{"id":59207,"date":"2025-07-12T09:16:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T09:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/59207\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T09:16:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T09:16:12","slug":"san-antonio-archdiocese-to-commemorate-martyr-who-fought-for-religious-freedom-in-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/59207\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio Archdiocese to commemorate martyr who fought for religious freedom in Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n \"David
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

By David Ramos<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

Puebla, Mexico, Jul 10, 2025 \/
\n 07:00 am<\/p>\n

The Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas, will hold a celebration<\/a> in Spanish and English on Sunday, July 13, commemorating the 137th anniversary of the birth of Blessed Anacleto Gonz\u00e1lez Flores, a martyr of the religious persecution Mexico experienced in the 1920s and patron saint of the Mexican laity.<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez was born in Tepatitl\u00e1n, Jalisco state, Mexico, on July 13, 1888. He was a prominent layman, lawyer, and catechist, recognized for his profound faith and leadership during the religious persecution in Mexico in the 1920s. He founded associations for Christian formation and defended the rights of the Church, promoting peaceful resistance to the government\u2019s anti-clerical laws.<\/p>\n

For his commitment to faith and justice, he was arrested, tortured, and ultimately executed on April 1, 1927. Pope Benedict XVI approved his beatification<\/a> on Nov. 15, 2005. In 2019, he was named patron saint<\/a> of the Mexican laity.<\/p>\n

The Archdiocese of San Antonio\u2019s celebration will begin at noon CT on Sunday, July 13, with Mass at St. Andrew\u2019s Church in Pleasanton, Texas.<\/p>\n

At 1:15 p.m. there will be a talk in English about the Archdiocese of San Antonio\u2019s support, often including providing refuge, for persecuted Mexican Catholics. This will be followed by a bilingual presentation of the Spanish-language book<\/a> \u201cAnacleto Gonz\u00e1lez Flores: From the Word to Social Transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The celebration will conclude with the veneration of the first-class relics of Blessed Anacleto starting at 2:15 p.m.<\/p>\n

Archdiocese of San Antonio provided aid to persecuted Church in Mexico<\/p>\n

During the years of religious persecution in Mexico, various dioceses and Catholic institutions in the United States provided assistance to Mexican bishops, priests, and laypeople, including the Archdiocese of San Antonio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Father Rafael Becerra, the priest organizing the celebration, shared with ACI Prensa, CNA\u2019s Spanish-language news partner, that there are records that show that \u201csome of the homes of the Josephite Sisters became a place for refugee priests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also in the town of Castroville, just west of San Antonio, \u201ca seminary was built and founded for seminarians from Mexico during the time of religious persecution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is known that seminarians from 13 different dioceses in Mexico came to study at that seminary\u201d and that 59 priests were ordained after receiving their formation at that seminary, he noted.<\/p>\n

Among other institutions, Becerra mentioned the important support of the Knights of Columbus, the largest Catholic fraternal service organization in the world. Six members of the Knights<\/a> were martyred during the 1926\u20131929 Cristero War.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also know that several priests were here in San Antonio. There are about 40 refugees, some Claretians, other priests, and some bishops like [the archbishop of Mexico City] Jos\u00e9 Mora,\u201d he commented.<\/p>\n

Among other Mexican prelates who also passed through the Archdiocese of San Antonio during the years of persecution were St. Rafael Gu\u00edzar y Valencia \u2014 today the patron saint of the bishops of Mexico \u2014 and his brother, Antonio, who was archbishop of Chihuahua.<\/p>\n

These and other historical materials will be presented this Sunday, July 13, as part of the celebration of the Archdiocese of San Antonio.<\/p>\n

For more information on how to participate in the celebration, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(Story continues below)<\/b><\/p>\n

\n Subscribe to our daily newsletter<\/p>\n

This story was first published <\/a>by ACI Prensa, CNA\u2019s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.<\/p>\n


\n \"David
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Graduated in Communication Sciences from the Universidad Privada del Norte in Trujillo, Peru. I have been part of the ACI Prensa team for more than 10 years. I have covered Pope Francis’ trips to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Peru. I covered the beatification ceremony of today’s Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero in San Salvador, El Salvador, in 2015. Special envoy for investigation in Honduras in 2016. Head of the ACI Prensa Office in Mexico since 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By David Ramos Puebla, Mexico, Jul 10, 2025 \/ 07:00 am The Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas, will…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,3992,37445,43022,17159,43021,43020,7202,7203,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-59207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-americas","10":"tag-archdiocese-of-san-antonio","11":"tag-catholic-church-in-mexico","12":"tag-catholic-news","13":"tag-cristero-war","14":"tag-religious-persecution","15":"tag-san-antonio","16":"tag-sanantonio","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-tx","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114839511758565690","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}