The EWTN News portal (August 6, 2026) reports that the Mexican Episcopal Conference, through its president “Bishop” Ramón Castro Castro and secretary-general “Bishop” Héctor Mario Pérez Villarreal, has issued a video message declaring the centennial of the Cristero War “a time of grace.” The “prelates” commemorate the “fidelity of a believing people” and “martyrs who did not kill for Christ but died for him,” explicitly rejecting the “exaltation of arms” and “idealization of violence.” They proclaim religious freedom as “the right of every human person” for “believers and nonbelievers alike,” insisting that “no conscience should be coerced, manipulated, or silenced.” The message culminates in a synodal appeal for a “Church that listens before speaking, that journeys together,” invoking Christ’s reign only “in our hearts” and the protection of “St. Mary of Guadalupe.” This episcopal declaration constitutes a doctrinal capitulation to liberalism, stripping the Cristero martyrdom of its social and regal significance to conform to the hermeneutic of the conciliar revolution.
The Syllabus Condemned “Religious Freedom”; These “Bishops” Canonize It
The most egregious error in the message is the explicit endorsement of religious liberty as a natural right for all: “religious freedom is not a privilege of the clergy but the right of every human person… Today, we defend religious freedom as a right for all — believers and nonbelievers alike — because no conscience should be coerced, manipulated, or silenced.” This proposition is formally condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus Errorum (1864). Error 77 declares it false that “in the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship.” Error 78 condemns the notion that “it has been wisely decided by law, in some Catholic countries, that persons coming to reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of their own peculiar worship.” Error 79 anathematizes the claim that “the civil liberty of every form of worship… conduce more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people, and to propagate the pest of indifferentism.” The Mexican “bishops” have not merely ignored these condemnations; they have inverted them into pastoral imperatives. By placing the “rights of conscience” above the rights of God (jura Dei), they embrace the liberalism that Pius IX identified as the “pest of indifferentism” and that St. Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu (1907) exposed as the “synthesis of all heresies” (Modernism, proposition 65: “Contemporary Catholicism cannot be reconciled with true knowledge without transforming it into a certain dogmaless Christianity, that is, into a broad and liberal Protestantism”). The Cristeros cried “¡Viva Cristo Rey!” — they died for the Social Kingship of Christ over the Mexican nation. Their “bishops” now declare that Christ’s Kingship is compatible with the neutral State and the public exercise of false cults. This is treason to the martyrs.
Quas Primas: Christ Reigns Over Nations, Not Merely “In Hearts”
Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas (1925) — promulgated during the very years of the Cristero War — defined the feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the “plague of our times, so-called laicism” which “began with the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations.” The encyclical teaches that “His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ” and that “men united in societies are no less subject to the authority of Christ than individuals.” The Mexican “bishops” restrict Christ’s reign to “our hearts” — a Protestantized, subjectivist reduction that empties the Kingship of its public, legislative, judicial, and executive dimensions (as Pius XI enumerates: potestas legislativa, iudicialis, executiva). The Cristeros fought for a Catholic State where “all relations in the state be ordered on the basis of God’s commandments and Christian principles, both in the issuing of laws and in the administration of justice, as well as in the education and formation of youth” (Quas Primas). The “bishops” now ask for a nation “where no conscience is coerced” — i.e., a secularist state where error has equal rights with truth. They have abandoned the very principle for which the Cristeros bled.
Pacifist Betrayal: “We Do Not Exalt Arms” vs. The Just War of the Cristeros
The message declares: “We do not exalt arms, nor do we idealize violence. We do not call for revenge, and we do not fuel resentment.” This pacifist rhetoric is a modernist distortion of the Catholic doctrine on just war and the duty to defend the Ecclesia militans. The Cristero War was not a private vendetta; it was a public uprising against the Masonic, anti-clerical regime of Plutarco ElÃas Calles, which had suspended the Mass, expelled priests, seized churches, and murdered clergy. The Cristeros took up arms in defense of the Church’s liberty and Christ’s Kingship — a bellum iustum meeting all Thomistic criteria: auctoritas principis (legitimate authority of the bishops who initially supported it), causa iusta (defense of the Faith), intentio recta (restoration of Catholic order). By refusing to “exalt arms,” the “bishops” implicitly condemn the Cristeros’ legitimate resistance and adopt the Gandhian pacifism of the conciliar sect (cf. Gaudium et spes 78-80). They sanitize martyrdom into passive victimhood, erasing the militant dimension of Ecclesia militans. As St. Augustine teaches: “Peace is the tranquility of order” (tranquillitas ordinis) — and order was shattered by the Calles regime. The Cristeros restored order by the sword; their “successors” now praise the disorder of religious liberty.
Synodal Ecclesiology: “A Church That Listens Before Speaking”
The final appeal — “a call to build a Church that listens before speaking, that journeys together, and that awakens in every baptized person the awareness of living out their faith” — is pure Vatican II novelties: ecclesiology of communion, synodality, baptismal priesthood as the primary category. This language obscures the hierarchical constitution of the Church (divina constitutio) defined by Vatican I (Pastor Aeternus) and the potestas iurisdictionis reserved to the hierarchy. The Cristeros died for the hierarchical Church — for bishops and priests who taught, governed, and sanctified with authority. The “bishops” now propose a Church of “listening” — a democratic inversion where the magisterium yields to the sensus fidelium (Modernist proposition 6 in Lamentabili: “The Church listening cooperates… the Church teaching should only approve the common opinions of the Church listening”). This is the abomination of desolation in the holy place: the conciliar sect replacing the Ecclesia docens with a dialogue partner.
The Masonic Roots of the Persecution: Silence as Complicity
The message speaks of “a people divided against itself” and “children of the same land — baptized in the same parishes… sharing the same mother… the Virgin of Guadalupe.” This fraternalist narrative erases the Masonic nature of the Calles regime. The Syllabus (Error 54) condemns the idea that “Kings and princes are not only exempt from the jurisdiction of the Church, but are superior to the Church in deciding questions of jurisdiction.” The Calles laws (Ley Calles) were the direct application of Masonic principles: separation of Church and State (Error 55), State control of education (Errors 45-48), suppression of religious orders (Error 53). The “bishops” refuse to name the enemy — Freemasonry — just as the False Fatima Apparitions document exposes: “The message focuses on external threats (communism), omitting the main danger: modernist apostasy within the Church… It ignores the warnings of St. Pius X against ‘enemies within.'” Here, the “bishops” omit both the Masonic persecution of the 1920s and the Modernist apostasy of their own sect. Their “reconciliation” is a pact with the revolution.
Guadalupe Invoked, But the Kingship Denied
The invocation of “St. Mary of Guadalupe” is the sole Catholic note — but it is instrumentalized to legitimize a message of religious indifferentism. Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Patroness of the Americas and Empress of the Faith; she appeared to secure the conversion of a nation to the one true Faith, not to preside over a pluralist democracy. The “bishops” use her as a national symbol while denying her Son’s Social Kingship. This is the strategy of the conciliar sect: retain popular piety while gutting dogmatic integrity. As Pius XI warned in Quas Primas: “When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states and when authority was derived not from God but from men, the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The Mexican “bishops” have completed the destruction by teaching the faithful that Christ’s reign is compatible with the secular State.
Sedevacantist Verdict: These Are Not Catholic Bishops
Applying the principles of the Defense of Sedevacantism: a manifest heretic loses his office ipso facto (St. Robert Bellarmine, De Romano Pontifice; Canon 188.4, 1917 Code). By publicly defending religious liberty (condemned by Pius IX, Leo XIII, St. Pius X, Pius XI, Pius XII), these “bishops” have defected from the Catholic Faith (publice a fide Catholica defecerunt). They cannot be true bishops; they are usurpers of the episcopal office in the conciliar sect. Their “message” is not a pastoral letter but a manifesto of the anti-Church. The Cristero martyrs — San Cristóbal Magallanes, San José Sánchez del RÃo, Beato Miguel AgustÃn Pro — died for the integral Faith, not for the “right of conscience” of the Dignitatis Humanae heresy. The “bishops” have canonized the error for which the martyrs’ executioners legislated. Quas Primas stands as the permanent reproach to this betrayal: “Let rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ… if they wish to maintain their authority inviolate.” The Mexican “bishops” have refused — and thus they have no authority.
Source:
Mexican bishops: Cristero War centennial ‘a time of grace’ (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 06.08.2026