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Eighty Years Ago - First Basilian in Mexico

In 1925, Father Joseph Dillon went to Mexico to improve his Spanish, a subject he taught at the Basilian College in Houston, Texas. Although it would be over twenty years before our Basilian missionaries entered the country to labor to bring the Good News there, Dillon may fairly be counted as the first Basilian in Mexico and is possibly the last foreign priest to leave the country in the face of the bitter persecution of the Church under Calles. Originally intent on studying only a short course, he stayed for a year. He earned his keep by teaching English at the Colegio Francés, a school for boys run by the Marist Fathers. When he arrived back in Houston in July, 1926, an interview with him was published in the Houston Chronicle with the headline “Last Foreign Priest Leaves Mexico.”

Unknowingly, he and the Basilians were being prepared by God for a unique role in the history of the Congregation. A scant eleven years later Joseph Dillon was to celebrate his first Mass as a Basilian missionary to the Spanish speaking at Bay City, Texas. From this mission to the poor Mexican immigrants in Texas, the congregation eventually began to expand into other mission territory. In the 1960s, in answer to the Papal call for missionaries to Latin America, a team of Basilians crossed the border and began working in Mexico. Our missions have since spread to Colombia in South America, and St. Lucia in the West Indies.

Father Dillon’s letters from Mexico in 1925-26 are on file in the archives of the congregation in Toronto. They give a fascinating picture of the agony of the Church in this time of persecution.

February 14, 1926 - "A fresh campaign of persecution against the church has begun in Mexico. A few days ago His Grace the Archbishop was placed under arrest. The majority of the remaining Bishops have also been arrested. The charge is treason."

March 3, 1926 - "The religious situation in Mexico is daily becoming more critical. The government has closed hundreds of schools, convents, colleges and orphanages."

June 3, 1926 - "Monsignor Manrique y Zarate, Bishop of Huejutla, and Hidalgo is indeed the leading defender of the Faith in the present struggle. The authorities ordered his arrest and confinement."

Thanks be to God that although some restrictions against religion remain in force, today there is a rebirth of the living Faith in Mexico. The Basilian Fathers Missions continue to work to bring the Good News to God’s Mexican people.