Viva Christo Rey!

Our Catholic neighbors to the south in Mexico have a long and rich Catholic history that dates back to the Spanish exploration and colonization in the 16th Century. In 1531, Our Blessed Mother appeared to St. Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill near today’s Mexico City and dramatically transformed the Americas for Christ her Son.  

 
Unfortunately, the Church in Mexico has experienced brutal persecution and oppression by civil authorities, the worst of which occurred in the 1920s when an anti-Catholic / secular regime led by President Plutarco Calles sought to crush the Catholic Church.  The faithful fought back, however, in what became known as the Cristero War.  Thousands of the faithful were martyred during the struggle including priests, religious and laypeople.  At age fourteen-years-old, the youngest of these martyr / saints was José de Jesús Sánchez del Río.  He was canonized by Pope Francis in October 2016.  The Cristero War was dramatized in the 2012 movie For Greater Glory.  The Knights of Columbus has an excellent webpage dedicated to the Catholic martyrs, six of whom were members of the order and have been canonized by the Church.  See https://www.kofc.org/en/news-room/mexican-martyrs/index.html  

Among those Catholic priests martyred for the Church and his unwavering faith in Jesus Christ was Jose Ramon Miguel Agustin Pro.  Miguel was born in Guadalupe, Mexico on 12 January 1891.  At age twenty, he entered the Jesuit novitiate in El Lano, Michoacan.  In 1914, he was forced to flee Mexico for the United States when the Mexico government unleashed fierce anti-Catholic persecutions.  He continued his seminary studies in Spain and was ordained a priest in Belgium in 1925.  

 
By the time of Miguel’s ordination, the Church had been driven underground by the Mexican government’s persecutions.  Later that year, his superiors permitted him to re-enter Mexico incognito and undertake a covert ministry.  While in Mexico, Father Miguel carried out a courageous ministry, often donning artful disguises to administer the Sacraments and care for the faithful.  In November 1927, he and two of his brothers were betrayed by a government informant and arrested.  He was convicted on the false charges of plotting to assassinate the new president-elect Plutarco Calles, who subsequently ordered his execution by firing squad.  On the day of his execution November 23rd, he courageously blessed the firing squad and forgave them.  Holding out his arms with a Rosary in one hand and a Crucifix in the other, he proclaimed, “Viva Christo Rey!”  (Long live Christ the King!).  “In fact, the deepest of devotion to others was his passionate love for Jesus Christ and his burning desire to identify with him, even in his death,” said Pope St. John Paul II at his beatification on 25 September 1988.

 
As Blessed Miguel Pro died with the words “Viva Christo Rey! (Long live Christ the King!)”, may we live with those words in our hearts.