Between church and state: The Catholic Youth Association of Mexico in the struggle for Christian social order

Abstract

This article focuses on the history of the Mexican Catholic Youth Association (MCYA), one of a few Catholic organiza-tions that emerged in Mexico in the early twentieth century. By examining the ideological foundations and activities of MCYA, the author identifies the reasons why this youth or-ganization became the major social force in the conflict be-tween the state and the church in Mexico in the second half of the 1920s. According to the author, the conflict was based on ideological confrontation: the idea of the Christian social or-der as an ideal type of social structure of the state collided with the new political course pursued by the Mexican gov-ernment. In this situation, MCYA, which was conceived as a non-political organization, quickly shifted from participants' joint religious practices and social assistance to civil rights ac-tivism in response to anti-clerical state policies. The article al-so draws attention to the fact that MCYA was the forerunner of several other associations which were supposed to fight against various left-wing movements and, above all, socialist movements.

Keywords

• catholic church
• cristeros
• mexico
• catholic association
• secu-larization