The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-09-19

Il y
two levies made on the wealthy by
the Constituencies. The priests
of the colleges were charged with
conspiracy and held in solitary
confinement for six days by order
of General Dieguez, Governor of
the State of Jalisco, and the nuns
were kept under surveillance in
private houses. Later, all were
banished.
At present there are scores of
priests in Laredo and San An
tonic, Texas, and 400 priests and
200 nuns within the American
lines at Vera Cruz who have fled
from Mexico to escape the sacri-
legious barbarity Of the Carranza-
Villa assassins, while other priests
are in prison or in their graves as
a result of the enforcement of the
"Constitutionalist " idea Of liberty
All the refugees tell "the same
old tales Of the murder Of honest
citizens, of the ransacking and
plundering of churches and peace
full residences. ;" All of them are
destitute, many of the priests hav-
ing to serve as walters in cafes in
order to support themselves.
The spirit and purpose of
the So called Constituencies is
shown in the following para
graph, quoted by Rev. Eugene F.
Sugranes, G. M. F., in the "South-
ern Messenger of San Antonio,
Texas. It is taken from lei Bon
etc. which means biretta," a
most impious and vicious journal
published by the Constitutional
lists" in the confscated palace of
the Archbishop at Monterey:
eve shall prosecute those vul-
lures in cassock, the priests, until
we confound them and annihilate
them, until we render them i'm
potent and eXanimate 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 resuscitate
and revive. We want to eradicate
them, to Danish them, and to eX-
terminate them. We shall not be
satisfied with their exile. We
must prosecute them all over the
world, until we stamp them out.
This is a bloody war without
truce, without armistice, without
mercy, without pardon. -
Even the American Govern
ment, which has been a pronounc-
ed supporter Of Carranza and his
party, is becoming alarmed at the
wholesale expulsion Of religious,
and President Wilson has COM
missioned Paul Fuller, a Catholic
lawyer of New York, to go to
Mexico City to treat with Car
rama in an effort to persuade him
to put an end to the outrages on
Catholic priests and the desecra-
ton Of Catholic churches by his
followers. This is the very least
that the Government can do to
retrieve the blunders it has made
in it's policy towards Mexico.
From the very beginning it
showed it's sympathy with the So
called Constituencies whose
leaders have proved themselves to
be nothing more than bandits, and
it has made no secret of the fact
that it was anxious to place Car
rama in control in Mexico City.
On September 3, President Wilson
explained the status Of the MeXi-
can Executive by saying that he
was not the Provisional President
but only " first chief Of the Con
stitutionalist army" in temporary
charge of the executive power OF
the Republic. 1t seems that if
Carranza were to assume the title
Of Provisional President now, he
could not afterwards be elected to
the Presidency Of the Republic
and that, undoubtedly, is the aim
of his supporters and sympathizers
in our own Republic.