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“Restoring Christian Social Order”: The Mexican Catholic Youth Association (1913-1932)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

David Espinosa
David Espinosa*
Affiliation:
Rhode Island College, Providence, Rhode Island
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Extract

[our goal] is nothing less that the coordination of the living forces of Mexican Catholic youth for the purpose of restoring Christian social order in Mexico …

(A.C.J.M.’s “General Statutes”)

The Mexican Catholic Youth Association emerged during the Mexican Revolution dedicated to the goal of creating lay activists with a Catholic vision for society. The history of this Jesuit organization provides insights into Church-State relations from the military phase of the Mexican Revolution to its consolidation in the 1920s and 1930s. The Church-State conflict is a basic issue in Mexico's political struggles of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with the Church mobilizing forces wherever it could during these years dominated by anticlericalism. During the 1920s, the Mexican Catholic Youth Association (A.C.J.M.) was in the forefront of the Church's efforts to respond to the government's anticlerical policies. The A.C.J.M.’s subsequent estrangement from the top Church leadership also serves to highlight the complex relationship that existed between the Mexican bishops and the Catholic laity and the ideological divisions that existed within Mexico's Catholic community as a whole.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 59 , Issue 4 , April 2003 , pp. 451 - 474
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2003

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References

1 Bergöend was physically unimposing, being short, stout, and nearsighted. However, he was energetic and possessed a capacity for winning the trust and loyalty of others, as seen in the reverential manner that Bergöend is discussed in the works published by followers like Andrés Barquín y Ruiz, Antonio Rius Facius, and Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra.

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11 The 1917 Constitution addressed a broad range of issues that were important to the victorious revolutionaries: like land reform, workers’ rights and economic national sovereignty. The 1917 Constitution was in fact far more politically progressive than Carranza cared for, and it was years before these provisions took effect.

12 The details of Bergöend's escape from Mexico, his exile, and his return to his adopted country remain unknown and are an important lacuna in the history of the Jesuit's life and ministry. Archival information preserved by the Society of Jesus on Jesuits working and living in Mexico during the twentieth century is currently inaccessible to lay scholars. This archive could possibly fill in this gap in Bernardo Bergöend's life.

13 Ruiz, Barquín y, Bernardo Bergöend S.J., p. 82.Google Scholar

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15 Facius, Antonio Rius, De Don Porfirio a Plutarco: Historia de la A.C.J.M. (Mexico City: Editorial Jus, 1958), p. 285.Google Scholar

16 The Union of Catholic Ladies was known originally as the “Asociación de Damas Católicas Mexicanas.”

17 Ruiz, Barquín y, Bernardo Bergöend S.J, p. 64;Google Scholar Rius Facius, pp. 172, 220, 262.

18 Ruiz, Barquín y, Bernardo Bergöend S.J., p. 63.Google Scholar

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20 Miguel Jiménez Rueda, “El Padre Bergöend S.J. y el Centro de Estudiantes Católicos,” No date, Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection, Section: Organizaciones Católicas, Series: A.C.J.M., Box 46 File 333, Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

21 Decorine, Gerardo S.J., Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la República Mexicana durante el Siglo XIX: Restuaración y Vida Secularizada 1848–1880 Vol. II (Guadalajara: J.M. Yguiniz, 1921), p. 264;Google Scholar Ramírez, Manuel Ceballos, El Catolicismo Social. Un Tercero en discordia (Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 1991), p. 164.Google Scholar Since 1870 Jesuit schools in Mexico had been seats for Marian Congregations, a sixteenth-century institution whose goal was to: “Collect isolated energies; group together the healthiest and purest elements of Mexican youth, create a nucleus of men of faith and of profound convictions…. In short, prepare a vigorous and dignified generation….” These groups existed in eight Mexican cities by the end of the Porfiriato.

22 González, Joaquín, “Don Bernardo Bergöend,” Excelsior 20 October 1943.Google Scholar

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24 Joaquín Silva y Carrasco was the son of an engineer and worked in his father's chocolate factory. He was also the nephew of a high-ranking member of the Catholic Church's hierarchy.

25 Salvador Vargas, a shoemaker, had received some level of education at the local A.C.J.M. chapter's night school.

26 Rius Facius simply describes these two men as being “humble.” As they belonged to locals located in urban areas, it can be assumed that they were unskilled laborers.

27 “Letter to the Roberto Guerra, S.J from Mario Resendes Martínez, National Head of Integralismo Nacional and Andrés Barquín y Ruiz, General Secretary of Integralismo Nacional,” 12 July 1952, Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection, Section: Organizaciones Católicas, Series: A.C.J.M., File 336 Box 46, Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

28 Mariano Cuevas, S.J., Historia de la Iglesia en Mexico Vol. 5 Appendix 1 (El Paso, Texas: Editorial Revista Católica, 1928), p. 423.Google Scholar

29 “Letter from Bernardo Bergöend, S.J. to Eduardo Hernández,” 15 June 1917, reproduced in Antonio Rius Facius, De Don Porfirio a Plutarco, n.p.

30 Ruiz, Barquín y, Bernardo Bergöend S.J., p. 215.Google Scholar

31 The Constitution of 1917 prohibited the reelection of all office holders. This was in response to Porfirio Díaz's practice of standing for reelection during his long hold on the presidency (1876–1880; 1884–1911).

32 The 1920s also marked by the entry of organized labor into the world of formal politics. The government affiliated “Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana” (CROM) and the anarchist “Confederación General de Trabajadores” (CGT) both used violence against each other in order to win control over the Mexican organized labor movement. They also targeted the National Catholic Labor Confederation, with whom they competed for adherents.

33 Facius, Rius, De Don Porfirio a Plutarco, p. 179.Google Scholar

34 Ibid., pp. 183–184.

35 “Los Acontecimientos del lo de Mayo, “ 3 May 1922, Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection, Section: Organizaciones Católicas Series: A.C.J.M., Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

36 “Telegram from the President of the Republic, P. Elías Calles, to Juan Federico Philippi” 28 July 1926, Pascual Díaz Archive, Box 5 File 192, Archivo Histórico del Arzobispado Primado de México.

37 y Vizcarra's, Miguel Palomar family had held the title of Marquis of Pánuco during the colonial era (Diccionario Porrúa de Historia, Biografía, Geografía de México [Mexico City: Editorial Porrúa, 1986], 2188).Google Scholar

38 “Letter from the ‘Centro de Estudiantes Católicos Mexicanos’ to Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra” 21 May 1918 Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Bergöend appointed Palomar y Vizcarra to head the ACJM's Mexico City study groups in 1918.

39 “Speech of Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra to the First National Eucharist Congress” 9 October 1924. Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

40 y Ruíz, Andrés Barquín, Luis Segura Vilchis (Mexico City: Editorial Jus, 1967), pp. 80–82.Google Scholar

41 “El pueblo mexicano se organiza para defender sus libertades,” El País, 22 March 1925.

42 “Letter from Ramón Ruiz to Andrés Barquín y Ruiz,” 13 December 1927, Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. The League was inspired in a proposal Bergöend had made years earlier for the creation of a “Civic League of Civil Resistance in order to combat the influence of “American Protestantism” in post-revolutionary Mexico and the “antireligious hostility of the [Mexican] state” ( Ruiz, Barquín y, Luis Segura Vilchis, pp. 80–83).Google Scholar

43 “Programa de Boycott,” 7 July 1926, Pascual Díaz Archive, Box 5 File 192, Archivo Histórico del Arzobispado Primado de México.

44 They also petitioned the bishops to provide the Cristero guerrilla bands with chaplains in order to provide spiritual comfort to the Cristero guerrilla bands. Finally, they wanted the bishops to appeal to wealthy Catholics for the money needed to sustain the armed movement. The bishops did turn down their request for chaplains and they informed the L.N.D.L.R. leadership that, in their opinion, it would “very difficult, almost impossible, and particularly dangerous” for them to appeal for money from wealthy Catholics for the Cristero cause.

45 Untitled document, 13 May 1929, Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection, Section: Organizaciones Católicas Series: L.N.D.L.R., File 348 Box 47, Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónomo de México.

46 Facius, Rius, Méjico Cristero, pp. 194–195.Google Scholar Unfortunately, Catholic peasants recruited by the A.C.J.M. did not know that the plot had been uncovered and walked into trap when they attacked the city on January 3, 1927.

47 Ibid., pp. 212, 214–215.

48 Ibid., pp. 222, 224.

49 Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection, Section: Hemerográfica Series: Colección Traslosheros, File 161 Box 110, Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónomo de México. González Flores's newspaper Gladium was a self-described “combat journal” dedicated to “killing and burying tyrants.”

50 “Letter from Manuel Dávalos to the ‘Secretario del Grupo Local de la ACJM Irapuato, Gto.,’“ 20 April 1927 Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

51 Quirk, Robert E., The Mexican Revolution and the Catholic Church: 1910–1929 (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1973), pp. 201–202.Google Scholar These clerics included Father John J. Burke, the National Catholic Welfare Conference general secretary, and the Vatican's Apostolic Delegate to the United States Monsignor Pietro Fumasoni-Biondi.

52 Ibid., p. 212.

53 Ibid.

54 Segura Vilchis had helped to organize the ill-fated Ajusco campaign earlier that year. Controversy surrounds the inspiration for the attempt on Obregón's life. Andrés Barquín y Ruiz, a friend of Segura Vilchis claimed in his friend's biography that Segura Vilchis had acted without the approval of his superiors. However, Antonio Rius Facius adamantly states in Méjico Cristero that Segura Vilchis had been commissioned by the L.N.D.L.R's directors to carry out the plot. It should be remembered that Barquín y Ruíz had a strong motivation not to implicate himself or others in this plot, even though he wrote his biography of Luis Segura Vilchis some forty years after the attempt on Obregón's life, given the general's icon status within the Mexican Army.

55 Ruíz, Barquín y, Luis Segura Vilchis, p. 155.Google Scholar

56 Quirk, pp. 209–210.

57 “Letter from Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra to Bishop Manríquez y Zarate, 5 July 1928, Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection, Section: Organizaciones Católicas; Series: L.N.D.L.R., Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

58 Dulles, John W.F., Yesterday in Mexico: A Chronicle of the Mexican Revolution, 1919–1936 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1961), p. 313;Google Scholar Facius, Rius, Méjico Cristero, p. 317.Google Scholar

59 Facius, Rius, Méjico Cristero, p. 317.Google Scholar

60 Dulles, p. 313.

61 Ibid., pp. 312–313.

62 In 1988, sixty-one years after his death, Miguel Agustín Pro was beatified by Pope John Paul II as a martyr of the Roman Catholic Church and his canonization is pending.

63 The 1928 electoral campaign witnessed the government's assassination of Obregón's two main rivals—General Francisco Serrano and General Arnulfo Gómez—after federal agents uncovered their plot to kidnap both Obregón and President Calles in order to seize control of the country.

64 del Val, Luis Rivero, Entre las Patas de los Caballos: Diario de un Cristero, (Mexico City: Editorial Jus, 1953), 171, 214;Google Scholar Facius, Rius, Méjico Cristero, 366;Google Scholar Dulles, 364. León Toral had been a close personal friend of Humberto Pro, one of the men executed the previous year following the first attempt on Obregón's life.

65 “La muerte de Obregón no fue un asesinato,” July 1928. Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection, Section: Conflicto Cristero, Series: Persecución Religiosa, File 517 Box 63, Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

66 Ibid.

67 Dulles, p. 403.

68 “Declaraciones que Hizo Anoche a la Prensa el Señor Presidente,” Excelsior, 22 June 1929.

69 Ibid.

70 “Letter from Daniel Tello to Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra” 27 June 1929, Section: Organizaciones Católicas, Series: L.N.D.L.R., Box 51 File 378, Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Yet the L.N.D.L.R's executive committee saw that it had no option but to obey the ecclesiastical hierarchy and accept the Church's agreement with the government.

71 “Letter from Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra to Archbishop González Valencia of Durango” I September 1928, Section: Organizaciones Católicas, Series: L.N.D.L.R., Box 50 File 369, Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; “Letter from Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra to Archbishop Francisco Orozco y Jiménez of Guadalajara” 23 November 1928 Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection, Section: Organizaciones Católicas, Series: L.N.D.L.R., Box 50 File 371, Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

72 “Report from Alberto María Carreño to the Directors of the ‘Liga Nacional Defensora de la Libertad Religiosa,’“ 15 July 1928, Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection, Series: L.N.D.L.R., Box 50 File 367, Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Alberto María Carreño also questioned the morality of continuing a war that could not be won. The Cristero's inability to capitalize on the ongoing bloodletting in the ranks of the governing “revolutionary family” (e.g., the Serrano and Gómez assassinations of 1927 and the Escobardista Revolt of 1929) is indicative of their military weakness.

73 Poggi, Gianfranco, Catholic Action in Italy: The Sociology of a Sponsored Organization (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1967), p. 12. Catholic Action originated in Italy.Google Scholar

74 “La Apoteosis de la Infamia…,” 5 May 1929, Boletín de la Liga Nacional Defensora de la Libertad Religiosa II Series, No.9., Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection, Section: Organizaciones Católicas, Series: L.N.D.L.R., File 377 Box 51, Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

75 “Letter of Octavio Elizalde to Archbishop Pascual Díaz” 26 November 1929, Pascual Díaz Archive, Section: A.C.M. File 197 Box 3 Archivo Histórico del Arzobispado Primado de México.

76 Ibid.

77 “Letter from the A.C.J.M.’s General Committee to the Diocese Committees and Local Groups of the A.C.J.M.” 31 December 1929, Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection, Section: Organizaciones Católicas Series: A.C.J.M., File 330 Box 46 Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

78 Ibid.

79 “Letter from Archbishop Pascual Díaz to R .P. Ramón Martínez Silva, S.J.” 14 January 1930, Pascual Díaz Archive, Section: A.C.M., File 197 Box 3, Archivo Histórico del Arzobispado Primado de México.

80 “Letter from the A.C.J.M.’s General Committee to Archbishop Pascual Díaz,” 18 January 1930, Pascual Díaz Archive, File 197 Box 3, Archivo Histórico del Arzobispado Primado de México; “Letter from Archbishop Pascual Díaz to O. Elizondo [sic.] and the other signers,” 1 February 1930, Pascual Díaz Archive, File 197 Box 3, Archivo Histórico del Arzobispado Primado de México.

81 “Acta de fundación del Grupo Juventud Cívica, el 12 de marzo de 1930,” Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection, Section: Organizaciones Católicas, Series: A.C.J.M., File 330 Box 46, Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. The dramatic nature of this act was lost on no one, given importance the Centro de Estudiantes Católicos's historical importance within the A.C.J.M., having been its founding local and later serving as the organization's national headquarters.

82 Facius, Rius, Méjico Cristero, p. 487.Google Scholar

83 “Acta de fundación del Grupo Juventud Cívica, el 12 de marzo de 1930,” Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection, Section: Organizaciones Católicas, Series: A.C.J.M., File 330 Box 46, Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

84 Untitled document written by Archbishop Pascual Díaz, 1 August 1930, Archbishop Dario Miranda Archive, File 197 Box 3, Archivo Histórico del Arzobispado Primado de México.

85 “Letter from Bernardo Bergöend, S.J. to Archbishop Pascual Díaz,” 7 October 1930, Pascual Díaz Archive, Section: A.C.M., File 197 Box 3, Archivo Histórico del Arzobispado Primado de México.

86 Ibid.

87 “Acta de fundación del Grupo Juventud Cívica, el 12 de marzo de 1930,” Miguel Palomar y Vizcarra Collection, Section: Organizaciones Católicas, Series: A.C.J.M., File 330 Box 46, Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Ruiz, Barquín y, Bernardo Bergöend, S.J., pp. 164–165.Google Scholar

88 Ruiz, Barquín y, Bernardo Bergöend, S.J., pp. 214–216.Google Scholar

89 Ibid. Like the old A.C.J.M., Nationalist Youth promoted the trinity of “piety, study, and action.” However, Nationalist Youth's statutes did contain one novelty that reflected one of the ideological currents of the time: it called for the creation of a Catholic corporatist state in Mexico.

90 The subsequent adoption, by some A.C.J.M. elements, of terrorist tactics is indicative of their military weakness. José de León Toral's assassination of Álvaro Obregón failed to prevent the federal security forces from militarily defeating the Cristeros; ironically, what it did do was to clear the path for Plutarco Elias Calles to become Mexico's undisputed political strongman. Calles then went on to found the ruling political party that governed Mexico from 1929 to 2000.

91 Ibid., p. 77.

92 Nacional, Partido Acción, Así Nació el PAN (Mexico City: Comisión Editorial, 1990), p. 23.Google Scholar

93 Untitled document, n.d., Pascual Díaz Archive, Section: A.C.M., File 197 Box 3, Archivo Histórico del Arzobispado Primado de México; Facius, Rius, De Don Porfirio a Plutarco, p. 240.Google Scholar

94 Romero, Laura Patricia, “Los estudiantes entre el socialismo y el neoconservadurismo,” in Jalisco desde la Revolución: movimientos sociales 1929–1940 edited by Romero, Laura Patricia (Guadalajara: Universidad de Guadalajara, 1988), p. 281.Google Scholar