File No. 812.404/87.
[Inclosure—Extract.]
[Untitled]
While the American forces were in the port of Veracruz the city was a
refuge for priests and nuns from all parts of the interior. * * *
Most of them were unkempt, emaciated and in rags. * * * With every
rumor of evacuation of the port by the Americans there was panic
among them, and when the certainty of the evacuation became known,
the Spanish priests, especially, were willing to go anywhere, even
penniless to a country whose language they did not understand, to
escape before the entry of the Constitutionalists.
In September 1914 it had been published officially that the Governor
and Military Commander of the State of Veracruz had ordered the
definite expulsion of the foreign clergymen, permitting Mexican
clergy only to exercise their functions, in the proportion of one
priest in towns of 500 to 10,000 Inhabitants, two priests in towns
of 10,000 to 30,000, and up to four priests as
[Page 1022]
a maximum in towns of more than
30,000. Nevertheless, after the entry of the Constitutionalists in
November 1914, masses continued to be celebrated as usual in the
three churches of the city of Veracruz. The confessionals were
allowed to remain, and the Spanish priests were permitted to say
masses.
However, on December 9, the second in size of the churches was seized
and turned into barracks. [Details.]
The other churches in Veracruz have not been molested, and the
Spanish priest of the parochial church is permitted to say mass in
spite of the decree against the foreign clergy. In this port, in
fact, the expressions of hostility against the Church have not been
marked, probably because the Church has never exercised much
influence in recent years over the people of the port. [Instance of
an anti-clerical lecture, announced but not delivered; and of
posters criticizing the clergy.] Some of the Catholics in Veracruz
were vexed at the exceptional courtesies shown a Methodist bishop on
his recent visit here; but this treatment was probably only natural
considering the fact that a number of Mexican Protestant ministers
and elders are connected with the higher executive departments of
the Constitutionalists in Veracruz.
jalapa.
In the interior of this consular district, where the Church has had
more power than in the port of Veracruz, the churches and clergy
have not fared so well.
[Instances of banishment of clergymen from Jalapa, limitation of
services, imprisonment of priests for exceeding these limits.]
All church property, with the exception of the Virgen de la Piedad,
was confiscated. [Details.]
orizaba.
[Confiscations of churches for use as barracks, and of various
convents, and of the effects of priests and nuns.]
On September 6 the foreign priests, principally Spaniards, and even
one or two Mexican priests, were given four hours in which to get
out of the city. Most of their effects were confiscated.
Most of the books belonging to the churches and religious orders were
burned, given away or sold at prices ridiculously low in view of
their value.
coatepec.
All the church property of Coatepec was confiscated and some of the
service stolen, but mass is said daily in one of the four churches,
although under strict regulations.
[Arrest of a priest in December 1914, still imprisoned, and
confiscation of his effects.]
el tejar.
[Confiscation of a church, used also for school purposes, to be used
as barracks.]
san andrés.
[Arrest of three Spanish priests, their release and refuge in Vera
Cruz.] In this instance there are details of abuses, mockery,
threats, the torture of being led to believe that execution was to
be their lot, for the enjoyment of the soldiers; sufferings in their
wanderings with the troops over the State, their journey alone to
Vera Cruz, where they learned of the confiscation of their property
and where they had to depend on charity. Yet this case is but one of
many, and the incidents are nothing in comparison with the
sufferings of other priests whose stories are being learned from
time to time.
Wm. W. Canada.
Vera Cruz, Mexico
, March 8, 1915.
