“Well, it’s certainly not a case of brutal government persecuting unresisting Christians as in ancient Rome.”
It started that way, as it did in Spain a few years later. In Spain the army revolted against the elected government when it took no action to protect the Church or even basic property rights from the Bolshevik mobs; the Communist government literally outlawed Mass (and killed twelve or thirteen bishops, on top of thousands of priests and dozens of nuns). As in Mexico, many of those religious also proclaimed “Viva Cristo Rey!” as they were martyred; it became the battle cry of the Carlists on the Nationalist side.
The current (Leftist) government of Spain has erased that history; thankfully the Vatican has been canonizing the martyrs of the war in Spain (and some from Mexico as well) so that nobody can deny the events of the first half of the 20th century. The Left is still as focused as it was then, and has lulled people into complacency as they divert attention to nonsense while they keep Marx’s dream alive.
"Started" only if you edit out the history of Spain and Mexico prior to the 20th.
In both countries the Church supported the aristocracy, the "right" in European terms, which is very different from the the American right, who would have been considered wild-eyed radicals in both countries.
In Mexico, for instance, and I believe in Spain, members of the Church and army officers were not subject to the same laws as the rest of the people. They had their own courts, which essentially made them above the law.
The revolutions in both countries were against regimes that were essentially the same as that in France prior to its revolution. The American Revolution, OTOH, was against a system that had already rejected the "old regime" of the middle ages.
I am perfectly well aware that horrible atrocities were committed by the revolutionaries in France, Mexico and Spain. At least some of the responsibility for this lies with the Church in these countries, which resisted reasonable reforms and caused pressure to build up to where it exploded violently.
****The current (Leftist) government of Spain has erased that history;****
It is interesting to see how Hollywood has protrayed the Spanish Civil War through the years.
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS (anti-Franco)
THE ANGEL WORE RED (anti-communist)
PAN’S LABYRYNTH (Anti-Franco)