Mexican National Catholic Church
| Iglesia Católica Apostólica Mexicana (Mexican Catholic Apostolic Church) | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | ICAM |
| Classification | Catholic - Eastern Orthodox |
| Polity | Episcopal |
| Associations | Worldwide Communion of Catholic Apostolic National Churches |
| Region | Mexico |
| Founder | José Joaquín Pérez Budar |
| Origin | 1925 Mexico City, Mexico |
Mexican Catholic Apostolic Church Spanish: Iglesia Católica Apostólica Mexicana (ICAM) was a church founded in 1925 to bolster revolution and machinate a schism from the Catholic Church in Mexico with the support of the Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers (CROM) and Mexican President Plutarco Elías Calles' approval. President Álvaro Obregón and his successor Calles, as well as other politicians, wanted the revolutionary government to restrict and terminate the Catholic Church in Mexico. In February 1925, armed intruders calling themselves "Knights of the Order of Guadeloupe" occupied the church of María de la Soledad in Mexico City where José Joaquín Pérez Budar, a Freemason and former Catholic priest, proclaimed himself the future patriarch of a new national church; parishioners attacked the interlopers and rioted the next day; similar riots were incited when other churches in Mexico were occupied by armed intruders that month. These armed intruders occupying churches induced fear of anti-Catholic persecution that led to the formation of the National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty (LNDLR) a militant Catholic defense organization. Official favoritism of a national church enraged revolutionaries who saw this as a "violation of state " with potential to faction the revolution, so Calles stopped his support of ICAM after about 3 months. Nevertheless, the government failed in 1925 to orchestrate Pérez's consecration by a visiting Eastern Orthodox bishop, but in 1926, North American Old Roman Catholic Church Bishop Carmel Henry Carfora consecrated Pérez, Antonio Benicio López Sierra, and Macario López Valdez as bishops. In 1927, López Sierra established an ICAM church in San Antonio, Texas, where Archbishop Arthur Jerome Drossaerts, of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio, called the (Spanish for schismatics) "designing proselytizers of the sects supported by Calles and the Mexican government, that archenemy of all Christianity;" and in 1929, López Valdes established an ICAM church in Los Angeles, California. Pérez moved his cathedra to San Antonio in March 1930 but in April 1931, Pérez returned to Mexico City.
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