The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-08-21
History of the Catholic Church
in Mexico
By Manuel Gomez.
By Manuel Gomez.
other things, the following:
Advice to the President.


Advice to the President.
We do not care, as some papers
have said in order to diseredit US, to
establish the inquisition nor reli-
uious persecution, but it is under
stood that the duty of the public
authority is to prevent the circula-
ton of impious books. -.
Under the leadership of the clerical
party Santa Ana's administration pro-
mulgated the so-called "Lares Law"
by which every publisher of newspa-
pers, books or pamphlets were COM
PEELED to place with the government
a bond of not less than $4,000 to be
confscated at discretion for offenses
against the ecclesiastical or civil
authorities. The law proceeded to de-
fine such offenses as: Attacks upon
the dogmas of the church, or express
sions of doubt in regard to her creed;
and criticism, however slight, directed
against the government or of its Of
fiers. 1t likewise established a secret
tribunal to deal with violations of its
provisions. m The operation Il Of this
measure Immediately suppressed the
liberal newspapers Ell Monitor, Ell In
structor Del Pueblo, Ell TELEGRAPH and
BibIeoteca Popular Mexicano.
It will be obvious by now that this
purely religious institution" the cath
Ole church, at least interpreted re-
ligion in an extremely loose sense.
The present Mexican government,
which has prohibited attacks on the
government by clerical publications,
understands that Interpretation very
well, and is acting upon it. There can
be no other Interpretation.
Ceremonies, Mysteries and Legends.
If, however, with christian" for
bearance, we manage to isolate those
activities of the church directly con-
nected with the so-called spiritual
world, we are confronted with such 4
degrading CONTEMPLATION of mumbo-
jumbo that we cannot fail to look for
Interior motives even here. Every
church in Mexico had its miracle and
every cathedral at least a hundred of
them. Legends were-and still are
assiduously circulated, of people who
had been raised from the dead thru
the fntercession of the catholic church.
Lepers were cured and the blind were
made to see. And all this as a re-
ward to "the faithful for their patient
allegiance to the Roman catholic
church. The overawing ceremonies of
the church, embellished with Aztec
pagan mysteries in the most cunning
theatrical fashion, are still in vogue
at the present time; but in the nine
teenth century they constituted veri-
table orgy of human debasement.
All of these spiritual exercises
served a single purpose: to fix the
authority of the catholic hierarchy be-
fore the powers of this and all other
worlds, and consecrate the very prin-
cipal of authority in all forms of life.
Consequently, the purely religious"
attributes of the church were the most
dangerously reactionary of all its at
tributes.
But we have already sufficiently In
dictated that the influence of the
church was by no means confined to
these fields. AS late as 1863 the pious
Pope Pious TX addressed a mandatory
letter to Macmillan, then about TO
begin his brief masquerade as emperor
Of Mexico.
A Letter from His Holiness.
asVour ma estv ls fully avvare that