Backed by the concordat that Trujillo had signed with the Vatican, the clergy intensified their efforts to influence the government to eliminate the Witnesses. Catholic priest Oscar Robles Toledano sent a memorandum to the State Secretary of the Interior, Virgilio Álvarez Pina, asking the government to support him in his effort to “awaken the conscience of the Dominican people to the extreme dangers posed by the sect ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’.”

In 1954, Trujillo traveled to Rome and signed a concordat with the Pope. Trujillo’s one-time confidant, Germán Ornes, wrote: “Since the Dominican Church is overwhelmingly pro-Trujillo, [it] has been a great source of support for ‘the Chief’ [Trujillo]. The clergy, headed by the Archbishops Ricardo Pittini and Octavio Beras, are among the foremost propagandists for the regime.”