The Mexican federal government under President Plutarco Elias Calles enforced the anticlerical provisions of the 1917 constitution with new severity from June 1926, when the Ley Calles limited the number of priests permitted to practice, required their registration with the state, closed and confiscated church property, expelled foreign clergy and imposed summary punishment, including execution, on priests who defied the law. The Catholic Church responded by suspending public worship across Mexico, and the persecution provoked the armed Cristero uprising, which spread across central and western Mexico from 1926 until a negotiated settlement in 1929.
Facts
Disputed
Death TollThis range covers the whole three-year armed Cristero War the persecution provoked, combatants on both sides and affected civilians together, not persecution deaths alone; no compiled total exists for clergy and lay Catholics killed specifically for practicing their faith, independent of the Church's own canonization process, which the article on this page names directly. Death TollThe wider figure some accounts give for the full three-year conflict, again spanning both combatant and civilian deaths on both sides rather than persecution deaths in isolation. As with the lower bound, this total is Jean Meyer's own scholarly synthesis rather than an official government count, since Mexican federal casualty records from the period are incomplete and contested. Status
Official RecognitionNot formally recognized by any body 1 No international body has made a formal genocide or crimes-against-humanity determination; the persecution is documented in Mexican and international scholarship and, distinctly, recognized within the Catholic Church itself through its own canonization of victims as martyrs. Recognition BasisDocumented in Jean Meyer's standard scholarly history (1976) drawing on Mexican federal and church archives. The Catholic Church canonized twenty-five Mexican martyrs of this period as saints in May 2000, including the Jesuit Miguel Pro, executed in November 1927; no Mexican government since has issued a formal state apology or international body a genocide determination. 1 The Event
When It HappenedJune 1926 to June 1929, when the Arreglos settlement between the Mexican government and the Church ended the worship suspension and most of the fighting; sporadic killings of amnestied Cristero leaders continued for a short period after the settlement. 1 Victim GroupThe Roman Catholic Church in Mexico: its clergy, religious orders and lay adherents 1 Perpetrator RegimeThe Mexican federal government under President Plutarco Elias Calles 1 Connections
Associated With
This source names Western Mexico directly: "which spread across central and western Mexico from 1926 until a negotiated settlement in 1929."
Source The Cristero Rebellion: The Mexican People between Church and State, 1926-1929Jean Meyer
Conducted By
Source The Cristero Rebellion: The Mexican People between Church and State, 1926-1929Jean Meyer
Persecuted Group
Source The Cristero Rebellion: The Mexican People between Church and State, 1926-1929Jean Meyer
Sources
1. The Cristero Rebellion: The Mexican People between Church and State, 1926-1929
Jean Meyer, Cambridge University Press, 1976
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