumenism, and the subjugation of the Church to secular authority. The “structures occupying the Vatican” have canonized the enemies of the Cristero martyrs by promoting dialogue with the secular state rather than demanding its submission to Christ the King.
The bishop’s call to “recover the memory” of the Cristero War is commendable, but memory without action is useless. The martyrs did not die so that their story could be “reflected upon” in conferences; they died so that Christ would reign. Today, the faithful are called not merely to “know the faith better” but to reject the modernist apostasy, seek out the true sacraments, and work for the restoration of the social Kingship of Christ—by all means necessary.
Conclusion: Martyrs Demand More Than Memory
The Cristero martyrs gave their lives for the Catholic faith and the Kingship of Christ. To honor them truly, we must do more than “know the faith better” or “reflect” on their sacrifice. We must reject the modernist errors that have emptied the faith of its supernatural power, seek the true sacraments, and demand the public recognition of Christ’s authority over all nations. As Pius XI declared, “The state is happy not by one means, and man by another; for the state is nothing else than a harmonious association of men” (Quas Primas, §17). The Cristero War was a battle for this truth; its centenary should be a call to arms, not a mere academic exercise.
The martyrs cry out from heaven: not for remembrance, but for the restoration of all things in Christ. Let us not betray their sacrifice with half-measures and modernist compromises.
Source:
On centenary of Cristero War, bishop invites Catholics to ‘defend your faith by knowing it better’ (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 23.04.2026