Mexico Observed

Recently La Stampa, famed Independent daily of Turin, Italy, despatched to Mexico, Signor Arnaldo Cipolla, an able and "Latin-Catholic conscious" correspondent. He, sensitive, acute, observant, reported, according to a translation made by The Living Age: "Those who say that Mexico is a mere province of the U. S. maintain a palpable absurdity. This country is a powerful barrier which the Latin world has erected against Anglo-Saxon usurpation. . . . There is no resemblance whatsoever between ostensibly Catholic Mexico and any country in Europe or America that is really Catholic. The Roman Church occupies here a place not much different from that which it might hold in a Confucian, Shinto, Brahman, or pagan country. For Mexico is obsessed by Aztec nationalism, by a desire to extirpate the religion of those who brought her both Christianity and European civilization, and to exalt the memory of the Montezuman emperors. This campaign has culminated in a feeling that the Roman Church is antinational. This is the reason why we need expect no Mexican, whether Indian or non-Indian, to become a martyr for his faith. It explains, furthermore, why the extraordinarily complex religious situation has not aroused the people, or excited them to offer violent resistance to the Government's measures. "My first call was upon the Archbishop, Monsignor Mora y del Rio. . . . The archepiscopal palace is near the flower market, in the older part of the city. That market occupies a plaza which illustrates one of the most attractive features of Mexico, where perpetual spring prevails and beautiful flowers are in bloom throughout the year. For a peso one can make his house a perfect bower of the rarest and most magnificent blossoms, although they are without perfume. Another interesting feature of the plaza is a great number of public letter-writers, called by the odd name of 'evangelists,' sitting under the arcade along one side. These gentlemen do not write with the pen, however, as do their fellows in other illiterate countries, but with typewriters. Around their desks cluster little groups of picturesque peones in cinema costumes--huge hats and white shirts, usually with the Mexican eagle and serpent embroidered on the bosom--and armed to the teeth. I wanted a photograph of one of these groups, but the 'evangelist' promptly stopped me. The laws in Mexico today forbid photographing local types and costumes that make the country look to foreigners as if it were theatrical and out of date. . . .

"Monsignor Mora y del Rio, who wore the robes and insignia of his office received me in a plainly furnished study containing a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe. . . . He spoke Italian and was evidently touched by the visit of a journalist who had come expressly from the motherland of the Church to visit her persecuted outposts in Mexico. Indeed, so deep was his feeling that after the first few words he choked with emotion, and with tears flowing freely down his" cheeks he merely clasped my hands and murmured:'O Roma!Roma!. . .'

"It is absurd today to accuse the priests of mixing up in politics. . . . We should bear in mind that the Mexican Constitution deprives the clergy of all political rights. No priest can vote or can be elected to office. The Government of President Calles, who holds the highest Masonic rank in the world, may not be popular with the Mexican clergy, but they have been careful not to oppose it. In fact, many church members support the President, because they think he can maintain order, and several members of the Knights of Columbus are among his personal followers. . . .

"The Vatican has erred in treating the country as a Catholic nation and dividing it into 35 dioceses. Four or five bishops in the principal cities would have sufficed; and it would have been far better to place the rest of the Republic for many years to come under the Office for the Propagation of the Faith. . . . The truth is that the Indians are indifferent to both Christianity and politics. . . .

"Meanwhile the non-Indian population is equally indifferent to spiritual things. Religion is a superficial rather than a vital emotion, a practice rather than a conviction or a sentiment. The people who go to church are the same people that throng to the brothels and places of low entertainment which the Government is trying to suppress in order to improve the morals of the nation. Religious services are well attended as long as they are attractive and entertaining; but if the music is omitted, the worshipers vanish. Educational work has never played an important part in church activities. Probably half of the people of Mexico are ignorant of the simplest of the ritual prayers, and a third do not know how to make the sign of the cross. Among the masses a church marriage is practically unknown.

"It would be unfair to say that there are no evidences whatsoever of a religious revival among Mexican Catholics, but they are faint and far between, , , ,"