Editing Miguel Pro (section)

==Jesuit life in Mexico, persecution, exile abroad, and ordination==
[[File:Miguel Pro (1891-1927).jpg|130px|left|thumb|Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, Mexican Jesuit, executed by a firing squad in Mexico (1927) for exercising his priestly ministry]]
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One of his companions, Pulido, said that he "had never seen such an exquisite wit, never coarse, always sparkling."<ref name="Gentes">[http://www.angelusonline.org/print.php?sid=3045 Gentges, Mary E. ''Father Pro of Mexico'' (Angelus Online 20070] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928040614/http://www.angelusonline.org/print.php?sid=3045 |date=2007-09-28 }}</ref> He was noted for his charity and ability to speak about spiritual subjects without boring his audience. Pulido remarked that there were two Pros: the playful Pro and the prayerful Pro. He was known for the long periods he spent in the chapel.<ref name="Gentes"/>

Long-time President of Mexico [[Porfirio Díaz]] was ousted in 1911 after staging a rigged reelection, and a struggle for power – the [[Mexican Revolution]] – began.

Pro studied in Mexico until 1914 when a massive wave of governmental anti-Catholicism forced the novitiate to dissolve and the Jesuits to flee to [[Los Gatos, California]], in the United States. He then went to study in [[Granada]], Spain (1915–19), and from 1919 to 1922 taught in Nicaragua.<ref>''Miguel Pro Juárez'' Encyclopædia Britannica 2007</ref>

Back in Mexico, a new constitution for the country had been signed (1917). Five articles of the [[1917 Constitution of Mexico]] were particularly aimed at suppression of the [[Catholic Church]]. Article 3 mandated secular education in schools, prohibiting the Church from participating in primary and secondary education. Article 5 outlawed [[monasticism|monastic]] religious orders. Article 24 forbade public worship outside of church buildings, while Article 27 restricted religious organizations' rights to own property. Finally, Article 130 revoked basic civil rights of clergy members: priests and religious workers were prevented from wearing their habits, were denied the right to vote, and were forbidden from commenting on public affairs to the press. Most of the anti-clerical provisions of the constitution were removed in 1998.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

For his [[Theology|theological]] studies Pro was sent to [[Enghien]], [[Belgium]], where the French Jesuits (also in exile) had their faculty of Theology. His health continued to deteriorate. There he was ordained a priest on August 31, 1925. He wrote on that occasion: "How can I explain to you the sweet grace of the [[Holy Spirit]], which invades my poor miner's soul with such heavenly joys? I could not hold back the tears on the day of my ordination, above all at the moment when I pronounced, together with the [[bishop]], the words of the consecration. After the ceremony the new priests gave their first blessing to their parents. I went to my room, laid out all the photographs of my family on the table, and then blessed them from the bottom of my heart."

His first assignment as a priest was to work with the miners of [[Charleroi]], Belgium. Despite the [[socialism|socialist]], [[communism|communist]], and [[anarchism|anarchist]] tendencies of the workers, he was able to win them over and preach the Gospel to them.

Three months after ordination, he was forced to undergo several operations for ulcers. He remained cheerful and courageous, explaining that the source of his strength was his prayer.