¡Viva Cristo Rey!: Militant Catholic Devotion and the Creation of the National Votive Sanctuary of Christ the King in Revolutionary Guanajuato, 1914–1928

Abstract

Abstract: This article examines the role of the Catholic ideology of Cristo Rey during the Cristero Conflict, which lasted from 1926 to 1929. This conflict was an armed rebellion led by militant Catholics who opposed the Mexican government's enforcement of anti-clerical provisions in the Mexican Constitution of 1917. This article argues that the creation of the Cristo Rey devotion in Guanajuato, Mexico as well as the statue dedicated to that devotion in 1923 demonstrate the early role the Mexican clergy played in escalating tensions between the Church and the Mexican State in the years before the armed phase of the Cristero rebellion. Additionally, this examination provides an important insight into the unification of lay Catholic organizations surrounding the expulsion of the Papal Nuncio, Eugenio Filippi in 1923. This article further demonstrates that the militant Catholic interpretation of Cristo Rey was impactful outside of Mexico, especially through the official Papal adoption of Christ the King as Catholic doctrine in 1925.