Born in Zapopan, Jalisco, to a family of pure Huichol Indians, Pascual Díaz y Barreto was ordained to the priesthood in 1896 and incardinated into the Society of Jesus, more commonly known as the Jesuits, on October 9, 1903.
Díaz was later named Archbishop of Mexico City on June 25, 1929, as a signal of peace following Pope Pius's sanction of the plan of settlement to end the feud between the Mexican Church and the State.
[5] He stated, "It does not merit the name of law...it opposes the positive dispositions of God and the teachings of the Church, the authentic and infallible organ established by Jesus Christ our Lord..." Díaz unsuccessfully urged President Pascual Ortiz Rubio towards a veto, and, despite the large number of Catholic priests in Mexico, ordered the clergy under his jurisdiction to remain in their posts.
[5] Archbishop Díaz rejected the claim of anti-Catholic Plutarco Elías Calles that the Mexican episcopate were "organizing in preparation for a movement," or revolution, saying that Catholics are obliged "to preserve the immutable principles of justice and morality".
[7] However, no such excommunication was pronounced, and Díaz pardoned in advance those government employees who kept their occupations because they could not find work otherwise and those parents who sent their children to proscribed schools under pressure from the truant officer.