Cristero War: Encyclopedia II - Cristero War - Background to rebellion

Cristero War - Background to rebellion

When the anti-Catholic measures were enacted in 1917, the President of Mexico was Venustiano Carranza. Carranza was overthrown by the machinations of his one-time ally Álvaro Obregón in 1919, who succeeded to the presidency in late 1920. While sharing the anti-clerical sentiments of Carranza, he applied the measures selectively, only in areas where Catholic sentiment was weakest.

This uneasy "truce" between the government and the Church ended with the election of Plutarco Elías Calles in 1924. Calles applied the anti-Catholic laws stringently throughout the country and added his own anti-Catholic legislation. In June 1926, he signed the "Law for Reforming the Penal Code", known unofficially as the "Calles Law". This provided specific penalties for priests and religious who dared to violate the provisions of the 1917 Constitution. For instance, wearing clerical garb earned a fine of 500 pesos (approximately 250 U.S. dollars at the time); a priest who criticized the government could be imprisoned for five years.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Background to rebellion", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki