Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Address of the President to Congress December 7, 1915

File No. 812.404/86.

[Untitled]

Vera Cruz, March 26, 1915.

The following appeared in one of the leading dailies this morning:

To the citizen Venustiano Carranza, Chief of the Constitutionalist Army in charge of the Executive Authority of the Union:

The Catholic priests of the Archbishopric of Mexico, undersigned, have the satisfaction to declare to you that we have seen with pain and displeasure that certain Catholic refugees on foreign soil, wrongly counselled and directed by an association which under pretext of protecting the Catholic cause has been for years undertaking to meddle in our national affairs, have addressed themselves to a foreign government in order to seek protection for the Church of Mexico.

We assure you that no one of us has taken part in such measures, which we consider unpatriotic and unnecessary.

It is true that we have to lament some injuries to persons and to matters pertaining to the worship and service of the Church; we consider all this as a sad consequence of the revolution which has moved the very foundation of our country and which in its sweeping zeal to tear up by the roots the elements, of evil has, along with things which are really evil, affected others which are not such; but we confess that, in so far as concerns the most distinguished persons of the revolution, we have received attentions which we appreciate and in many instances guaranties which appear to us meritorious in our position as Mexican citizens.

It is our hope, then, that without betaking ourselves to any foreign power we may be able to obtain all the guaranties and rights compatible with the laws under which we live; that we may be permitted, far from using any political effort whatever, to devote ourselves to the betterment of the poor and the pacification upon the basis of respect for the constituted authorities and the brotherhood of all Mexicans.

Please accept this manifestation of our respect, our gratitude, and our distinguished consideration.

Antonio J. Paredes,
Vicar General of the Archbishopric of Mexico,
and fourteen other Mexican priests.

Silliman.