Upon concluding the 119th Plenary Assembly of the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), held from November 10 to 14, 2025, in Cuautitlán Izcalli, the bishops issue a pastoral message titled «Church in Mexico: Memory and Prophecy – Pilgrims of Hope toward the Centenary of our Martyrs». Under the new pontificate of Leo XIV, they emphasize ecclesial unity and world peace as evangelical axes, and outline a jubilee route 2025-2031-2033 centered on hope, with emphasis on the Cristero centenary of 2026 as a call to faithful radicality amid the current crisis.
The document denounces with prophecy the gap between official narratives and Mexican reality, highlighting violence, corruption, poverty, forced migration, and family breakdown, while proposing transideological dialogue to transform society with Christ the King and Guadalupe as guides.
The bishops trace an itinerary of grace converging toward the Risen Jesus Christ, mediated by the Virgin of Guadalupe. The 2025 Jubilee Year, convened by Francis, closes by recalling the theological hope (Rom 5:5) as pilgrimage, not evasion, and commemorates the centenary of *Quas Primas* (Pius XI) with 38 catecheses «Thy Kingdom Come». They challenge: who reigns in Mexico—Christ or idols like power, money, and violence?
2026 marks the centenary of the Cristero Resistance, triggered by the Calles Law (1926) after the proclamation of Christ the King. No coincidence, but providential: before the totalitarian State claiming absolute sovereignty over consciences, repressed Catholics began the armed uprising in 1927. They honor more than 200,000 martyrs—children, youth, elderly, laity, priests—who shouted ¡Viva Cristo Rey! affirming God’s primacy over oppressors.
The centenary should not be nostalgia, but an examination of conscience: do we defend the faith with equal radicality? Have we relegated the sacred to the private sphere? The martyrs challenge against cultural accommodation and demand renewed commitment for religious freedom and human dignity.
It culminates in 2031 (V Centennial Guadalupano) as intercultural reconciliation and liberation from violence/poverty, and 2033 (bimillennium of the Redemption). This route builds the «Hope of Mexico» through synodality, accompaniment of migrants, and effective pastoral norms.
The bishops speak with «firmness that springs from love» (Leo XIV, *Dilexi Te*), without partisanship. They denounce official narratives that contrast with real suffering, violence does not decrease, families mourn the disappeared, populations live in terror, murders, kidnappings, systematic extortions affect businessmen, farmers, transporters, and the humble; the State cedes territories to criminals without recovering them. Priests, nuns, and pastoral agents are threatened and murdered; youth forcibly recruited into «extermination camps». This reveals social degradation demanding personal/collective conversion. Forced migration expels Mexicans due to violence; Central American brothers suffer extortion, trafficking, and death on routes. The Church responds with shelters and defense of rights: the migrant is «Christ crucified».
Corruption persists with impunity in serious scandals. Freedoms erode: criticisms are discredited from power. Democratic institutions are compromised to concentrate arbitrary authority, denying genuine citizen participation. Educational policies impose relativistic anthropological visions (dilution of male-female complementarity, ideology of confrontation) without dialogue with parents, violating their primary right. Those who are critical are labeled «conservatives» or «enemies of rights»; the State arrogates to itself the definition of the human being above nature and Revelation.
The economy is not going well: families cannot cover the basic basket; youth lack job opportunities. This aggravates family breakdown—domestic violence, addictions, disintegration—as the «wounded heart» of society. Policies that do not protect the family generate social chaos.
The bishops call not to be pessimistic because Christian hope overcomes evil by recognizing it. The martyrs resisted without expecting state benevolence; today, pilgrims undertake peace, solidarity, and justice. The message states that the bishops have no magical solutions, but seek in dialogue with those who «truly love Mexico», beyond parties, ideologies, or creeds. Under the mantle of the Virgin of Guadalupe—bridge of cultures, support of martyrs—, they call to build with Christ the King a future of reconciliation. ¡Viva Cristo Rey! and ¡Santa María de Guadalupe!
The full message can be read here.
Message to the People of God_CXIX AP