The bishop of Cuernavaca and president of the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), Ramón Castro Castro, has delivered a new catechesis in the series “Witnesses of the Kingdom,” dedicated to St. José Sánchez del Río, the 14-year-old adolescent martyred in 1928 during the religious persecution and today patron of youth.
The series “Witnesses of the Kingdom,” launched in mid-July 2026, is set within the centenary of Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas, which instituted the solemnity of Christ the King, and in memory of the Mexican martyrs of the Cristero War. It is not a nostalgic evocation nor an ideological banner, but a proposal of discipleship: the Church sees in its martyrs “made life in Mexican flesh” the truth that death does not have the last word and that life in Christ is stronger than any threat.
Castro begins with the striking image of the boy walking toward the cemetery with the soles of his feet flayed and, instead of cursing, shouting with all his strength: “Long live Christ the King!”. He was a boy from Sahuayo, cheerful and ordinary, who played, prayed the rosary, and served in his parish. When the persecution closed the churches and hunted priests, José, barely 13 years old, wanted to defend his faith. To his mother, who doubted, he said clearly: “It has never been so easy to gain heaven and I do not want to miss the opportunity.”
He did not take up arms. He carried the banner, played the bugle, and led the rosary in the camp. In one battle, the Cristero general’s horse was killed. José, without hesitation, gave him his own: “Take my horse, for you are more needed by the cause than I am.” For that act he was captured. He was locked in his own church, turned into a barracks and corral. His godfather, a powerful congressman, offered him money and studies abroad if he would renounce Christ. The boy said no. He asked for his mother’s blessing and wrote: “We will see each other in heaven.”
On the night of February 10, 1928, they cut the skin from his feet and made him walk to the cemetery. They offered him his life in exchange for shouting “Death to Christ the King!” He never did. Until the end he repeated: “Long live Christ the King and Holy Mary of Guadalupe!” He was 14 years old.
The prelate then turns his gaze to today’s young people: “God wants you to be holy and is not content with you living halfway. Do not be afraid to aim very high.” He warns that many want to steal their sense of life and reduce them to consumers, slaves of screens, fear, and fashions. That is why he recalls that Pope Leo XIV, in the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, asks to safeguard the person, especially the young. Joselito shows that a young heart is capable of the greatest things. Like the prophets whom God calls from childhood, he proclaimed that Christ reigns and, without hatred, denounced that no power enslaves a conscience: forceful in truth, unarmed in manner.
The question the bishop leaves is direct: “And you, what do you cling to?” Joselito gave his life because he understood it as a gift, not as a possession. That is why he could say that it had never been so easy to gain heaven. “Do not be afraid to be holy, to discover your vocation, to give everything for love. May his ‘Long live Christ the King!’ once again set the heart of Mexico’s youth on fire.”
The catechesis closes with the simple and powerful invocation: “St. José Sánchez del Río, Joselito, pray for us.” In a country where violence, indifference, and the seductions of a culture of immediacy erode convictions, the testimony of the child martyr of Sahuayo is not a memory of the past: it is a present provocation. Monsignor Castro does not offer a distant heroic speech, but a concrete call to daily fidelity, to the courage not to give in, and to the freedom of a conscience that only surrenders before Christ.
The series “Witnesses of the Kingdom” thus continues its journey of grateful memory and pastoral proposal. The full video of this installment can be viewed on the official channel of the Mexican Episcopal Conference.