- Pascual Díaz y Barreto
infobox bishopstyles
name=Pascual Díaz y Barreto
dipstyle=The Right Reverend
offstyle=Your Excellency
relstyle=Bishop
deathstyle=none |Pascual Díaz y Barreto, SJ (
June 22 ,1876 —May 19 ,1936 ) was a Mexicanprelate of theRoman Catholic Church , who served as Archbishop of Mexico City from 1929 until his death. Throughout his tenure, he frequently came into conflict with the anti-Catholic Mexican government.Biography
Born in
Zapopan, Jalisco , to a family of pureHuichol Indians, Pascual Díaz y Barreto was ordained to the priesthood in 1896 and incardinated into theSociety of Jesus , more commonly known as the Jesuits, onOctober 9 ,1903 .On
December 11 ,1922 , he was appointed the sixth Bishop of Tabasco byPope Pius XI . Díaz received his episcopal consecration onFebruary 2 ,1923 from BishopMaximino Ruiz y Flores , and was installed asTabasco 'sordinary on the followingFebruary 28 . In 1927, he was sent intoexile for carrying out his ministry in a manner which violated the country's Constitution. Díaz was later named Archbishop of Mexico City onJune 25 ,1929 , as a signal of peace following Pope Pius's sanction of the plan of settlement to end the feud between the Mexican Church and the State [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,732587,00.html Again, Masses]July 1 ,1929 ] . As Archbishop, he also served as the Primate of Mexico.In late December 1930, the Archbishop issued a scathing denunciation of
Protestantism in Mexico, claiming, "There is solid ground for believing thatNorth America n Protestant sects, moved by political motives, seek to aggravate religious perturbation in Mexico...The names Protestant, Methodist, and Presbyterian fall on Mexicans as a species of stigma because of the marked character of the North American dominion all these Protestants bring to Mexico. Hence the popular opinion that Protestantism is one of the elements upon which a powerful neighboring nation counts to effect slowly but surely domination, hegemony or realization of itsimperialism in our land" [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,930231,00.html Dynamite]January 5 ,1931 ] .A year later, he condemned a bill that would prohibit religions from being represented in Mexico by more than one clergyman per 50,000 as "an unheard of outrage of the public power against religion" [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,742870,00.html Law or No Law?]
January 11 ,1932 ] . He stated, "It does not merit the name of law...it opposes the positive dispositions of God and the teachings of the Church, the authentic and infallible organ established by Jesus Christ our Lord..." Díaz unsuccessfully urged PresidentPascual Ortiz Rubio towards aveto , and, despite the large number of Catholic priests in Mexico, ordered the clergy under his jurisdiction to remain in their posts [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,742870,00.html Law or No Law?]January 11 ,1932 ] .Archbishop Díaz rejected the claim of anti-Catholic
Plutarco Elías Calles that the Mexican episcopate were "organizing in preparation for a movement," or revolution, saying that Catholics are obliged "to preserve the immutable principles of justice and morality" [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,882561,00.html Facts of Life]November 5 ,1934 ] . He later threatened Calles, as well as government employees, parents who sent their children to government-operated schools and the children themselves, the teachers of those schools, and any other Catholic who supported the government withexcommunication in 1935 [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,788523,00.html "Ossy, Ossy, Boneheads"]February 4 ,1935 ] . However, no such excommunication was pronounced, and Díaz pardoned in advance those government employees who kept their occupations because they could not find work otherwise and those parents who sent their children to proscribed schools under pressure from thetruant officer. Later that year, in March, he was arrested bytraffic police to leave his car and enter theirs, kept sitting parked in asuburb ofMexico City for over two hours, and then taken to apolice station where he sat all night; according the Archbishop's private secretary, he subsequently suffered "from severe cramps and head pains" [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,748535,00.html Plenty of Priests]March 18 ,1935 ] . Although he agreed to a fine of 100 pesos as well, he did not pay.In 1936, the primate published a
pastoral letter enforcing the Church's stance againstSocialism [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,847638,00.html Socialism: Mortal Sin]January 27 ,1936 ] . In it he described Catholics who practiced, studied, or taught Socialism as guily ofmortal sin , and said, "No Catholic can be a Socialist, understanding by Socialism the philosophical, economic orsocial system which, in one form or another, does not recognize the rights of God and the Church, nor the natural right of every man to possess the goods he has acquired..."Archbishop Díaz died from
colitis [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,756176,00.html Milestones]June 1 ,1936 ] in Mexico City, at the age of 59.References
External links
* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bdiazy.html Catholic-Hierarchy]
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