Again, Obregon! Madero!

By unanimous votes the Senate and House of Mexico passed a law last week which was promptly denounced by the Most Reverend Pascual Diaz, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Mexico, as "an unheard of outrage of the public power against religion." The new law, unless vetoed by President Pascual Ortiz Rubio, will provide: 1) That no religious denomination shall have more than one clergyman per 50,000 population in either the Federal District of Mexico City (pop. 1,217,663) or the Territories of Lower California (pop. 94,469) and Quintana Roo (pop. 12,150). 2) That in the District and Territories no clergyman shall officiate in more than one church, shall be fined 500 pesos ($200) if he does. In the Federal District of Mexico City, where some 400 priests were officiating in more than 200 Catholic churches last week, the new law would impose a limit of 24 priests, 24 churches. If strictly enforced it would leave Lower California with one priest, one church and Quintana Roo priestless, churchless. Thus once again THE REVOLUTION, which in Mexico means the Government plus its supporters, struck at Mother Church. Not a single Mexico City daily newspaper printed Archbishop Diaz's denunciation of what both houses of Mexico's Congress had unanimously voted. Protestant denominations did not complain. The largest has only 13 churches in all Mexico. In the State of Vera Cruz the legal limit already enforced on priests and churches is one per 100,000 population-- twice as strict as that voted by the Federal Congress. Last week the Legislature of the State of Morelos passed a bill to tax each cleric 300 pesos ($120) per annum. In the State of Coahuila cinemas with religious themes were banned. Debate in the Federal Congress for a fortnight past has been painful to Christian ears. Repeatedly the Savior's Holy Mother was termed by Senators and Representatives "the so-called Virgin Mary." Last week the Congress added insult to injury by voting unanimously to change the names of two Mexico City suburbs. San Angel became Obregon, Congress substituting for the "Holy Angel" one-armed General Alvaro Obregon, famed champion of the Revolution and one of the most popular presidents Mexico has ever had, who was assassinated in San Angel by a religious fanatic in 1928. The suburb Guadalupe-Hidalgo (a double-barreled name recalling both the Virgin of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico, and Father Miguel Hidalgo, a priest active in the struggle for independence from Spain) became the suburb Gustavo Madero. Assassinated in 1913, Gustavo Madero was a brother of famed Mexican President Francisco Madero, also assassinated in 1913.

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