Editing Miguel Pro (section)

==Arrest and execution==
[[File:Pro kneeling.gif|thumb|190px|left|Miguel Pro's last request was to be allowed to kneel and pray.]]

A failed attempt to assassinate [[Álvaro Obregón]], which only wounded him, in November 1927, provided the state with a pretext for arresting Pro again, this time with his brothers Humberto and Roberto. A young engineer who confessed his part in the attempted assassination testified that the Pro brothers were not involved.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20111117093058/http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/pro/pro_bio.html Buck, Ray and Ball, Ann ''Blessed Miguel Pro, SJ -- Biographical Data'' (Creighton University 2006)]</ref> Miguel and his brothers were taken to the Detective Inspector's Office in [[Mexico City]].

On November 23, 1927, Pro was executed without trial.<ref>Bethell, Leslie, [https://books.google.com/books?id=9CmEcJgHqzsC ''The Cambridge History of Latin America''], p. 593, Cambridge University Press, 1986</ref> President Calles gave orders to have Pro executed for the assassination attempt. Calles had the execution meticulously photographed, and the newspapers throughout the country carried photos on the front page the following day. Presumably, Calles thought that the sight of the pictures would frighten the [[Cristero War|Cristero]] rebels who were fighting against his troops, particularly in the state of [[Jalisco]]. However, they had the opposite effect.<ref name="M.Pro"/> 
[[File:Miguel Pro's execution (1927).jpg|200px|thumb|right|On 23 November 1927, Miguel Agustín Pro, Mexican Jesuit, is executed by a firing squad (in Mexico City).]]
[[File:Miguel ProPointBlank.gif|thumb|right|195px|When the firing squad shots failed to kill him, a soldier administered a [[coup de grâce]].]]

Pro and his brothers were visited by Generals Roberto Cruz and Palomera Lopez around 11 p.m. on November 22, 1927. The next day, as Pro walked from his cell to the courtyard and the firing squad, he blessed the soldiers, knelt, and briefly prayed quietly. Declining a blindfold, he faced his executioners with a [[crucifix]] in one hand and a [[rosary]] in the other and held his arms out in imitation of the crucified Christ and shouted out, "May God have mercy on you! May God bless you! Lord, Thou knowest that I am innocent! With all my heart I forgive my enemies!" Before the firing squad was ordered to shoot, Pro raised his arms in imitation of Christ and shouted the defiant cry of the Cristeros, "¡Viva Cristo Rey!" – "Long live [[Christ the King]]!".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=s8xwDQAAQBAJ&dq=%22accused+of+sedition+Standing+before+the+firing+squad%22&pg=PT543 Last and Near-Last Words of the Famous, Infamous and Those In-Between] By Joseph W. Lewis Jr. M.D.</ref> When the initial shots of the firing squad failed to kill him, a soldier shot him at [[point-blank range]].

Calles is reported to have looked down upon a throng of 40,000 which lined Pro's funeral procession. Another 20,000 waited at the cemetery where he was buried without a priest present, his father saying the final words. The Cristeros became more animated and fought with renewed enthusiasm, many of them carrying the newspaper photo of Pro before the firing squad.