Mexico City, Mexico, Aug 31, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iñiguez of Guadalajara, Mexico, announced the beatification of Anacleto Gonzalez Flores and eleven companions, all martyrs, who died defending the Cristeros uprising against the Masonic persecution of 1926-29.
According to Cardinal Sandoval, the announcement was expected in March of this year but was postponed because of the death of Pope John Paul II.
Anacleto Gonzalez Flores was born into a large and poor family in Tepatitlán in the Mexican state of Jalisco on July 13, 1889. His love of culture and his desire to gain an education in order to defend the faith against the anti-clerical attacks of the Masons led him to become a lawyer in 1922, the same year in which he married.
He became a history and literature teacher in Guadalajara and in 1925 became president and founder of the “Popular Union of Jalisco.” At the outbreak of the Masonic Mexican Revolution in 1926, Anacleto worked to prevent an armed rebellion against the revolutionaries as he was opposed to resorting to violence against anti-Catholic attacks.