Ernesto Eugenio Filippi

Ernesto Eugenio Filippi (17 May 1879 – 23 August 1951) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Monreale in Sicily from 1925 until his death in 1951.

The government was enforcing a ban on political movements with a religious affiliation, which restricted the ability of Catholic lay associations to advocate for change in Church-state relations.

Filippi was suspicious of this approach from the first and as he gathered information he only became more negative, fearful of provoking further government repression, especially if he was correct in believing that the associations sheltered advocates of violent revolution.

In January 1923, when he had been in Mexico more than a year, Filippi led a group of bishops in blessing the cornerstone of a monument to Christ the King being constructed on a hillside near Silao.

The government of President Alvaro Obregón deemed this a violation of its prohibition on public religious ceremonies and deported Filippi, provoking popular protests.