A shared frontier faith: Border cities El Paso and Ciudad Juárez remember Cristero War
The Binational Pro-Family Pro-Life League will hold “¡Viva Cristo Rey! 100 Years of Faith and Freedom” on Oct. 3 in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. The conference will examine the Cristero War and the border region’s role in supporting Mexican Catholics facing anticlerical persecution from 1926 to 1929. Organizers say the shared history can renew Catholics’ commitment to faith, witness, and mission today. During the persecution, Mexican Catholics crossed into El Paso to receive the sacraments, and some religious communities expelled from Mexico settled there.
7 days ago
Catholics in El Paso and Ciudad Juárez are preparing a joint Oct. 3 conference marking the Cristero War centenary and recalling how the border served Mexican Catholics facing religious persecution. Organizers say the event will connect that history with present-day religious-freedom advocacy, emphasizing education and civic participation rather than armed resistance. 1 2
The Binational Pro-Family Pro-Life League is organizing “¡Viva Cristo Rey! 100 Years of Faith and Freedom,” with sessions in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Lorena Tabares, a league member, said the two cities share a cross-border Catholic community shaped by the events of a century ago. 1 2
The El Paso program is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon at the Starlight Event Center. Speakers include Father Rafael Becerra, who has studied the Cristero War; Rodrigo Iván Cortés, president of Mexico’s National Front for the Family; and Ivonne Kuri of the Mexican Center for Sindonology. The conference is due to continue at 4 p.m. at Sagrada Familia Parish in Ciudad Juárez, with Cortés, Kuri, and historian José Mario Sánchez on the panel. 1 2
The Cristero War took place from 1926 to 1929, amid enforcement of anticlerical restrictions under Mexican President Plutarco Elías Calles. Tabares said some Mexican Catholics crossed from Ciudad Juárez into El Paso to receive the sacraments, making the border a refuge during the persecution. 1 2
She cited St. Pedro de Jesús Maldonado, a Chihuahua-born priest and Cristero-era martyr who was ordained at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in El Paso, as one example of the region’s role. Tabares also noted that the Perpetual Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament established themselves in El Paso after being expelled from Mexico and founded the Monastery of Christ the King. 1 2
Tabares described the Cristero legacy for Hispanic Catholics in the United States as a commitment to faithfulness, Christian witness, and bringing the Gospel to others. Organizers hope participants will learn more about the period and its relevance to religious freedom. 1 2
Although the organizers draw comparisons between the political and social conditions of the Cristero era and current concerns about religious freedom, Tabares said they want people to respond through education and active civic participation grounded in Catholic social teaching—not through an armed uprising. The article also notes that contemporary defense of the Catholic faith in the United States and Mexico often takes the form of pro-life and pro-family advocacy. 1 2
Theological foundations of Catholic resistance to religious persecution
Catholic resistance to religious persecution rests on a tension held together by two duties: Christians must obey legitimate authority and work for peace, yet they must not surrender the duties owed to God or accept the unjust suppression of conscience and the Church’s mission. Resistance is therefore not automatically rebellion; its moral character depends on its purpose and means.
The Church’s freedom is not merely institutional privilege. Pius XI teaches that the Church needs a just freedom to carry out her life and mission, and that the faithful have a right to live according to reason and conscience. When civil or religious freedoms are attacked, Catholics may seek to vindicate them—but the appropriate degree and form of resistance depend on circumstances.
This freedom does not mean that every personal conviction is immune from judgment, or that Catholics may impose their faith by force. It means that coercion aimed at preventing people from living their faith or fulfilling religious duties violates a genuine moral good. The Catholic response must defend people and the Church’s mission while respecting the dignity of persons, including opponents.
At its deepest, resistance is fidelity to God rather than the pursuit of political power. Pius XI describes Christians who refuse to renounce the liberty Christ has won for them, even amid danger and persecution. When an authority commands what is sinful, or forbids what faith requires, a Christian cannot treat obedience to that authority as absolute. The faithful may have to refuse compliance and accept the consequences—including imprisonment or death—rather than betray conscience.
Such refusal is not necessarily an attempt to overthrow the government. It may take the form of continuing worship, teaching the faith, protecting the persecuted, or publicly bearing witness to truth. Pius XII urges Catholics to resist attacks on Christ and the Church through speech, writing, and exemplary conduct, while remaining respectful toward persons.
Catholic teaching rejects unjust insurrection and violence against constituted authority. At the same time, Pius XI allows that citizens cannot simply be condemned for joining together to defend themselves and the nation when those in power attack justice and truth and undermine the foundations of legitimate authority. Any such defense must use “licit and appropriate means.”
He gives important limits: resistance is a means, not an ultimate end; the means themselves must be morally licit; and the response must be proportionate, not bringing greater harm to society and justice than the wrong it seeks to remedy. Decisions involving political or technical questions, including violent defense, require prudential judgment and do not belong simply to the Church’s pastoral mission.
Thus, the cited teaching does not provide a general permission for armed revolt whenever Christians are persecuted. It establishes that resistance can be justified in grave circumstances, but insists that its means, proportionality, likely effects, and contribution to the common good be carefully assessed.
Resistance need not succeed politically to be faithful. Christian witness may consist precisely in refusing to cooperate with injustice and enduring the resulting suffering. Pius XII encourages persecuted Catholics to rely on God and persevere, recalling that persecutors pass away while God’s truth endures.
The theological foundation, then, is not hatred of persecutors or the sanctification of political violence. It is fidelity to God, respect for conscience and human dignity, defense of the Church’s freedom to fulfill her mission, and a commitment to peace and justice. The ordinary forms of resistance are witness, lawful defense of rights, solidarity with the persecuted, and refusal to do evil; more forceful resistance remains subject to strict moral limits.