This week in Christian history: Russia passes anti-missionary law, Mexican bishops suspend worship

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, July 07, 2024

Mexican bishops vote to suspend worship – July 11, 1926

Plutarco Elías Calles (1877-1945), a Mexican Revolution soldier and former president known for his attacks on the Roman Catholic Church. | Wikimedia Commons

This week marks the anniversary of when Catholic Church bishops in Mexico voted to suspend worship in the Latin American nation as a protest to the policies of President Plutarco Elías Calles.

Anticlerical sentiment against the Catholic Church had been on the rise in Mexico since the Mexican Revolution, with Calles building on previous efforts to push religion to the margins of society.

In response to Calles passing a law prohibiting priests from wearing clerical garb or criticizing the government, Mexico’s bishops voted to suspend all worship in public, which took effect on Aug. 1 of that year.

“The President denied that he planned to interfere with religious functions and said that his actions were not discriminatory, but that the actions of some clergy would be considered rebellious,” explained the history website Indigenous Mexico.

“On August 1, members of the Regional Confederation of Labor — including government employees — paraded through the streets of Mexico City and other important cities to show their support for the government’s religious regulations. President Calles and Secretary of Labor Morones reviewed the parade from the balcony of the Municipal Palace.”

Tensions between the Catholic Church and the federal government would only get worse, however, and eventually led to the religious uprising known as the Cristero Revolution.