Anacleto González Flores

Infobox Saint
name=Blessed Anacleto González Flores
birth_date=birth date|1888|7|13|mf=y
death_date=death date and age|1927|4|27|1888|7|13|mf=y
feast_day=1 April
venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church


imagesize=205px
caption=
birth_place=Tepatitlán, Jalisco, Mexico
death_place=Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
titles=Martyr
beatified_date=20 November 2005
beatified_place=Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
beatified_by=Pope Benedict XVI, recognition celebrated by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins
canonized_date=pending
canonized_place=
canonized_by=
attributes=
patronage=
major_shrine=
suppressed_date=
issues=

Anacleto González Flores (July 13 1888 – April 27 1927) was a Mexican Catholic layman and lawyer, executed during the persecution of the Catholic Church under the presidency of Plutarco Elías Calles. He was beatified by Benedict XVI as a martyr on November 20, 2005.

Historical background

At the time of the killing of González Flores, Mexico was under rule of the fiercely anti-clerical 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." [Greene, Graham The Lawless Roads, Prologue (Penguin Classics 1993)]

Childhood

The second of twelve children born to the poor family of Valentín González Sanitiz and Maria Flores Navaho, Anacleto González Flores was baptized the day after his birth. [Cruz, Joan Carrol [http://books.google.com/books?id=tvvy3Rzcw8AC&dq Saintly Men of Modern Times] p.40 , 2003 Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, ISBN 1931709777] A priest friend of the family recognized his intelligence and recommended him for the seminary where he excelled, earning the nickname "Maestro". [Cruz, Joan Carrol [http://books.google.com/books?id=tvvy3Rzcw8AC&dq Saintly Men of Modern Times] p.40 , 2003 Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, ISBN 1931709777] After deciding he did not have a calling to holy orders, Anacleto began the study of law at Escuela Libre de Derecho in Guadalajara, becoming an attorney in 1922. [Cruz, Joan Carrol [http://books.google.com/books?id=tvvy3Rzcw8AC&dq Saintly Men of Modern Times] p.40 , 2003 Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, ISBN 1931709777]

Career and Martyrdom

Anacleto became an activist and leader of the Catholic Association of Mexican Youth and founded the magazine "La Palabra" which attacked the anticlerical and Anti-Catholic articles of the Constitution of 1917. [Cruz, Joan Carrol [http://books.google.com/books?id=tvvy3Rzcw8AC&dq Saintly Men of Modern Times] p.41 , 2003 Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, ISBN 1931709777] He was the founder and president of the Popular Union (UP), an organization to organize Catholics to resist the persection of the Church. [Cruz, Joan Carrol [http://books.google.com/books?id=tvvy3Rzcw8AC&dq Saintly Men of Modern Times] p.42 , 2003 Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, ISBN 1931709777]

Anacleto attended Mass daily and engaged in numerous works of charity, including visiting prisoners and teaching catechism. [Cruz, Joan Carrol [http://books.google.com/books?id=tvvy3Rzcw8AC&dq Saintly Men of Modern Times] p.41 , 2003 Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, ISBN 1931709777]

Originally Anacleto supported passive resistance against the government, having studied the methods of Gandhi. [Cruz, Joan Carrol [http://books.google.com/books?id=tvvy3Rzcw8AC&dq Saintly Men of Modern Times] p.41 , 2003 Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, ISBN 1931709777] 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 Defence of Religious Freedom, supporting the coming rebellion. [ [http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20051120_anacleto-gonzalez_en.html José Anacleto González Flores and eight Companions] Vatican News Services Nov. 20, 2005] 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. [Cruz, Joan Carrol [http://books.google.com/books?id=tvvy3Rzcw8AC&dq Saintly Men of Modern Times] p.42 , 2003 Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, ISBN 1931709777]

In January 1927, having endured religious persecution, rebels began the Cristero War. Anacleto did not take up arms but gave speeches, encouraging Catholics to support the Cristeros financially and with food, accommodation and clothing. He wrote pamphlets and gave speeches supporting the cause against the anticlerical government.

Seeking to quash the rebellion, the government sought capture of the leaders of the Popular Union and the National League for the Defence of Religious Freedom. Anacleto was captured and framed with charges that he has assassinated American Edgar Wilkens, when in fact the government knew that Wilkens had been murdered by his robber, Guadalupe Zuno. [Cruz, Joan Carrol [http://books.google.com/books?id=tvvy3Rzcw8AC&dq Saintly Men of Modern Times] p.42 , 2003 Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, ISBN 1931709777] Anacleto 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. [ [http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20051120_anacleto-gonzalez_en.html José Anacleto González Flores and eight Companions] Vatican News Services Nov. 20, 2005] On April 1, 1927, he was executed by firing squad. [ [http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20051120_anacleto-gonzalez_en.html José Anacleto González Flores and eight Companions] Vatican News Services Nov. 20, 2005] Echoing the words of assassinated Ecuadorian President, Gabriel García Moreno, in defiance of the forces seeking to suppress his faith, Anacleto's last words were, "I die but God does not die!" [Parsons, Wilfrid [http://books.google.com/books?id=mduJHmsrzhEC&dq Mexican Martyrdom] p.38 2003 Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 0766172465]

Wilkens' widow, who knew Anacleto had been framed, wrote a letter of protest to Washington exonerating him. [Cruz, Joan Carrol [http://books.google.com/books?id=tvvy3Rzcw8AC&dq Saintly Men of Modern Times] p.42 , 2003 Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, ISBN 1931709777] A letter staying his execution arrived shortly after he was shot. [Cruz, Joan Carrol [http://books.google.com/books?id=tvvy3Rzcw8AC&dq Saintly Men of Modern Times] p.42 , 2003 Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, ISBN 1931709777]

References