Blessed Conchita Wife, Mother, Mystic II

1. The Church: Persecuted, Prophetic, and Poised for Saints

Despite these forces—or perhaps because of them—the Church entered a paradoxical era of flourishing mysticism and missionary zeal. Pius IX would convene the First Vatican Council in 1869, defining the dogma of papal infallibility even as the Papal States fell in 1870. His successor, Leo XIII, would emerge as the great statesman pope, issuing Rerum Novarum (1891), the encyclical that would shape Catholic social teaching amid industrial exploitation.

Amid persecution in Germany (Bismarck’s Kulturkampf, 1871–1887) and France (with the Third Republic’s anti-clerical laws from the 1870s), the Church endured through divine grace manifesting in its saints. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–1897) would later offer her “Little Way” as empires crumbled; John Bosco and Damien of Molokai anchored an age drifting from God. In the early 20th century, Pius X, as priest and later pope, would fortify the Church against modernism, while Mexico’s trials, intensifying in the 1920s, forged new martyrs.

Rerum Novarum JPII revisited this important document. Body of work given to us not born all of its fruit. Modernism heresy, a bit left behind, an urgent need. Need a scholar to revisit and bring our attention to it.

Living consequences concretely under these errors.

III. Mexico in Turmoil: The Cross and the Revolution

For Mexico, the years from 1862 to 1937 were marked by nearly unbroken instability, yet God was at work in the hidden hearts of its people. After Maximilian’s fall, the liberal reformers of the La Reforma era reasserted a strict separation of Church and state, expropriating Church lands and suppressing religious orders. President Benito Juárez led the charge, expropriating Church lands and curbing its influence. His successors, notably Porfirio Díaz, pursued modernization policies inspired by Europe, often at the expense of indigenous and Catholic traditions, though Díaz pragmatically tolerated private devotion to maintain social order.

San Luis Potosí, where Conchita was born in 1862, had once been a center of silver wealth and colonial religious fervor. By the late 19th century, it had become both a cultural crossroads and a stronghold of conservative Catholic resistance. Churches still rang with sacred music, processions wound through cobbled streets, and within private homes, faith quietly flourished amid the political hostility.

But the most dramatic trials lay ahead. The Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) would devastate the country. What began as a populist uprising against the long-standing Díaz regime devolved into a brutal civil war. Peasants, bandits, generals, and ideologues fought for shifting causes, and the Church—perceived as an ally of the old order—was increasingly targeted. Priests were exiled, churches desecrated, religious instruction banned.

Then came the Cristero War (1926–1929), a desperate uprising of Catholics—many rural, poor, and fiercely devoted—against the anti-clerical policies of President Plutarco Elías Calles. Under his regime, public worship was outlawed, religious orders suppressed, and priests executed. In this crucible of blood and faith, the souls of Mexico shone. “¡Viva Cristo Rey!”—Long live Christ the King! — became their battle cry and their prayer.

Grahm Greene novel, Blessed Miguel Pro man of many costumes for fear of murder, great rallying cry executed by the state

In America, ignorant level of anti-Catholicism.  Child martyrs, extreme hostile and dangerous

See desecration and attacks in Africa, onslaught against the faithful. Those who live free take serious obligation to defend our liberties and fought gained. Rights are not assured.

Churches burning in France, appalling.

King Charles, opening mosques as if great for England. Schizophrenia.

Christianity has enemies, identify, and name them without prejudice. Love for the truth fight an enemy.

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