Many Mexicans went willingly into martyrdom in that terrible time, many priests and nuns were slaughtered and faced awful outrages—like the saints of old. It is a time that is unstudied today—but it should be.
“It is a time that is unstudied today—but it should be.”
Even more recently in Spain (1936), the elected government outlawed Mass and oversaw the slaughter of over 7,000 priests (including 12 bishops) and hundreds of nuns. Oddly enough, the uprising against that government succeeded because Hitler & Mussolini supported it, while the Soviet Union supported the government. The US shunned the Franco government that followed for years until the Cold War made a treaty necessary; at that point Franco let it be known that we were just realizing what he had fought against years before.
“The Last Crusade” is a great book on the war, well worth the read.