In the mid-20th century, the Mexican Catholic press focused its journalistic and propaganda efforts on re-Christianising a country that could not deny its 'Catholic essence', affected by secular education and the 'atheism' of its institutions. Despite the modus vivendi that characterised the relationship between the Church and the State after years of confrontation, 're-Christianisation' took on a patriotic dimension for the hierarchy and the more conservative organised laity. It was an idea of nationhood antagonistic to the revolutionary project, which identified Catholicism as the genesis of Mexican identity and the secular state as an enemy of public morality, the education of children and the family. This paper aims to identify the concept of nation formulated by the Catholic-rooted Mexican press in the 1950s, in the midst of a Campaign for the Moralisation of the Environment (1951), vigorous lay activism led by Mexican Catholic Action, and outstanding editorial dynamism. The exercise aims to contrast the proposal of the Catholic weekly Unión, published in Mexico City by Buena Prensa and directed by José A. Romero S.J.; the magazine Christus, as the mouthpiece of the episcopate, with content aimed at the clergy; and Señal, a Catholic weekly organised by lay people for lay people, with debates on current affairs. These publications promoted the confessionalisation of the nation as a response to the social disorder and moral deterioration that, according to their diagnosis, prevailed in the country. Opinion columns, cartoons, readers' letters and reports called for a 'great return' to the Catholic nation. What values underpinned this ideal? What notion of history emerged from such discourse? How did it define Mexican identity? Which actors were involved? A 'baptised people,' Unión asserted, could not participate in an atheistic project for the nation: what narratives, symbols and strategies did the magazine propose to counteract this condition?