Today is the Feast of Blessed Miguel Pro, SJ, Priest and Martyr

A thought experiment. The Government of the United States has fallen under the control of a far left, extremely anti-Catholic party. Faithful Catholics are in rebellion. Jimmy Martin, LGBTQXYZSJ (or practically any modern American Jesuit), not guilty of any crime, is arrested and sentenced to death. He forgives his enemies, and as he faces the firing squad, exclaims, 'Long live Christ the King!'

Blessed Miguel

Can you imagine it? Nah, neither can I. But that's exactly what
Blessed Miguel Pro, of the Society of Jesus, did. But the  Jesuits were Catholic in those days!

The 1917 Constitution of Mexico had contained several anti-clerical articles the aims of which were to remove the influence of the Church from Mexican society.

Article 3 prohibited religious schools and even religious instruction in private schools. Priests and Religious Orders were prohibited from aiding the poor, engaging in scientific research, or attempting to evangelise. The first two sections of Article 3 read,

I. According to the religious liberties established under article 24, educational services shall be secular and, therefore, free of any religious orientation. 

II. The educational services shall be based on scientific progress and shall fight against ignorance, ignorance's effects, servitudes, fanaticism and prejudice.

The Church was also prohibited from owning any property.

Article 130 went further. It denied churches any kind of legal status and allowed local legislators to limit the number of ministers, (essentially giving the state the ability to restrict religious institutions) and banned any Priests or missionaries not born in Mexico. It denied Priests and Religious freedom of association, the right to vote and freedom of speech, prohibiting them and Church publications from criticizing the law or government.

However, the Presidents immediately following the adoption of the Constitution did not enforce the anti-clerical articles. That changed with the election of Plutarco Elías Calles and the enactment of the 'Calles Law', technically called the  Law for Reforming the Penal Code, designed to rigidly enforce the anti-clerical articles of the Constitution. For example, wearing clerical garb in public was punishable by a fine of 500 pesos (approximately 250 U.S. dollars at the time, or almost $5,000 today. A priest who criticized the government could be imprisoned for five years. Some states enacted further measures in the name of church and state separation. Chihuahua, for example, enacted a law permitting only a single priest to serve the entire Catholic population of the State, over 400,000 souls! To help enforce the law, Calles seized Church property, expelled all foreign priests, and closed monasteries, convents, and religious schools.

This led to the Cristero War, named from the battle cry of the Catholic peasants fighting to protect the Faith (and the last words of Blessed Miguel) ¡Viva Cristo Rey! The Mexican Government, with the active aid of the Ku Klux Klan and the US Government, faced a rag tag, peasant army who received what aid could be sent from the Holy See, the Knights of Columbus, and the Republic of Ireland.

During the war, His Holiness Pope Pius XI issued several Encyclicals including  Quas primas, instituting the Feast of Christ the King, reaffirming the Catholic doctrine that Christ is King over all states and societies, even the most atheist, such as Calles's Mexico. This fact was conveniently forgotten when the Feast was eviscerated and moved from the last Sunday in October, when I celebrated it, to the 'Last Sunday in Ordinary Time' (this coming Sunday, as a matter of fact) in the 'deformed' Calendar of the Novus Ordo. You can read about the changes in my post, on the true Feast, from last month, The Feast of Christ the King.

On November 18, 1926, His Holiness issued Iniquis afflictisque (On the Persecution of the Church in Mexico), denouncing the violent anti-clerical persecution in Mexico.

Blessed Miguel (born January 13, 1891 – martyred in odium fidei November 23, 1927) was a Mexican Jesuit executed under the presidency of Plutarco Elías Calles on trumped up charges of bombing and attempted assassination of former Mexican President Álvaro Obregón. Betrayed to the police, he was sentenced to death without the benefit of any legal process.

On the day of his execution, Fr. Pro forgave his executioners, prayed, bravely refused the blindfold and died proclaiming, ¡Viva Cristo Rey! "Long live Christ the King!"

In reality, he was killed for his Catholicism and his fidelity to the souls under his care.

Here is an article on Blessed Miguel from Catholicism.org, Padre Pro, A Modern Martyr, and a page on the Way Back Machine, archived from Creighton University, a Jesuit school, Biographical Data. The introduction says,

This page contains information on the life of Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J. Each link reveals something of the history of a Saint, a man holy in wisdom, fun, tricks, poetry, song, and even dance!

Besides Blessed Miguel, there are many other Saints and Blesseds who were martyred under Calles, with the assistance of the United States. Wikipedia has a list of Saints and Blesseds of the Cristero War.