Editing Miguel Pro (section)

==Return to Mexico==
In summer 1926 – his studies in Europe completed – Pro returned to Mexico. On the way he visited [[Lourdes]] where he celebrated Mass and visited the grotto of [[Lourdes apparitions|Our Lady of Lourdes]].

Pro arrived at [[Veracruz]] on July 8, 1926. [[Plutarco Elías Calles]] was now president of Mexico. Unlike his predecessors, Calles vigorously enforced the anti-Catholic provisions of the 1917 constitution, implementing the so-called [[Calles Law]], which provided specific penalties for priests who criticized the government (five years' imprisonment) or wore clerical garb in certain situations outside their churches (500 pesos). This law went into effect on July 31, 1926.

By this time, some states, such as Tabasco under the notorious anti-Catholic [[Tomás Garrido Canabal]], had closed all the churches and cleared the entire state of openly serving priests, killing many of them, forcing a few to marry, the remaining few serving covertly at risk of their lives. On his return Pro served a Church which was forced to go "underground". He celebrated the [[Eucharist in the Catholic Church|Eucharist]] clandestinely and ministered the other [[Sacraments of the Catholic Church|sacraments]] to small groups of Catholics.<ref>[https://www.franciscanmedia.org/blessed-miguel-agusaint-iacute-n-pro/ "Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro", Franciscan Media]</ref>

Details of Pro's ministry in the underground church come from his many letters, signed with the nickname ''Cocol''. In October 1926, a warrant for his arrest was issued. He was arrested and released from prison the next day, but kept under surveillance.