Viva Cristo Rey!
Remembering the Cristeros 100 Years Later
Rome, October 7–9, 2026
One hundred years after the beginning of the Cristero War, Rome will host a three-day conference dedicated to recovering the historical, spiritual, and martyrological memory of one of the great events in twentieth-century Mexican Catholicism, at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.
The gathering will bring together scholars, researchers, and relatives of protagonists from Mexico, Europe, and the United States. The three days will trace a path beginning with the difficult negotiations that brought the armed struggle to an end, moving into the religious, devotional, and social world that formed the Catholics who resisted persecution, and culminating in a reflection on the specifically Christian meaning of martyrdom.
The conference takes place within the period of commemoration opened by the bishops of Mexico for the centenary. In their message of July 31, 2026, they called for a “time of grateful remembrance and ecclesial discernment,” within a horizon extending toward the Guadalupan Jubilee of 2031 and the Jubilee of the Redemption in 2033.
From this perspective, remembering the Cristero War does not mean celebrating war or glorifying violence. It means recovering a memory that can help us understand the wounds of the past, the value of religious freedom, the witness of the martyrs, and the need to work for reconciliation and peace. In this spirit, the conference will follow three moments within the same history.
Day One — Negotiating Peace
The first day, Wednesday, October 7, will be devoted to the Arreglos of 1929 and the difficult process that brought the armed phase of the Cristero War to an end.
The session “Negotiating Peace: The Arreglos of 1929” will examine the negotiations, their principal actors, and their diplomatic dimension, as well as the consequences and profound controversies the agreement provoked among those who had participated in the resistance.
The restoration of public worship opened the way toward peace, but it did not immediately resolve the causes of the conflict or bring all suffering to an end. For many Catholics, the outcome also raised difficult questions of conscience, obedience, prudence, and responsibility toward those who had made enormous sacrifices during the years of persecution.
The day will begin with the participants attending the General Audience of the Holy Father and will continue in the afternoon at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.
But understanding the Cristero War requires looking beyond the conflict itself and its political conclusion. If thousands of people were capable of resisting, organizing, persevering, and, in some cases, giving their lives, another question inevitably arises: what had formed them to do so?
Day Two — The Defense of the Faith through Devotion
On Thursday, October 8, attention will shift from the events themselves to the spiritual and social world that preceded them.
The session “The Defense of the Faith: Resistance, Martyrdom, and Persecution” will examine the different responses of Mexican Catholics to persecution: from civic mobilization and Catholic associations to resistance, personal sacrifice, and martyrdom.
In the afternoon, “The Devotional Heart of the Cristero Movement” will explore more deeply what sustained that resistance from within.
The Cristero War did not arise in a vacuum. For decades, the family, the parish, lay associations, religious congregations, and Catholic education were intertwined with an organized effort to put the social teachings of Rerum Novarum into practice. Alongside these stood an intense spiritual life nourished by spiritual exercises, devotion to the Sacred Heart, Eucharistic adoration, and Marian piety. Together, these realities formed a religious and social ecosystem that accompanied Catholics from their interior and family life to their organized participation in society.
The defense of the faith can therefore be understood not merely as a reaction to persecution, but also as the fruit of the devotions, practices, and institutions that had already formed those who would later be willing to defend it.
And it is precisely here that history leads to the deepest question of the conference. Some of those Catholics did more than resist: they died for their faith. What, properly speaking, does it mean to call someone a martyr?
Day Three — The Meaning of Martyrdom
On Friday, October 9, the third day will be devoted to recovering the specifically Christian meaning of martyrdom.
The word martyr means witness. A Christian martyr is not simply an innocent victim of violence. Martyrdom consists in bearing witness to Christ, even when that witness requires the giving of one’s own life.
The day will place the Mexican experience within the broader tradition of Christian martyrdom, exploring the relationship between conscience, freedom, power, sacrifice, and witness, from the first centuries of the Church to the persecutions of the modern era.
This reflection has acquired an unexpected relevance on the eve of the conference. On September 19, during the solemnity of St. Januarius in Naples, a hope was expressed that when the city gathers again a year from now, the only blood that flows will be that of St. Januarius, rather than the blood of children, young people, and the countless victims of war and violence.
The image powerfully expresses the hope that the shedding of innocent blood may cease. Yet precisely because it is the blood of St. Januarius the martyr, it raises a further question: what makes this blood the blood of a martyr?
The answer leads to the heart of the third day. Martyrdom is not defined solely by the innocence of the person who dies or by the violence of that death. It is witness to Christ.
And it is here that the three days ultimately come together. The peace negotiations reveal the historical drama of the Cristero War; its devotions, associations, and initiatives of Catholic social action help us understand the world that formed those who took part in it; and martyrdom reveals the ultimate center of that for which some were willing to give their lives.
That center was expressed in the cry that accompanied many Mexican Catholics to their deaths and that, one hundred years later, gives its name to the gathering in Rome:
Organization
The conference is organized by the Centro Cristianesimo e Società of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross and the Cátedra Anacleto González Flores of Guadalajara.
All three days will take place at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, October 7–9, 2026.
Registration: €50
University Students: free admission.
Press contact:
Amado Martín Vázquez Martínez
Website / More information: anacletus.org