Claretian Formation

CLARETIAN MARTYRS IN MEXICO

Since the revolution of Benito Juárez, the Government had been drafting an ever more secularised legislation that proclaimed the separation between church and state, the sale of ecclesiastical properties, the civil marriage, the suppression of ecclesiastical exemptions and the expulsion of religious from the country.

Mariano González (1914)

In March 1913 there was a revolt against the regime of General Huerta: that of Venustiano Carranza. The Church made a call to peace, an act that Carranza interpreted as support of Huerta. This unleashed the anticlerical wave: persecutions, exiles, assassinations.

The Claretians of Tepic were put in jail together with the bishop. Most of them were able to escape, but Bro. Mariano González remained to take care of the house and church of Toluca. At the beginning, because he was a native Mexican, they let him be, but later on he was imprisoned. Because he refused to reveal the whereabouts of his community brothers, he was shot on 22 August 1914. After the execution he was exposed to the public with a placard that said: “For being a thief of national properties.”

Andrew Solá (1927)

When Plutarco Elías Calles took over the presidency in 1924 the situation became tense. The Church’s Hierarchy, after consulting with Rome, decided to close the churches and suspend the services throughout the country. The reaction of the people was immediate and the government expelled all bishops, priests and lay people involved.

In this atmosphere the assassination of Fr. Andrew Solá took place. He was working as a priest in hiding. He went about baptising, celebrating marriages and distributing the Eucharist round the houses. He stayed in a private house together with another Jesuit priest who was imprisoned. Some acquaintances of both took interest in the situation of the Jesuit with the intention of bringing food and clothes to him in jail. The police followed them and found the whereabouts of Fr. Solá. They accused him and a young man of raiding a train and condemned both to death. On the way to execution, Fr. Solá harangued his companions, encouraging them to suffer for Christ. He gave his watch to one of those who were executing him and forgave them all. He crossed his arms before his breast and, before he received the shots, he shouted: “Long live Christ the King!” He did not die on the spot, but his executioners left him lying on the floor until he bled to death. He had time to give instructions to those present and a message for his mother.

Fr. Solá’s cause of beatification is the most advanced of those instituted in the Congregation. It’s only waiting for the beatification date to be decided upon.