SANTA CRUZ PARISH

PARROQUIA DE SANTA CRUZ

1919+2008

TUCSON ARIZONA

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SANTA CRUZ CHURCH 

POLITICAL CONFLICT IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTRUY

THIS EXCERPT TAKEN FROM THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORICAL PLACES

"The conflict of Church and State in Mexico spilled across the border in November of 1924, as radical striking miners (with access to dynamite) made attacks on carmelites in Tucson and Morenci.  Fr. Font's narrative quotes from a contemporary account .......'at one and some minutes early yesterday morning, a muted sound with great volume was heard throughout the city, producing some alarm.  Santa Cruz Church had been the target of a dynamite attempt.  According to Fr. Justino, the wretches who placed the dynamite bomb placed...(it) in the jam (sic) on the left hand side of the door.  The explosion blew the door down.....(it) was so strong that all the glass in the Rectory wings on both sides were (sic) shattered completely.  Fr. Justino, who was sleeping in the third room to the right, escaped serious injury from the thick pieces of glass flying from the windows...after various architects and experts had gone over the building it has been discovered that.....the greater part of the roofing of the Church had given way and will require extensive repairs."

Santa Cruz Church played a large part in serving the faithful in southern Arizona.  It was the Parish from south Tucson to the Mexican border.  Santa Cruz priests have travelled by lonely dirt roads to small towns like Sasabe to give Mass and Sacraments to Mexican citizens.  The Catholic Church outlawed in Mexico, our priests threatened by Pancho Villa and his men.  Trap doors and hiding places within the Church grounds not uncommon.  In Church archives exists multiple wedding records of 20 to 30 marriage sacraments a day to the faithful from Mexico.  

THESE AND OTHER FACTS ARE CURRENTLY BEING INVESTIGATED, AND WE HOPE TO BRING YOU MORE SOON.