The Dispute over the Liberal Catholic Republic in Mexico (1827-1833). El Defensor de la Religión against the Antireligious Press

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the criticisms leveled by El Defensor de la Religión (a newspaper published in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico) against certain actors from 1827 to 1833. It accused them of being “enemies of God,” since they questioned the ecclesiastical discipline of the time, which, within the framework of a confessional state, was regarded as beyond question by the priesthood. It also explains why the Guadalajara diocesan clergy used the press to refute their enemies rather than the system of religious censorship in force from 1821 to 1855.

Through an examination of El Defensor de la Religión, the author shows that the Guadalajara clergy were reluctant to join a liberal political system with regalian pretensions, with deep roots in Bourbon Spain, even though this system guaranteed the Church a central role as the spiritual guide of Mexican society. Ecclesiastical autonomy from civil power was central to the Catholic republic project defended by the Guadalajara clerics. This study is relevant because it argues that, despite the abolition of the Inquisition in 1820, ecclesiastical censorship continued to function in independent life. In addition, it underwent substantial changes about the colonial period, such as using the press as a complement to the differentiated system for freedom of the press.