Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles is calling on Catholics to remember the Mexican martyrs of the 1920s, writing this week that the persecution of their families who fled a century ago still shapes the Church today and remains a warning as Christians worldwide continue to face violence.
In a column published Sept. 14 by Angelus News, Archbishop Gomez pointed to a small but significant relic in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels: a fragment of the tilma bearing the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, believed to be the only such relic in the U.S. The history of the relic is closely linked to the persecution that took place in Mexico following the imposition of a law by President Plutarco Elías Calles in 1926. The law criminalized much of the Church’s public ministry, leading to the seizure and destruction of churches and convents, the killing of priests, and the imprisonment and murder of ordinary Catholics, including teenagers. The ensuing war between the government and believers is known as the Cristero War.
Archbishop Gomez’s predecessor, Archbishop John Cantwell, was given the relic of the tilma in 1941 by the archbishop of Mexico City in gratitude for sheltering thousands of Catholics who fled to Los Angeles during the years of persecution that followed the introduction of the Calles Law.
Archbishop Gomez cautioned that “we can never take our religious freedom for granted” and urged current generations to learn the stories of the era’s martyrs. Among those he named were: Blessed Miguel Pro, a Jesuit priest executed by firing squad with his arms outstretched like Christ on the cross while declaring “Viva Cristo Rey! (Long live Christ the King!)”; Blessed Salvador Huerta Gutiérrez, a father of 12 and auto mechanic who was tortured to learn the whereabouts of his two priest brothers, but he said nothing. The next day he was led with his brother Ezequiel to their execution at the local cemetery. He asked for a lighted candle, held it in front of his chest, and cried out: “Long live Christ the King and Our Lady of Guadalupe! Shoot me so that I will die for God, because I love him”; The Servant of God María de la Luz Camacho, a 27-year-old catechist shot through the heart defending her church from anticlerical vandals; and St. José Sánchez del Río, a 14-year-old who was brutally tortured and killed after refusing to renounce his faith….
That history remains close to the surface for many Los Angeles Catholics. In April, relics of 36 martyrs from Mexico’s Cristero War toured the archdiocese, including a stop at the cathedral that drew hundreds.
Among them was Jorge Cardenas Magallanes, who said he learned only as an adult that St. Cristóbal Magallanes, a priest who opposed armed resistance and urged reconciliation before he was killed, was his great-great-uncle. Historian Jean Meyer, who has studied the era for decades, told the gathering that a long informal silence between the Church and the Mexican state kept the full history hidden from most Catholics for years, recalling that he was denied access to Church archives as a young researcher in 1965 out of what he now calls “prudence….”
From zeale.co
Now we have to defend the Church and the faith from her own clerics lol
What do you mean by that?
None of this is a laughing matter.
Lol– you are sadly right. Our modernist, shallow, faithless Catholic clerical leaders have handed our Church, founded by Jesus Christ, over to the Devil to be crucified– all for worthless, Christless “modernist updating,” to please the filthy, dark, sinful, Godless secular world. Very convenient, easy, and lazy for them. No more “inconvenient” crosses to carry and confrontations to face, no more hard work to convert the world, and lead it to Christ. I felt so badly for Pro Life leader Kristan Hawkins, and her Students for Life of America, as they were recently shut down by college administrators at the Jesuits’ Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA, for simply giving out information on pro life and Catholic teachings at a table, and talking with students. Most of the college kids were extremely hostile, violent, and pro abortion. They have a very aggressive “reproductive justice” group at that so-called “Catholic” school.
As has been pointed out, the Jesuit order of today is no laughing matter, but tends to be the subject of tears. When Jesuits are faithful, they are the best of men. When they are not, we have situations like that pointed out by Reply to lol September 17, 2026 at 6:46 pm. I am thinking of Fr. Richard Perozich’s line from the Megan Basham thread: “Clergy who support sexual immorality have not matured to chastity in Christ thus trapping souls in sin.”
Before Vatican II, Bishop Daly would have had much more power in his hands to order the Jesuits to clean up their school and end the “reproductive justice” club. The Jesuit superior would have had direct control, but their religious order was under the Pope and Vatican, and Church laws and rules. They would have had to obey Bishop Daly. Today, about all that a Catholic bishop does, in these situations, is that he still has the power and authority to remove the name of “Catholic” from bad Catholic schools, hospitals, etc. But there are few cases in which a bishop actually does this. So, we have an untrustworthy Church, and untrustworthy Catholic clerics and Catholic schools and colleges, in Vatican II.
All of the immoral, bad Catholic schools, hospitals and religious orders need to cultivate a strong devotion to Our Blessed Mother. That is also what is wrong with the bad Jesuit priest, Fr. James Martin. Our Lady can lead his disordered, wayward LGBTs to her Divine Son– and onwards, to Heaven. If only he knew this.
In regards to my comment of Sept. 18 at 7:14pm– Bishop Thomas Daly, a very good, orthodox, faithful Catholic bishop, is the Bishop of Spokane WA, the Diocese in which Gonzaga University is located. He is a native of San Francisco. He believes that all bad Catholic politicians who promote abortion should not receive Holy Communion. And he has publicly confronted and scolded the Jesuits in the past for many bad things at Gonzaga U.
Dear anonymous “reply to lol,”
You refer to “Our modernist, shallow, faithless Catholic clerical leaders…” That is some, but not all clergy.
How about “our modernist, shallow, faithless Catholic” lay leaders as well? No group has a monopoly on heresy and immorality. (Although it is appropriate to have higher expectations of clergy.)
Yet, most of us aren’t so quick to paint the lay faithful with such a broad brush, judging you as shallow and faithless.
It seems you should differentiate between those who serve well and those who are wolves in sheep’s (or shepherds’) clothing.
Anonymous clergyman, there are many fine Catholic clerical leaders, too– like Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Bishop Thomas Daly, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, Cardinal Robert Sarah, Cardinal Gerhard Muller, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Cardinal Raymond Burke, etc. And poor Auxiliary Bishop Rob Mutsaerts, trying to get the Vatican to use common sense regarding the ridiculous Synod on Synodality. Bless all of these fine prelates. All the bad Catholic prelates cause them so much trouble, wrecking the Church, with no disciplinary action to stop them. I ignore the laymen — they are really not Church leaders– and have no canonical power. Laymen are being invited to wreck the Church with the Synod on Synodality– especially lay women.
These are true heroes of the Faith. On this 100th anniversary of the closing of the churches in Mexico, you may want to watch the movie “For Greater Glory – the True Story of Cristiada.” It is an intense film, because it’s true. It’s streaming for free on numerous streaming platforms. Would we be willing to sacrifice everything like these brave Mexican brothers and sisters did?
Viva Cristo Rey!
The heroic Mexican Cristeros had a valid cause to die for– freedom of religion. In the 1960s, in America, it was too horrifying to see American colleges cave to ignorant, filthy, violent liberal leftist freaks. And to even see some Catholic priests suddenly turn into liberal leftist freaks, preaching and teaching sinful beliefs. How I wished that our society, and the Catholic Church, would put an end to all of this! These horrifically destructive evils would only get worse, if no disciplinary action was taken. Look at all those dumb, smart-aleck, mindless, violent American kids, tearing college campuses and the country to pieces! They were all born into the lap of luxury in America, overfed, fat, lazy, spoiled, selfish, and unintelligent, given money, cars, and a good education, and anything else they needed. Now they were wongfully demanding false “rights” to illegal and immoral “freedoms.” I asked several kids who ignorantly boasted of “getting high” on dope, and were going to burn their draft cards and run off to Canada– what they would do in Canada. Would they be good citizens? And if Canada drafted them into the military, would they be happy to serve their new country? Better face your responsibilities and be mature, and grow up. The diabolic Culture of Death must be ended, no more cowardly “babying” Evil in America, or in our Church.
Deacon Craig, I recommend you add to your daily reading the daily report and commentary posted by Chris Jackson.
https://bigmodernism.substack.com/
His site is a daily record of the decline and destruction of the Church at the hands of our own bishops.
You are correct it is not a laughing matter. The things Chris reports on will make your blood boil. We do inteed have to defend our faith from the bishops today, many of whom have gone off track.