“Your Daughter Inés”: Lay Catholics, Bishop Luis María Martínez and the Religious Conflict in Michoacán, 1927-1929

This article analyzes one aspect of the history of the Cristero rebellion (1926-1929) in Michoacán and the history of lay Catholicism in Mexico, detailing how the religious persecution unleashed by the Calles administration created serious problems for the Catholic church by decapitating its ecclesiastic structure. As a result, the church had to redefine itself, ceding sacred spaces and ecclesiastic powers to lay followers, as it was impossible for priests to continue their public ministry. Persecution, therefore, forced the church to reevaluate the role of lay Catholics within its institutions, giving them a greater role. This article first studies the part played in this process by Luis María Martínez, the auxiliary bishop of Morelia, whose contemporary writings developed and theologized the concept of the “mystical priesthood of believers.” It then examines the correspondence between several Catholic women from Michoacán, all of them part of Martínez’s flock, who attempted to practice this model of lay priesthood. It shows how the participation of lay Catholics was a key part of the religious history of the Cristero rebellion, and how the rebellion allowed many Catholics to fulfill themselves as such