Anacleto González Flores

Anacleto González Flores (July 13, 1888 – April 1, 1927) was a Mexican Catholic layman and lawyer who was executed during the persecution of the Catholic Church under Mexican President Plutarco Elías Calles. He was beatified by Benedict XVI as a martyr on November 20, 2005.[3]

Blessed
Anacleto González Flores
Layman; Martyr
Born(1888-07-13)July 13, 1888
Tepatitlán, Jalisco, Mexico
DiedApril 1, 1927(1927-04-01) (aged 38)
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Venerated inRoman Catholic Church
BeatifiedNovember 20, 2005, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico by Pope Benedict XVI, recognition celebrated by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins
FeastNovember 20[1]
Patronage
  • Mexican laity[2]

Background

At the time of the killing of González Flores, Mexico was under rule of the fiercely-anticlerical and anti-Catholic President Plutarco Elías Calles, who had begun what writer Graham Greene called the "fiercest persecution of religion anywhere since the reign of Elizabeth."[4]

Early life

The second of twelve children born to the poor family of Valentín González Sánchez and María Flores Navarro, Anacleto González Flores was baptized the day after his birth. A priest, who was friend of the family recognized his intelligence and recommended him for the seminary where he excelled, earning the nickname "Maestro." After deciding he did not have the calling to holy orders, González began the study of law at Escuela Libre de Derecho in Guadalajara and became an attorney in 1922.[5] He married María Concepción Guerrero and they had two children.

González attended Mass daily and engaged in numerous works of charity, including visiting prisoners and teaching catechism.[6]

Career

He became an activist and leader of the Catholic Association of Mexican Youth (ACJM), and he founded the magazine La Palabra which attacked the anticlerical and anti-Catholic articles of the Constitution of 1917.[6] He was the founder and president of the Popular Union (UP), an organization that organized Catholics to resist the persecution of the Church.[7]

Originally, he supported passive resistance against the government since he had studied the methods of Gandhi.[6] However, in 1926 upon learning of the murder of four members of the Catholic Association of Mexican Youth, he joined the National League for the Defense of Religious Freedom and supported the coming rebellion.[8] He wrote, "the country is a jail for the Catholic Church.... We are not worried about defending our material interests because these come and go; but our spiritual interests, these we will defend because they are necessary to obtain our salvation."[7]

In January 1927, having endured religious persecution, the Catholics took up arms, setting off the Cristero War. González did not take up arms but gave speeches that encouraged Catholics to support the Cristeros financially and with food, accommodation, and clothing. L He wrote pamphlets and gave speeches supporting the cause against the anticlerical government.

Seeking to crush the rebellion, the government sought to capture the leaders of the Popular Union and the National League for the Defence of Religious Freedom. González was captured and framed with charges that he murdered the American Edgar Wilkens, but the government knew that Wilkens had been killed by his robber, Guadalupe Zuno.[7]

Martyrdom

González was tortured, including being hung by his thumbs pulling them out of their sockets, having his shoulder fractured with a rifle butt, and having the bottom of his feet slashed.[8] On April 1, 1927, he was executed by firing squad.[8] Echoing the words of the assassinated Ecuadorian President, Gabriel García Moreno, who defied the forces seeking to suppress his faith, González's last words were,l "Hear Americas for the second time: I die but God does not! Viva Cristo Rey!"[9]

Wilkens's widow, who knew that González had been framed, wrote a letter of protest to Washington, DC, exonerating him. A letter staying his execution arrived shortly after he had been shot.[7]

González was portrayed by actor Eduardo Verástegui in the film Cristiada (English: For Greater Glory), which also starred Andy Garcia, Eva Longoria, and Peter O'Toole.[10]

gollark: give elytra
gollark: Well, now I said it, and I said "other people", referring to "people other than me".
gollark: I'm not other people, therefore I am not Hell, QED.
gollark: That's ridiculous. Jean-Paul Sartre said "Hell is other people".
gollark: If you use it, I... probably not legally, not even in Hell... own your soul.

References
  1. Benedict XVI (2005). "Apostolic Letter by which The Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI has Raised to The Glory of The Altars". Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Archived from the original on June 25, 2015.
  2. "Papa declara Nuevo patrono para católicos en México". Siete 24. July 29, 2019. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
  3. López-Menéndez, Marisol (2016). Miguel Pro: Martyrdom, Politics, and Society in Twentieth-Century Mexico. Lexington Books. p. 159. ISBN 978-1-4985-0426-3.
  4. Greene, Graham. The Lawless Roads, Prologue (Penguin Classics 1993)
  5. Cruz, p. 40.
  6. Cruz, p. 41.
  7. Cruz, p. 42.
  8. José Anacleto González Flores and eight Companions Vatican News Services November 20, 2005
  9. Parsons, Wilfrid Mexican Martyrdom p. 38 2003 Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 0-7661-7246-5
  10. Cristiada (2011) IMDb, accessed October 8, 2010

Sources
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