Viva Cristo Rey Graphic Tote

Excerpted from USCCB: “¡Viva, Cristo Rey!” was the resounding battle cry of the Cristeros in their struggle against the violent imposition of a secularist, anti-Catholic, anti-clerical state in Mexico during La Cristiada (1926-1929), a war described as “the fiercest persecution of religion anywhere since the reign of Elizabeth.” “¡Viva Cristo Rey!” was also the final confession on the lips of Blessed Father Miguel Agustín Pro, a martyr of the Cristeros war. He was not a resistance fighter but a Catholic priest of wit and courage who selflessly ran a clandestine ministry during the treacherous reign of President Plutarco Calles. In 1927, Father Miguel was falsely charged and sentenced to death without due trial for the attempted assassination of Mexico’s former president, President Álvaro Obregón. The photographs of his execution were ordered by President Calles and were intended to show the cowardly death of a Catholic priest. Ironically, what has been seared into our collective historical memory is the very opposite of what Calles intended. The photographs immortalise an otherworldly truth. Both literally and figuratively, Father Miguel’s life and death take the form of the cross. With arms outstretched in cruciform, rosary in one hand and a crucifix in the other, facing the firing squad with fierce and fearless serenity, Miguel Pro defied every worldly power. It is said that he cried out in a clear and steady voice, “¡Viva Cristo Rey!” just as the bullets riddled his body.