RELIGION IN MEXICO

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 70, 14 June 1927, Page 14

RELIGION IN MEXICO

P.P.A/S VIEWPOINT CHURCH VERSUS STATE j REV. HOWARD ELLIOTT'S REPLY A reply by the Rev. Howard ■wl national lecturer for the Protestant Political Association, to addresses recently given by Dr. Liston, Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland, on the situation in Mexico, drew a large audience at the Town Hall last evening. rpHL substance of Mr. Elliott’s remarks was the present situation in America, with reference to the history of the Roman Catholic Church in that country. The Rev. A A Murray presided. Mr. Elliott prefaced his remarks S™. a criticism of the attitude of the Press toward the P.P.A Recently, he stated, Dr. Liston, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland, had been addressing his congregations on the situation in Mexico, and the addresses had been published by the Press. The P.P.A. felt that it had not received that full measure of publicity in the past, but those present would no doubt be pleased to learn that a deputation had waited upon two local papers that day, as a result of which they would no doubt receive a full report of that night’s proceedings in the next day’s papers. The struggle that was at present proceeding in Mexico, said the lectureK, had been waged for years with all the might of Rome on one side, and the poor peasants, struggling for freedom, on the other. MEXICAN CIVILISATION Tracing the early history of the Maya and Aztec civilisation, Mr Elliott said that at the time of the invasion of Mexico by the Spaniards under Cortes the Mexicans, under the reign of Montezuma 11., had reached a state of civilisation certainly far ahead of that of Spain and Italy at that time, whence Rome derived its power. The statement made by Bishop Liston that the Spaniards went to Mexico to save the country from people who made blood sacrifices was certainly not true. Hernando Cortes, who sailed from Spain, was received with the greatest hospitality by Montezuma when he landed at Vera Cruz on Good Friday, 1519. Later, Cortes began the conquest of Mexico by cutting the throats of 60 of his Aztec friends. The Spaniards were well armed, and trained in war, and the poorly-armed inhabitants of the country had little chance against them. THE INQUISITION Soon Cortes had the land under military control, and hundreds of priests, monks and nuns were brought out from Spain to stamp out the Mexican religion. The inquisition was set up under the Dominican order, and all were forced to join and bend to the will of the priests. On one of the big Mexican feast days, said the lecturer, the Mexican priests asked permission of the Romans to celebrate their feast as of old. Permission was granted on the condition that the worshippers came unarmed. When they were all inside their temple the doors were shut and the building set alight. In that fire it was said that 3,000 Mexicans perished. In that manner did Spain stamp out the native religion. Nevertheless, Bishop Liston told his congregation that the Spaniards went out to enlighten the people. That occurrence, said Mr. Elliott, bore a remarkable resemblance to the recent train disaster in Mexico, when a train was wrecked, the doors locked and the carriages set alight under the direction of the priests. The bishop had said that that was a lie; that the priests could have had nothing to do with it. The Bishop had not told his people what the Spaniards had done to the Mexicans in order to force their religion upon the people—that 60,000 men had been put to death because they would not embrace the faith. “That is the way they convert them to Christianity,” remarked Mr. Elliott. “One of their leading theolpgians only the other day had said the 'church had the right to put heretics to death if they did not accept the true faith. Only that we are in the majority that is what would happen here.” When the Roman Church taught the Mexicans to pray for the repose of souls, that is when they started to rake in the money, continued Mr. Elliott. At the end of 200 years of Spanish and Roman rule, Rome held 55 per cent, of the wealth and 70 per cent, of the land. “If a man came out in the street and sold some wonderful preparation that was claimed could do all sorts of things and it did not, there was a big outcry,” he said, “but a man with a hat on his head can get up in a church 1 and sell you tickets for the hereafter and get away with it.” POWER OF THE CHURCH

Bishop Liston had said that they had educated the Mexicans. Certainly they were educated —educated to pay. Under the Roman rule Mexico kept its gates locked to all except those who would accept their faith. On the other hand its neighbour, the United States, under Protestant principles, opened its gates to all, and its pros-

perity and progress to-day was one of the greatest testimonies possible to Protestantism. THE MEXICAN REVOLT When that fact became apparent to the Mexicans they began to assail, nut the Government, but the church. He contended that 95 per cent, of the population, which was stated to be Catholic, was determined to break down the authority of the church. The first revolt against it was led by a priest in 1810, and in 1823 came the first established Mexican republic. The struggle had continued between church and State. Revolt after revolt was launched despite the efforts of Rome. The church sent to Rome for assistance and also obtained the assistance of the Catholic King of Austria, who sent money and French troops. His son the Archduke Maximilian was also sent out to rule as emperor, but after a few years he was beheaded. The Mexican State first took over the schools, not because they wanted the people to remain in ignorance, but because they knew the children were being taught sedition and disloyalty. That was evidenced by the fact that Mexico, a Catholic country, sent its nuns and priests out of the country. The church was being punished for the crimes it had committed in the past. The Government did not mind the priests teaching the propriety of people praying for the repose of souls, but they did object to them teaching sedition and whispering it through the little wire square in the confessional. Because the Mexican Government could trust other churches not to teach sedition the gates of Mexico were now thrown open to them. When the archbishop found that he could not get all his own way, he continued. the Pope ordered the priests to strike —to down tools. He said he would close all churches and they would neither be able to get married or to be buried. As a matter of fact, added Mr. Elliott, very few of the Mexicans were married, because they could not afford it. The strike, continued Mr. Elliott, was always the last bolt in the Pope’s pocket, and he occasionally threw it. In the present trouble he threw it again, but nothing happened. That was what had made the Church of Rome “so dancing mad.” It was not true that Mexico had a Bolshevik Government as the church tried to make out, or that it was opposed to religion. When the Bishop said that the Mexi-

cans were in the wrong, he was right. They had been in the wrong for years, but now they were breaking down the great power of Rome.

It recalled to him, concluded Mr. Elliott, the great struggles that had taken place in Scotland and in England 300 years ago against the power of Rome, as a result of which the British Empire rose to her present great power and obtained the glorious liberty and freedom she possessed to-day. “Should they not also extend their warmest sympathy to Mexico in these days of liberation and freedom, and should not every man stand by his faith and let those people be Protestant and free.” (Applause). On the motion of Mr. Armstead a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Elliott was carried by acclamation. During the evening solos were contributed by Miss Fitzwilliam and Mr. Ernest Priest, and were well received.