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The La Christiada Has Crossed the Border
The open southern border has brought migrants, cartels, fentanyl, sex traffickers, drug traffickers, and child labor trafficking.
Something else has crossed the border, something that did not have to cross the Rio Grande, something that did not have to navigate the Sonoran Desert. An ideology that, like a virus, made its way from the French Revolution to Mexico in the 1920s has crossed the border. A virus that became the Cristero War.
The Cristero War (Spanish: Guerra Cristera), also known as the Cristero Rebellion or La Cristiada, was a widespread struggle in central and western Mexico from 1 August 1926 to 21 June 1929 in response to the implementation of secularist and anticlerical articles of the 1917 Constitution. The rebellion was instigated as a response to an executive decree by Mexican President Plutarco Elías Calles to strictly enforce Article 130 of the Constitution, a decision known as Calles Law. Calles sought to eliminate the power of the Catholic Church in Mexico, its affiliated organizations and to suppress popular religiosity.
Calles sought more than eliminating the power of the Catholic Church; he wanted to eliminate Catholicism in Mexico. The war between the Cristeros and the secular Calles claimed approximately 250,000 lives, and 250,000 fled to California and Arizona.
Who is minding the minders?
A full-blown La Christiada has not come here, but there are skirmishes taking place across the US.
Since civil unrest began on May 28, 2020, there have been at least 309 attacks against Catholic churches in the United States, including acts of arson which damaged or destroyed historic churches; spray-painting and graffiti of satanic messages; rocks and bricks thrown through windows; statues destroyed (often with heads cut off); and illegal disruptions of Mass. A new spate of at least 147 attacks has occurred since the draft Supreme Court opinion proposing to reverse Roe v. Wade was leaked in early May 2022, with many including graffiti with pro-abortion messages. Crucially, while a handful of the attacks have included thefts, the vast majority have only involved property destruction, indicating that the primary motive is not material gain.
The full spreadsheet database of the attacks may be viewed here.
Notes: This tracker includes all reported acts of vandalism and violence against churches since May 28, 2020. Nearly all reports are sourced from news agencies, while a handful have been reported directly to CatholicVote, with documentation, via email. Thefts of holy objects including tabernacles and statues are included, but thefts of cash, copper, and other cases where the motive appears to be purely material gain are not included.
The FBI seems to have a deplorable lack of curiosity about investigating these attacks and a misplaced sense of curiosity about traditional Catholics, the Rosary, and the Latin Mass. CatholicVote.org and Judicial Watch have filed a lawsuit against the FBI and the Department of Justice.
CatholicVote, joined by Judicial Watch, is suing the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice for information regarding the scandal of the federal agencies targeting American Catholics.
“On March 8th, 2023, CatholicVote sent FOIA requests to the FBI and DOJ seeking access to records pertaining to Catholics and other topics related to the leaked memo,” CatholicVote stated in a Thursday press release:
Even though FOIA norms require agencies to respond within 20 business days, with an additional 10 for “unusual circumstances,” over a month has passed and to date the FBI and DOJ have failed to produce the requested records or even communicate whether they plan to comply with the requests.
“In February, a leaked memo from the FBI Richmond Field Office exposed the Bureau for targeting Catholics,” CatholicVote stated in its press release this week. “The memo, which relied on ideologically driven criteria from the discredited and far-left Southern Poverty Law Center, was denounced by CatholicVote as another shocking example of the dangerous weaponization of government agencies against political enemies.”
CatholicVote noted that a subpoena from Jordan confirmed “that the leaked memo, originally disavowed under oath by Attorney General Garland as an isolated incident initiated by a low-level rogue agent, was actually approved by senior intelligence analysts and distributed to field offices across the country.”
“This spying on Catholics comes after hundreds of violent attacks have been carried out against pro-life organizations and Catholic churches throughout the country; attacks that have been virtually ignored by the FBI and DOJ,” CatholicVote stated. “Meanwhile, the DOJ has exerted maximum effort to harass, intimidate and prosecute pro-life advocates to the fullest extent of the law.”
When you ignore political violence, then won’t prosecute those who commit violent acts, their actions will only become bolder. The perception that those who commit those acts who escape investigation or prosecution have become the paramilitary wing of the Democrat Party is the fault of political appointees and entrenched bureaucrats.
Published in Religion & Philosophy
That’s truly shocking.
Sort of at a tangent, in such a well armed country why aren’t there more armed responses when this happens? When it doesn’t go to court, for eg?
In some cases, yes. Among other things, such as not firing them but just isolating them somewhere.
You represent the ‘wild ass of a man’. Embrace the suck.
We’re definitely related.
This doesn’t seem to come from Mexico. It does rhyme, however.
Doing my part to stamp out the Mexican threat as we speak.
The Oppressor Class that runs the left is good at fooling some of the people for much of the time, and also is good at exploiting the downtrodden and powerless in order to maintain its hegemony on top of the socio-economic heap.
yeah, I think the American Left tends to LARP a bit about supporting the oppressed. But then I think there really isn’t anything very Leftist about the American Left apart from some slogans and their opponents’ labels.
What all leftists have in common is their identification with governmental power to make the world a better place (for leftists.)
Or sending them to other schools in the district. A fellow teacher I knew had worked in public schools and said that transferring problem teachers was easier than trying to fire them.
Wait, this ‘problem teacher’ is moving the goalposts. Teachers accused of molesting children were just moved and not charged?
Of course. You wouldn’t want to risk people losing faith in our sacred public schools, would you?
This is old hat for the Church. Adherence to one’s beliefs and not bowing to the idea that all religions are the same or some other dissolution of core tenets combined with a refusal to accept the claim that the government is divine (or at least beyond criticism) is what got folks tossed to lions in the Colosseum 2,000 years ago. Being harassed by the dregs of the FBI (Seriously, are their top people really working the Rosary Watch and PTA Domestic Terror Squad?) for the exact same offenses in the modern era does not seem quite as big a threat to the Faith as the overt hostility of 50-some consecutive Roman emperors.
I’ll take Catholicism and even give points on this contest–the new woke FBI is way out of its league on this one. It is a sure bet.
If the “progressive” left secures total control and then turns on the Muslims, I’d place my bet on the Muslims.
Maybe if it were to be worldwide, but the muslim population of the US isn’t big.
Yes.
For a number of years New York schools had a facility to which these teachers (who could not be fired or prosecuted) were assigned. No students; just sit, smoke cigarettes, and drink coffee.
Yet.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the most politically engaged people of Catholic or Protestant or Jewish background have gone Left in America. Why on Earth do you believe this won’t happen to young Americans of Hindu and Muslim background? As has been demonstrated before, accident
ifof birth doesn’t dictate political belief or commitment.