QuantumFog

May 21, 2007

The thread from Guadalajara to Baghdad

On January 1 of 1927, Mexican Catholics rebelled against the government. The formal declaration led to a civil war that lasted for almost three years. The fact that 90,000 people died in the conflict isn't interesting to me so much as the reason it started.

My curiosity was piqued by the fact that the rebellious attitude was spawned ten years earlier, by the 1917 Mexican Constitution.

Now, that's a lot of work, putting together a consititution. It takes a lot of people, more time than you want to spend and countless meetings in halls, homes, offices, streetcorners, wherever.

Five articles of the new constitution severely reduced the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico. It wasn't anti-Catholic per se, it was anti-religious and Catholic was the dominant religion.... Why would a country go through all that trouble to create an enemy of Catholicism?

My memory from parochial school recalls nuns and priests slapping students, arrogant church Monsignors and Bishops. From that perspective, sure enough, my brief research came up with some pre-constitutional problems in Mexico.

Prior to 1917, the Catholic Church had enormous amounts of both real estate and influence. Mexico was a cash mill for Jesuits, who sent the profits back to Rome. The new constitution took away property, mandated secular teaching in schools, forbade public worship outside of church, clergy were denied the right to vote and the right to comment on public affairs.

Boom.

I recall what I saw during those long-ago years at school. Ego swelled, narcissistic religious leaders who wanted me to kiss their ring. I've seen their expression repeated in Jerry Falwell, Pope Benedict, Sheikh Omar Bakri, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi and the like.

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