| August 1 is drawing ever closer—the day that marks a century since the Mexican bishops ordered the closure of churches and the suspension of Masses and sacraments throughout the country. |
| The bishops took this measure to express their disagreement with the anti-Catholic policy pursued by President Plutarco Elías Calles. |
| After the suspension of worship, armed rebellions began… |
| A general protest carried out by force of arms, in which eighteen states of the Mexican Republic took part. |
| A century is about to pass since that armed movement known as the Cristero War. |
| The Cristero War—an epic worthy of being sung by poets in the style of Homer’s “Iliad” or Virgil’s “Aeneid.” |
| Yet, once the conflict ended, a veil of silence was drawn over what had happened. |
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| It is logical that this should have happened, because the system founded by Calles and embodied in a single party had no interest in acknowledging that a handful of illiterate ranchers, poorly armed with shotguns, had come close to defeating the powerful Mexican army—backed, moreover, by the strongest army in the world, that of the United States. |
| A humiliating shame for the System (PRI-GOVERNMENT) that ruled the country for seven decades through a single party. |
| That explains the veil of silence. |
| Now, on another note, it is worth asking: How legitimate was the Cristeros’ rebellion? |
| Of course—according to the laws then in force—the Calles government was legal, because it rested on legal foundations derived from the Constitution. |
| Given that, was the Cristeros’ rebellion legitimate? |
| It is here that we draw a distinction between legality and legitimacy. |
| *Legality: Concerns the external aspect—that is, the form. In this case, any act that conforms to the law in force is legal. |
| *Legitimacy: Is something much deeper, for it is based on the support that the act enjoys in Natural Law. |
| Thus, a law ordering the killing of the elderly may be legal, yet at the same time illegitimate, because that law violates the sacred right to life. |
| Whoever disobeys such a law will be acting legitimately, even though committing an offense against legality. |
| Here, what matters most is legitimacy, even if legality is lacking. |
| A ruler may have come to power in accordance with the legal norms in force, yet lose legitimacy if he attacks sacred natural rights. |
| Such was the case of Calles who—despite enjoying legality—lost legitimacy by preventing the people from freely practicing their religion. |
| And, lacking legitimacy as a ruler, it was only logical that the people should oppose an illegitimate and dictatorial leader. |
| It is worth recalling some verses written by Lope de Vega back in the seventeenth century: |
| “All that the king commands
If it goes against what God commands
Has no force of law
Nor is he king who demands it” |
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| Lope de Vega |
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| According to this, the orders given by Calles not only lacked the force that a law must have, but—most importantly—Calles lacked the moral authority to enforce them. |
| Thus, the Cristero movement (the Cristero War) was something entirely legitimate. |
| When the Cristeros had taken up arms, many felt scruples of conscience when deciding whether or not to rebel against the government. |
| It was then that Msgr. José María González Valencia, Archbishop of Durango, published a Pastoral Letter dated February 11, 1927, from which we highlight a paragraph that clarifies the matter: |
| “….We never provoked this armed movement. But once all peaceful means have been exhausted and that movement exists, to our Catholic children who have taken up arms in defense of their social and religious rights, after long reflection before God and after consulting the wisest theologians in the city of Rome, we must say to them: Be at peace in your consciences and receive our blessing.” |
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