I thought a Catholic martyr was a Catholic willing to die for the True Faith, not someone willing to kill for the True Faith.
This martrydom is depicted in the movie:
*José Luis Sánchez del Río was born on March 28, 1913. A standard-bearer for the army, in January of 1928 he was captured by government forces, who ordered him to renounce his faith in Christ, under threat of death. He refused. To break his resolve, he was made to watch the hanging of another Cristero that they had in custody, but instead José encouraged the man, saying that they would soon meet again in Heaven. In prison, José prayed the rosary daily and wrote an emotional letter to his mother, saying that he was ready to fulfill the will of God. His father attempted to raise a ransom to save him, but was not able to appease the government in time.
On the evening of February 10, 1928: According to one witness: “They cut the bottom of his feet and obliged him to walk around the town toward the cemetery. They also at times cut him with a machete until he was bleeding from several wounds. He cried and moaned with pain, but he did not give in. At times they stopped him and said, ‘If you shout, “Death to Christ the King” we will spare your life.’ José would only shout, ‘I will never give in. Viva Cristo Rey!’” At the place of execution, he was stabbed numerous times with bayonets. The commander was so furious that he pulled out his pistol and shot José. According to one source, before he died he drew a cross in the dirt and kissed it.*
Other martyrs depicted in the movie were priests pulled from their churches and shot or even hanged in their churches. These priests had organized no uprising and had killed no one. They were murdered for being priests.
Again, if you look at those Cristeros who have been recognized as martyrs, you will find that they, too, were murdered. Yet you seem to imply that anyone who would use violence to stop these murders is not acting in defense of the people, but is a murderer himself.
Furthermore, you don’t seem to think the Cristeros themselves ever disapproved of how any of the others chose to wage this fight. This is also not true. The movie does not make out all acts of violence against the enemy to be virtuous, but rather makes a distinction between violence that is necessary and violence that is not acceptable. A priest with a motive of revenge is particularly singled out as having an unfit reason to fight.
I didn’t think the movie glamourized the priests who chose to take up arms, although apparently it white-washed the proclivities of one the priest-generals by making his character a combination of more than one priest who took up arms.
The priests who took up arms were not among those beatified by the Church, but rather were priests killed because they continuted to offer the sacraments instead of fleeing the country.
Again…no one on this forum is glamourizing the situation of Catholics taking up arms to defend religious liberties, but you don’t seem to think that it is right to take up arms against a government that is murdering members of the clergy. Again, I ask you: Which war since the advent of Christianity has been a just war? It doesn’t have to be a Christian war. Pick any of them. According to you, which ones have been just? Any?
You imply that such a thing as a just war is possible, but you don’t seem to be able to name a single one that one has ever been fought. Is it possibly because if any war has been waged for just reasons, this one was? Remember, we are not saying the war could not have been avoided or should not have been avoided at all costs or that any means used by the fighters were justified. We are saying that when things came to what they came to, the elements of a just war seem to have been there. If not, name a war that was just.
