The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1914-09-19
CATHOLIC CHURCH
PERSECUTION IN MEXICO
Constitutionalists Wage Relentless
War Upon Priests and
Sisters.
Priests and Members of Religious
Orders Compelled to Flee
from Country.
New Government Acknowledged
by United States bitter toward
Catholic Church.

The policy of Church persecution
seems to be the only general policy
that the so-called constitutional
ists' have outlined as part of their
regime. The Catholic Church in
Mexico is being prosecuted with a
vigor unparalleled in the history of
that unfortunate country. Instead of
restoring peace and order, the CON
stltutionalists" have entered upon a
period Of wholesale destruction of
Church property and persecution of
everything that pertains to Cathol-
icity. The following outline of con-
ditions in Mexico. by Rev. L. F.
Sugranes, gives some idea of the
treatment of the Catholic Church and
its priests, bishops. and nuns in trou-
bled Mexico. He writes as follows:
However, not unlike a deep
seated disorder or malady in the
physical body. the symptoms of the
social malady that is sapping the
diseased Mexican nation do not pre-
sent or assume, at all times and
everywhere, the same alarming pro-
portions. But still, there can be
seen everywhere in Mexico the prin-
ciples that sustain and the motives
that guide and prompt the 'constitu-
tionalists' in their fiendish work of
religious bigotry and persecution
against the Catholic Church.
almost everywhere in the unfor-
tunate Mexican Republic, priests are
subjected to the most vexatious and
ignominious trials, and finally COM
PEELED to leave the country and flee
into the land of exile.
"The same old tales of the mur-
dering of honest citizens, of the ran
sacking and plundering of churches
and peaceful residences. are told and
repeated by the poor destitute refu-
gees"
After giving a detailed statement
of the barbarous treatment of priests
of San Luis Potosi, followed by their
Punishment. Father Sugranes contin-
ues:
cat this time, as am writing
are in the City of Mexico, after hav-
ing captured all the cities of the in
terror. With more or less vicious
ness. similar outrages against the
Catholic Church are being committed
all over the unfortunate republic.
Most of the Bishops are leaving the
country and priests are sailing away
by hundreds.
"The rebels, in many instances,
not satisfied with their predatory
deeds, have even made a display of
their impiety; thus, for instance,
rebel women have been seen entering
the cities in soldiers accoutrements,
riding on horses adorned with chasu-
bles and other sacred vestments.
There is custom in Mexico to take,
at II A. M, a sip of cognac or of
perhaps a mouthful of pastry. The
some other spurious beverage, with
'constitutionalists,' occupying the
Archbishop's residence at Monterey,
are said to use the chalices at that
time to drink their cognac. thus pro-
flaming the sacred vessels.
II shall close this article with a
paragraph taken from Eel Bonete,'
which means 'biretta,' most impious
and vicious journal. published by the
'constitutionalists' at the very palace
of the Archbishop. at Monterey.
"'We shall persecute those vul-
lures in cassock, the priests. until
we confound them and annihilate
them, until we render them impotent
and inanimate or dead. We shall
not only endeavor to crush them. but
to finish them. Our constant aim is
not only to, .humiliate them. but to
extinguish them. We do not want
them to capitulate. they might re-
suscitate and revive. We want to
eradicate them. to Danish them. and
to exterminate them. We shall not
be satisfied with their exile. We
must persecute them all over the
world, until we stamp them out. This
is bloody war without truce, with
out armistice, without mercy, with
out pardon"
The following press dispatch from
Continued on Page y