The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-11-17
HISTORY OF MEXICO.
BY Eber Cole 5yam.
PART xxx.

at AllduJlC SlJy say
81 do not know of any book, PAM
phlet, or publication of the Mexican
situation which has been made with a
scientific purpose. The sources of in
formation have been either newspaper
correspondents, who discard SO per
cent of important facts because they
cannot extract therefrom a sensation
al headline for their paper, OF
etc, etc.
We must pay Mr.. Cabrera the COM
pliment of having to that extent cor
rectly analysed the American news
gatherer. Mr. Cabrera, however, then
proceeds to initiate the reporters
whom he criticizes, by saying:
However, when the clergy acquired
vast wealth, and the Church became
the great landowner" etc.
He also tells us that:
During the long government of
General DiaZ, the Catholic clergy,
creeping on from point to point in
concealed form, recovered much of its
temporal power and rebuilt part of it's
fortune"
The temporal power in Mexico is
the same temporal power exercised
by the Catholic Church in the United
States. Creeping on from point to,
point in the concealed form" and RE
built part of it's fortune" refer to the
return of the priests to work and edu-
cate among the Faithful. What Mr..
Cabrera says is proof sufficient that
the Laws of Reform were really in
tended to destroy the Catholic Church
utterly-if the Mexican revolutionists
themselves had not already told us SO.
In his pamphlet on 'The Religious
Question in Mexico" Mr.. Cabrera tells
us that:
The aim of the Revolution of
Ayutla, from 1856 to 1859, was to de-
prive the Church of economic power
and of its social influence, and it was
to place the Church in a condition
which apparently is disadvantageous
and unjust but which in reality was
and continues to be the only possible
manner of reducing the Catholic
clergy to impotence"
There we have the whole thing in
a nutshell.
Even excluding the unlettered ele
ments of the population, the great ma
jority of the Mexicans are against the
Laws of Reform, and would have them
repealed. Under the supposed good
faith of Madero, party was organ
lied to this end. Mr.. Cabrera says
of this:
This group took the name of Cath
Ollie Party with deliberate intention
of taking advantage of the religious
sentiments of the population to induce
it to vote in conformity with their
directions. The Catholic Party is, in
nutshell, the political organization
of the Catholic Church of Mexico.
This single fact constitutes peril for
democratic institutions, and was nat
urally bound to be looked upon with
great disfavor by the anti-Reelectionist
Party, first, and later by the Constitu-
tionalist Party
IN spite of all this, Mr.. Cabrera as
sures us that:
ut has never been intended to deny
Mexican Catholics either the exercise
of their religion or their right to take
part in the political affairs of Mexico.
We Constituencies are Catholics;
the Villaistas are Catholics; the Ia
patistas are Catholics; SO per cent of
the Mexican population is Catholic"
What part of his declarations would
Mr. Cabrera have us believe?
Mena's Pamphlet.
Another pamphlet is by Attorney"
Rodolfo Menendez Mena, of Merida,
Yucatan. Mr.. Mena acknowledges a
fear that the enemies of socialism may
harm the cause by exposing the real
intent of the Mexican Revolution. He
says that the propaganda against it.
Must have impressed, and, in fact
has impressed, in painful and pro-
found manner a nation so eminent1y
religious as the American people; a
nation so jealous of freedom of
thought, and SO respectful of another's
beliefs He then says that "The
fight in Mexico is a struggle exclu-
sively against the clergy, against the
Catholic clergy in Mexico' To JUS
tify this fight against the clergy he
says:
THE clergy, therefore, had a direct
personal interest in keeping the ma
tives in a perpetual state of blind
Ignorance. instruction, if we
dare call it by this name, was entirely
in the hands of the clergy, and, as
regards the Indian, he was taught the
Catechism -not Christian, but Cath
Ollie. ~
Now, whom are we to believe-Mr.
Mena or Mr. Cabrera?
In 'bemoaning the failure of the
Laws of Reform to destroy the
Church, Mr.. Mena says:
1T was impossible to close the eyes
of the Mexican so that he would not
see any idols . = read any cler-
,ical literature; it was impossible to
plug his ears so that he would not
hear any more sermons y nor
was it possible to stiffen his lips so
that he place no more kisses on the
feet of saints or the dirty hands of
sinners, or on the contaminated orna-
ments of priests and images; no one
saOuld nail his 1npC ca 4hot he cI,o,,Id