Difendere la fede in Messico. Ragioni delle armi, ragioni della diplomazia (1926-1937)

The conflict between the secular Mexican state and the Catholic Church, which reached its heights with the Cristero war of 1926-1929, remains one of the least known chapters of Achille Ratti’s pontificate. Since the beginning of the conflict, the Cristero leaders sought to obtain an official endorsement from the Holy See, in order to overcome the resistance of those Catholics unwilling to take up arms against the government. Even after the end of the Cristiada, Pope Pius XI and his Secretary of State Cardinal Pacelli had to mediate between the unwillingness to compromise of many Mexican Catholics and the necessity to preserve religious freedom by means of Vatican Diplomacy. As a result of this confrontation, Pius XI’ Encyclicals on Mexico permit to identify certain underlying tendencies of Vatican politics at the time, with particular reference to the “Just War Theory” and the Holy See’s concrete actions in defending the libertas Ecclesiae.