Crisis in Mexico
CRISIS IN MEXICO RELATIONS between the governments of the United States and Mexico are of such a character that no citizen can remain indifferent to what will happen in the near future....
...Guthrie admits that there are many historical precedents to support governmental protest or even action in defense of religious liberty...
...Whether or not the settlement of property difficulties can be arrived at without recourse to arms...
...whether, under the Monroe Doctrine, the State Department can risk further jeopardy to the prestige of the United States in Latin America and elsewhere in the world—these are grave and ominous matters which cannot, indeed, be solved by public opinion, but which must perforce deeply impress the public mind...
...Meanwhile confiscation of ecclesiastical property and repression of the right to educate have been carried out in Mexico, as Mr...
...Guthrie, "the Roman Catholic Church could not reasonably or properly have accepted or submitted to any such control and supervision...
...Guthrie's opinion sums up succinctly the various anti-religious clauses of the Mexican Constitution and of President Calles's decree, showing how these abrogate rights and privileges championed by centuries of enlightened legislation and specifically upheld by United States courts...
...It is so absolute a violation of our code of living, and so harsh a denial of the law of nations, that it is almost incomprehensible to an American...
...Guthrie shows admirably, in complete and basic contradiction of elemental American principles...
...History has recorded its tragedies in vain for those who do not realize that interference and intervention by the United States in Mexico in order to compel religious liberty, might precipitate the horrors and atrocities of civil war and that worst of all scourges, a religious civil war...
...Certainly, no precedent of any such complete absorption of church control and legislation or governance of divine worship even in state churches by the state has ever before been attempted in modern times except in Soviet Russia and Jacobin France, and no such precedent can be recalled in the history of Christianity or Judaism...
...on behalf of Peruvian Protestants...
...Thus Catholic citizens will be offered a declaration upon which they can unite with reasonable assurance of thinking justly in a just cause...
...Should the Church have submitted peaceably instead of promulgating its call to resistance and imposing a partial interdict...
...We know that the sad fury has further endangered the well-nigh untenable finances of the country, and that omens of bloody rebellion are increasing...
...We do not know, at this writing, what the tenor of this communication—in itself almost unprecedented—will be, but doubtless it will conform in the main with the opinions of Mr...
...That time has passed...
...Meanwhile the persecution of religion in Mexico continues...
...This has now been accomplished by William D. Guthrie, of New York City, acting as a distinguished professional attorney and replying to a request from the American hierarchy...
...A few weeks ago many people— for reasons which varied from indifferent optimism to sectarian scurrility—were inclined to look upon the plight of the Catholic Church rather condescendingly and coldly...
...Guthrie...
...144...
...and, incidentally at least, in support of the non-communistic elements in modern Russia...
...And religion...
...that religion, driven out of sight, is finding a deep and permanent refuge in countless hearts, and that, quite silently and yet beautifully, the practice which has made Mexico part of Christendom is alive...
...Guthrie declares—and here The Commonweal has always been in substantial agreement with him—that "interference on our part might do the cause of liberty and religion more harm than any possible good...
...But Mr...
...On the contrary, a more complete subjugation of Church to state could not be devised by the wit of man...
...Guthrie's cannot be overestimated in so far as its effect upon American opinion generally is concerned...
...To set it against the background of legal tradition was, therefore, a necessary if not an easy task...
...The one is, indeed, the brutal reverse of the other...
...Therefore, the undersigned American counsel is persuaded that thoughtful Catholics will not endeavor by agitation, political or otherwise, to force the hand of our government, far better advised as it must be of conditions in Mexico than others usually are...
...A brief news despatch recently informed the world that a prelate had been arrested and fined for conducting a service in private...
...Every persecution repeats the same tale...
...It is there...
...In the opinion of the undersigned American counsel," continues Mr...
...Every single one of the Mexican provisions has been ruled upon by some United States court, and every single one has been repudiated...
...whether the internal condition of Mexico is diseased to a stage beyond the influence of constitutional remedies...
...Guthrie's review of precedent is thorough, unimpeachable and gratifying...
...No reader of this document could avoid realizing that, whatever narrownesses and petty abuses may exist in the history of the United States, a manifesto of this character would never have been signed by any President of ours...
...Afterward the details of practical action can be established and carried through...
...History shows that the United States used its influence in favor of Japanese Christians...
...In the very near future a joint pastoral letter from the Catholic bishops dealing with the problem will have become public property...
...In fact, had the undersigned been consulted prior to the action of the Mexican Catholic hierarchy and the Papacy in ordering the discontinuance of religious services in the Catholic churches, he would, with the deepest sense of professional duty and responsibility, have advised the cessation of all religious services under such governmental control and supervision, because in his opinion submission would invariably lead to the subordination of the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico to the power of the state, the dictation of politicians, the complete union of Church and state, and the sacrifice of the independence and freedom which are essential to the true and proper functioning and discipline of any church of whatever religion...
...It may be added that this has been the feeling of official Catholic leaders from the beginning—that it has inspired the noble language of the Mexican hierarchy and the counsel of the Vatican...
...It comments summarily upon the provision denying to religious bodies any status as persons before the court as follows: "It would, as it seems to the undersigned American counsel, be simply preposterous to claim that these provisions were intended to produce or promote in good faith the separation of Church and state in Mexico...
...Even "liberal" thought has discovered that while Mr...
...No ruler can violate justice without at the same time encouraging whatever is restless and lawless in his dominion to rise up against him...
...Wilson of having approved of "socialism" in Mexico were obviously fabricating, the fact remains that United States money and influence have sometimes precipitated revolution in Montezuma land...
...Our national custom and the Calles procedure have nothing in common...
...The importance of a pronouncement so judicious and official as Mr...
...Historically, relations have often been strained, and sometimes the Washington government was clearly in the wrong...
...John Dewey was blandly acting in the capacity of a Calles propagandist, the Mexican President himself issued, on June 14, 1926, a decree, made up of peremptory penal rulings, which arbitrarily swept away such shreds of religious and personal liberty as had been overlooked by the Constitution of 1917...
...We cannot lose sight of it...
...Recently some of these same precedents were also outlined in an important address delivered to the Cleveland convention of the National Catholic Council of Men, by the Honorable Morgan J. O'Brien...
...Meanwhile the religious struggle precipitated by President Calles has dragged on through weary months of spiritual, physical, and economic suffering...
...But we have reliable information to the effect that in very many places Mass is being offered in private homes...
...And between the roles of Nero and Peter history always places the wide gulf of honor, heroism, and spiritual sacrifice...
...Though the propagandists who recently accused Mr...
...But he goes on to concede that whatever we as a people may think of Mexico, it is extremely difficult to decide what should be done regarding Mexico...
Vol. 5 • December 1926 • No. 6
