Pastoral emergency and unprecedented solutions: licenses and extraordinary measures for the celebration of the sacraments during the religious conflict in Mexico (1926-1937)

Abstract

Starting in 1926 and for a whole decade, the Catholic Church in Mexico had to face a series of legal provisions that severely limited the exercise of ministers of worship. Violation of these provisions carried severe penalties. Therefore, they resorted to acting clandestinely. This entailed, on the one hand, a series of relaxations to the canonical norms and, on the other, a greater insertion of the laity in the life of the Church. This article seeks to show what these restrictions were and what was the way to alleviate them.