Conference in Rome
Remembering the Cristeros
Truth, Empathy, and Reconciliation One Hundred Years Later
The conference Remembering the Cristeros: Truth, Empathy, and Reconciliation One Hundred Years Later is jointly organized by the Christianity and Society Center of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome) and the Anacleto González Flores Chair (Guadalajara, Mexico). This collaboration seeks to bring the universal perspective of the Church into dialogue with the living memory preserved in the region most closely associated with the Cristero movement.
The centenary of the beginning of the Cristero conflict offers a singular opportunity to revisit one of the most consequential chapters in the history of the Church in Mexico. In recent decades, the opening of new archives, renewed attention to local sources, and scholarship on diplomacy, religious freedom, popular religiosity, and the transmission of memory have considerably enriched our understanding of these events. The conference seeks to contribute to this ongoing international scholarly dialogue while bringing it into conversation with the memory preserved by families, communities, and the Church.
The initiative also responds to the invitation of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference to commemorate this centenary not merely as a historical anniversary, but as an occasion for ecclesial remembrance, gratitude, hope, and a renewal of Christian witness. Remembering the martyrs and confessors, deepening our knowledge of this chapter of history, and asking what it means for our own time thus constitute inseparable dimensions of the commemoration.
Held in Rome, at the heart of the universal Church, the conference will bring together participants from Mexico and other countries to approach the Cristero experience from complementary perspectives: the rigor of historical research; the testimony of descendants and others who preserve the living memory of these events; the material culture preserved in books, relics, photographs, and devotional objects; and a dialogue directed toward mutual understanding.
Purpose
The conference seeks to deepen the historical and ecclesial understanding of the Cristero experience, approaching its protagonists within the concrete circumstances in which they lived and the decisions they were called upon to make.
In particular, it seeks to bring recent historical scholarship into dialogue with the living memory of families and communities, incorporating new sources and perspectives on religious persecution, resistance, martyrdom, diplomacy, and the Arreglos of 1929.
It also aims to recover the spiritual dimension of the Cristero movement, paying particular attention to the role played by devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Christ the King, and Our Lady of Guadalupe in forming the conscience, fortitude, and witness of Mexican Catholics.
Finally, the conference seeks to foster a remembrance grounded in historical truth, empathy, and charity, capable of moving beyond simplifications and old polarizations and of contributing, one hundred years later, to a deeper understanding of the past, to reconciliation, and to renewed reflection on religious freedom, Christian witness, and the relationship between Christianity and society.
Rather than offering definitive answers, the gathering seeks to reopen fundamental questions: How did those who lived through the conflict understand the decisions they were called upon to make? What can recent historical scholarship contribute to our understanding of the Arreglos and their consequences? How did faith sustain the response of individuals and communities in the face of persecution? And how can a historical memory approached with truth, empathy, and charity illuminate the life of the Church and society a century later?