Posted in Weekly column from Archbishop Chaput, on May 29th, 2012

The extraordinary witness of ordinary people: Viva Cristo Rey!

Earlier this week we celebrated Memorial Day. For most of us, the holiday informally marks the start of summer. Over the next three months families will take their vacations, the pace of life will slow a bit and people will have a little more precious time to relax and restore their spirits.

The purpose of recreation is to renew us in body and soul; to give us time to think; to reconnect us with family and the gift of being alive. For me, that usually means a week of fishing with friends, catching up on a pile of good books and enjoying a few good movies.

And since all good things are meant to be shared, I can already recommend — in fact, enthusiastically recommend — a film that no Catholic should miss this summer.

“For Greater Glory” opens in select theaters this Friday, June 1. Written, directed and acted with outstanding skill, it’s the story of Mexico’s Cristero War (also known as La Cristiada, 1926-29). Largely ignored until recently – even in Mexico – the war resulted from Mexico’s atheist constitution of 1917, subsequent anti-religious legislation and fierce anti-clerical persecution by the government of President Plutarco Elias Calles, who came to power in 1924.

The Catholic response to the Calles regime first took the form of non-violent petitions, suspended religious services and economic boycotts. But bloody popular resistance broke out in 1926. By 1929, 50,000 Cristero rebels were fighting the federal government. A small number of priests took up arms with their people. More than 90,000 persons died in the fighting. In the process, the authorities murdered thousands of Catholic laypeople and dozens of priests.

Blessed Miguel Pro, a Jesuit priest, was executed without trial in 1927. Blessed Jose Sanchez del Rio, age 14, was shot to death for refusing to deny his faith in 1928. In both cases, the martyrs’ last words were Viva Cristo Rey! (Long live Christ the King!) The Church has since honored dozens of other Mexican martyrs for their heroism during the Calles persecution.

By 1929, pressured by Cristero success and U.S. diplomacy, federal authorities agreed to ease some restrictions on the Church and end violent persecution. Mexico’s bishops accepted the brokered peace. The Cristero rebellion slowly died out. But the government soon betrayed its promises. Brutal anti-religious policies renewed and continued.

Federal authorities murdered hundreds of former Cristero leaders and thousands of former Cristero fighters in reprisals. And the government continued its belligerence against the Church throughout the 1930s – a campaign of atheist violence and anti-religious hatred that provided the backdrop for two of Graham Greene’s finest books: his travelogue, “The Lawless Roads” (1939), and arguably his greatest novel, “The Power and the Glory” (1940).

Of course, gripping history does not automatically translate into good drama. Too many films for the family and religious markets suffer from lots of good intentions, but a lack of resources, inadequate talent and weak professional skills.

“For Greater Glory” succeeds where so many similar films have failed. Led by Academy Award nominees Andy Garcia and Catalina Sandino Moreno, along with Oscar Isaac, Eva Longoria, Ruben Blades, Eduardo Verastegui and others, the cast is superb. And the writing gives them the kind of robust material they need to work with: strong dialogue, fully developed characters, vivid moral conflicts in a time of revolutionary violence and a compelling story that never lags, thanks to the skilled directing of Dean Wright.

To describe this film as stirring or powerful would do it a disservice. “For Greater Glory” is much more than an exercise in piety; it’s an extraordinary portrait of ordinary people struggling to defend their convictions. It’s among the most absorbing films by any director or movie studio that I’ve seen in the past few years.

One of the hymns Cristeros sang as they went into battle had these words:

 

The Virgin Mary is our protector and defender when there is something to fear,

She will defeat the demons, crying “Long live Christ the King!”

She will defeat the demons, crying “Long live Christ the King!”

Soldiers of Christ let us follow the flag that the Cross shows the army of God!

Let us follow the flag, crying “Long live Christ the King!”

 

We Americans in 2012 live in a different land in a different time. We’re blessed with freedoms the Cristeros could only imagine. But those freedoms depend on our willingness to defend them. Religious liberty is never guaranteed by anything but our own vigilance. Even in this country, contempt for religious faith, and especially the Catholic faith, is alive and well.

“For Greater Glory” captures with memorable power and grace where that bigotry can lead — and the cost of resisting it.

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13 Responses

1. Hopefully this movie will come to a theater within driving distance of our home. If not, I will look forward to purchasing it on DVD at a later time. Thank you very much for allowing us this look into our Catholic history in a country so close to our own.

   By: Margie Duplechain on May 29, 2012 at 5:57 pm

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   • This film is being played everywhere! So, if there is a theater within driving distance then you are set. It seems some strange rumors of a limited release have been spread.

     By: Blake Helgoth on May 31, 2012 at 8:02 pm

   • Blake Helgoth: It is NOT playing “everywhere”. According to Boxofficemojo.com, it is in 757 theaters; a typical Hollywood wide release is 3,000 theaters or more.

     I live in Morgantown, WV, and while we typically get the major Hollywood films, I am driving an hour and a half tomorrow to Pittsburgh to see “For Greater Glory”. It is NOT showing in Morgantown.

     By: Edward C. on June 2, 2012 at 8:27 pm

2. My father, was a Cristero which is why I am an American. He was in the Seminary in Mexico when Calles came to power and committed his atrocities. Dad joined Anacleto Flores and others to give spiritual talks to the foot-soldiers. His mother, my grandmother, helped by winding cartridge belts around her middle and under her corset to deliver ammunition to the Cristeros in the hills. When Anacleto was caught and assassinated, the group he led disbanded with the words, (according to Dad) “every man for himself”. He boarded a train and fled to Nogales Arizona from Guadalajara Mexico. He did not pack and had only the clothes on his back. He settled here and eventually returned when things had settled somewhat. He married his sweetheart and brought her to Nogales. They were blessed with 10 children. He joined the Knights of Columbus and stated to whomever would listen that they were the only ones who sent help. The Freemasons were helping Calles, and the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico was of little or no help.

   By: Cecilia Aranda Frantz on May 29, 2012 at 11:50 pm

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   • Cecilia, your story needs to be told to many people. Do you live in the Philadelphia area? I would love to have you share your witness. Thank you for sharing!

     By: Patricia on June 2, 2012 at 2:18 pm

3. God bless you Cecilia! I’ve seen an advance copy of the film, and it really is very good, as the archbishop says. If you go to the movie’s website, http://www.forgreaterglory.com, you’ll be able to locate theaters in Philly area playing it. There are about a dozen or more.

   By: S.T. Malone. on May 30, 2012 at 12:12 pm

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4. I just hope the film doesn’t turn out to be a ‘There Be Dragons’ flip-flop.

   But you can offer up a bad movie experience as suffering, I guess.

   By: Nick on May 31, 2012 at 10:06 am

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5. God bless you, Bishop Chaput.

   By: RichardC on May 31, 2012 at 1:43 pm

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6. “There Be Dragons” really was a disappointment, and especially so since it was set against such a great canvas: the Spanish Civil War. “For Greater Glory” is much more professionally done at every level, with a far more engaging story. It’s well worth the price of the tickets.

   By: MDegnan on June 1, 2012 at 4:55 am

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7. At the beginning of the Castro revolution in Cuba many young Catholic Cubans also shouted Viva Cristo Rey! before the firing squads, but now it is not “politically correct” to recall this as the Cuban and US bishops negotiaste with the 53 year old dictatorship. The Vatican also has fallen for this policy even as Castro increases repression of freedom loving Cubans, Catholic or not. But the truth will out and another episode of “mea culpa” will ensue. By the way, I am Catholic and my faith is not shaken by all of this. We know that the Church is far more than the policies of a group of Pastors at a given point in time.

   By: Jorge C on June 1, 2012 at 9:10 am

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8. Dear Father, that is a wonderful article you wrote for the movie “la Cristiada.” I myself have seen it four times here in Mexico and it has helped me in many ways in my daily life. As soon as I go home to GA in June I am taking a large group of my American friends to see it. I want everyone to see it! Again I thank you for the wonderful article y QUE VIVA CRISTO REY!

   By: cecilia rodriguez on June 2, 2012 at 4:38 pm

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9. We enjoyed the film very much. My comment to the Eagle Tribune here:

   http://www.eagletribune.com/lifestyle/x1561301181/For-Greater-Glory-isnt-the-glorious-epic-its-backers-hoped-for

   By: Toni Ann Carrillo on June 3, 2012 at 2:02 pm

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10. Should we draw the inference from the Archbishop’s review of the movie that he would approve of Americans taking up arms against the federal government of the USA if the HHS Mandate cannot be revoked by political or judicial means? If that is what the Archbishop is saying, then I am not with him.

    By: Bartolome on June 4, 2012 at 5:29 pm

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