page_title: History of the Catholic Church in Mexico
section_title: The era of Porfirio Diaz (1876–1911)
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Catholic Church in Mexico / Independent Mexico in the nineteenth century / The era of Porfirio Diaz (1876–1911)
caption_attribution_description: English: Sitting: Vicar of Puebla de los Angeles Ramón Ibarra y Gonzalez, former first archbishop of Puebla, and from left to right the Tritschler y Córdova brothers, Alfonso, Guillermo and the elder Martín who was an advanced student at the Gregorian University in Rome, and Luis de la Maza. Date: 11 de mayo de 1888. Español: Sentado vemos al entonces Vicario capitular de Puebla Ramón Ibarra y Gonzalez quien seria el primer arzobispo de Puebla, de izq. a der. los hermanos Tritschler y Córdova: Alfonso, el pequeño Guillermo y el mayor Martín quien ya era un aventajado alumno de la Universidad Gregoriana de Roma. Por último el pequeño Luis de la Maza. Foto tomada en Roma el 11 de mayo de 1888.
context_page_description: The history of the Catholic Church in Mexico dates from the period of the Spanish conquest and has continued as an institution in Mexico into the twenty-first century. Catholicism is one of the two major legacies from the Spanish colonial era, the other being Spanish as the nation's language. The Catholic Church was a privileged institution until the mid nineteenth century. It was the sole permissible church in the colonial era and into the early Mexican Republic, following independence in 1821. Following independence, it involved itself directly in politics, including in matters that did not specifically involve the Church.
  In the mid-nineteenth century the liberal Reform brought major changes in church-state relations. Mexican liberals in power challenged the Catholic Church's role, particularly in reaction to its involvement in politics. The Reform curtailed the Church's role in education, property ownership, and control of birth, marriage, and death records, with specific anticlerical laws. Many of these were incorporated into the Constitution of 1857, restricting the Church's corporate ownership of property and other limitations.
context_section_description: Liberal general Porfirio Díaz, who became president in 1876, strengthened the Mexican government ties with the Catholic Church with an agreement formulated in 1905. The Church's influence over Mexico increased due to the large number of changes that occurred while Díaz was in power. These institutional reforms included: administrative reorganization, improved training of the laity, the expansion of the Catholic press, an expansion of Roman Catholic education, and the growth of the Church's influence in rural areas. The lack of enforcement of anti-clerical laws by Díaz can also be attributed to the profound influence of his wife, who was a devout Catholic.
  During the period 1876 to 1911, relations between the Catholic Church and the Mexican government were stable. This was a sharp contrast to the political discord that led to outright warfare between Mexican liberals who implemented anti-clerical laws during the Reforma (1855–1861) and conservatives, who sought continuing privileges for the Catholic Church. The War of the Reform (1858–61) ended with the defeat of conservatives. Then the liberal government of Benito Juárez defaulted on foreign loans in 1861, opening the door to foreign intervention supported by Mexican conservatives. With the fall of the Second Mexican Empire, liberal presidents Benito Juárez and, following his death, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada implemented anti-clerical laws with even greater zeal.
  By contrast Porfirio Díaz was a political pragmatist and not an ideologue, likely seeing that if the religious question were re-opened there would be renewed political discord in Mexico and possible war with the U.S.
  "Persecution of the Church, whether or not the clergy enters into the matter, means war, and such a war, the Government can win against its own people only through the humiliating, despotic, costly and dangerous support of the United States. Without its religion, Mexico is irretrievably lost."
  When he rebelled against Lerdo, Díaz had the tacit and perhaps the explicit support of the Church. When he came to power in 1877, Díaz left the anticlerical laws in place, but the central government no longer enforced them. This modus vivendi with the Catholic Church was termed his "conciliation policy."  A key player in the conciliation policy was Eulogio Gillow y Zavala, a wealthy and well-connected cleric, whom Díaz met via agricultural expositions. Gillow's appointment as archbishop of Oaxaca, Díaz's home state, and his personal relationship with Díaz, positioned him to influence church-state relations in Mexico.
  The conciliation policy meant that the Catholic Church regained a level of freedom of action, but one not protected by the constitution, so that their loyalty or prudence in criticism of the Diáz regime, or both, were in the Church's best interest. In a number of regions, the Church re-emerged, but others saw a less full role. Individual Mexican states in Mexico's federated republic could and did differ in their constitutions, a manifestation of Mexico's regional differences. Some states amended their constitutions to enshrine anticlerical measures of the Constitution of 1857, but ten states retained their constitutions without those amendments.
  Diaz strengthened the Mexican government ties with the Catholic Church with an agreement formulated in 1905. The Church's influence in Mexico increased while Díaz was in power. These institutional reforms included: administrative reorganization, improved training of the laity, the expansion of the Catholic press, an expansion of Catholic education, and the growth of the Church's influence in rural areas. The lack of enforcement of anticlerical laws by Diaz can also be partially attributed to the profound influence of his second wife, Carmen Romero Rubio, who was a devout Catholic. She became a go-between to alert ecclesiastical establishments, such as nunneries, if anticlerical forces attempted to enforce statues against the Church.
  During the late Porfiriato, the Jesuits were allowed to return to Mexico and they were to play an important role in twentieth-
caption: Photograph of young Mexican pilgrims in the city of Rome, all with future bright ecclesiastical careers; sitting is the future archbishop of Puebla Ramón Ibarra y González.
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