Opinion became so polarized by the middle of the nineteenth century that Catholicism ceased to be the principal factor of national unity.
Anne Staples, 19 8 9264
Most of the drafters of the 1857 constitution were Catholics who wanted to end close Church-state ties. They felt that only by eliminating the Catholic Church as a political and economic force, though not as a religious one, could Mexico become a modern nation. Others thought the Church too prone to support abusive centralized power.265
The Church responded as if the authors of the constitution belonged to a satanic cult, when, in fact, they had taken their oath to the constitution before a crucifix and the first line of the document mentioned God. In response to the Lerdo and Juarez Laws, Pope Pius IX declared:
We raise our Pontifical voice in apostolic liberty. . . to condemn, to reprove, and declare null
And void the said decrees and everything else that the civil authority has done in scorn of
Ecclesiastical authority and of this Holy See.266
The Church also condemned the 1857 religious toleration implied (but not explicitly stated) by the 1857 constitution. The Archbishop of Mexico presented a petition to Congress demanding the prohibition of any religion other than Roman Catholicism.267
The Church subsequently made what were, from a political point of view, two disastrous mistakes. Its rejection of the reform laws led to the War of Reform. Then the Church responded to the liberal victory in the War of Reform by promoting French intervention, hoping to regain from a Catholic prince what it had lost to Mexican liberals. The Archbishop of Mexico even served as a member of the French-imposed triumvirate that offered the throne to Maximilian.268
After Maximilian’s defeat, the Church’s standing plummeted, since it not only lost its material wealth but was stigmatized for having cast its lot with those whom the victorious liberals branded as reactionary enemies of the state. The nation as whole lost out because it suffered two wars. In addition, before the Church’s wealth was nationalized, much of it had been used to support social services. Many of these assets were transferred to the landed classes, leaving the poor without hospitals, foundling homes, schools, and orphanages. The nation also lost out because priests were denied a role in politics. In early independent Mexico, they had been an integral part of public life. After the French intervention, priests, who were among the best educated in Mexico, were denied a political role.269
After the defeat of the empire, the Church benefited from Juarez’s conciliatory policy. The right to vote was returned to the clergy and an amnesty removed the threat of prosecution from those who had supported Maximilian. In 1868, Pope Pius IX designated six new bishops to fill vacant sees in Mexico. Rather than pursuing old vendettas, Juarez concentrated on reconstructing the nation and fighting off military rivals.270
During the Porfiriato, toleration and reconciliation between Church and state reflected Diaz’s general policy of not letting old antagonisms needlessly interfere with current governance. Nuns in convents were warned of inspections, so when government inspectors arrived to see if illegal convents were being maintained, they found nothing and could file a report stating the law had been upheld. By 1907, the Church was operating 586 primary schools. That same year, the old Palafox Seminary became a degree-granting Catholic university. The Church maintained loose links with more than twenty-three newspapers. By the end of the Porfiriato, the Church had again become a landowner, with lands and buildings registered in the names of intermediaries. Whenever Diaz dedicated a government project, a robed priest stood at his side to add his blessing. The number of clergy increased from 3,576 in 1895 to 4,533 in 1910. Diaz’s approach to improved relations with the Church was typically Mexican: he did not repeal anti-clerical legislation— he simply did not enforce it.271
Rural priests resumed their positions—or in some cases retained them—as the true authorities in many villages. Only rarely were laws restricting fiestas and religious processions enforced in rural Mexico. Historian Luis Gonzalez y Gonzalez noted that in San Jose de Gracia, during the first decade of the twentieth century:
Padre Othon was the highest authority. The political leaders who were called “peace officers,” and the judges, known as jefes de acordada, recognized and bowed to the priest’s supremacy; they consulted with him about what was to be done, and they worked closely with him in providing the few public services required by the village.272
In 1900, Monsignor Montes de Oca, bishop of San Luis Potosi, declared, “The religious pacification. . . has been achieved in Mexico despite the laws remaining unchanged, thanks to the wisdom and valor of the illustrious man who governs us.” Even though a few doctrinaire liberals, such as Camilo Arriaga, took umbrage at the Church’s resurgence, the majority of Mexico’s population welcomed it. Diaz’s rapprochement with the Church made a political ally of a traditional foe and avoided renewed conflict between liberals and conservatives that would have sidetracked political consolidation and economic development.273
While doctrinaire liberals continued to demand suppressing the Church as a reactionary body, within the Church a current developed in response to the social problems of an emerging industrial society. This current became known as the Catholic Social Action Movement. It originated during the last years of the nineteenth century and drew inspiration from Pope Leo Xlll’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which called for Catholics to combat the evils of both “savage” capitalism and socialism. Rather than accepting either ideology, it proposed a third path based on small and mediumsized family properties.274
As American influence increased and religious freedom was allowed by the 1857 constitution, Protestantism became a significant religious force in Mexico. Hundreds of American lay preachers took up residence in Mexico. By 1910, an estimated 700 Protestant congregations with roughly
70,000 members had been established. They were concentrated in major urban areas and in areas where economic transformation had been most profound, especially those areas associated with the railroad and mining. Protestants adopted not only different religious beliefs but embraced modernity, education, and the view that the world was an orderly place marching to progress. Diaz actively encouraged Protestantism since he felt it would break the Catholics’ religious monopoly and that the presence of Protestant churches would make U. S. investors feel more welcome.275
World History
