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 Editorials | Opinions | May 2007 
“Radical Anti-Clericalism”
 California Catholic Daily
Left-wing radicals in Mexico accuse Church of “illegal interference in public affairs”
The Catholic Church in Mexico is suffering political fallout for its opposition to legalized abortion in Mexico City over the last two months, with opponents accusing the Church of violating the precepts of the secular state by participating in the public debate.
The legislative Assembly of the Federal District, which last month legalized abortion up to the twelfth week of pregnancy, has officially demanded that the Secretaría de Gobernación (Interior Ministry) defend the secular state against the “Church’s illegal interference in public affairs.”
And the Social-Democrat Alternative Party filed a lawsuit against Cardinal Norberto Rivera, archbishop of Mexico City, accusing him of violating Mexican laws regulating state-church relations - article 130 of the Mexican constitution - by participating in a debate over a matter of strictly civil jurisdiction such as public health.
Insults, threats and public mockery against the Catholic Church have been increasing over the last few months, revealing a “radical anti-clericalism” that Mexico supposedly had surmounted, said Catholic Attorneys Bar president Armando Martínez.
“It shows a totalitarian secularism that attempts to imprison religion in the confines of private life,” said Martínez.
This reaction against Church participation in public life recalls the bloody anti-Catholic persecution of the 19th and early 20th centuries, when the Church in Mexico was dispossessed of its educational and charitable institutions - hospitals, orphanages, schools and universities. Even its convents and seminaries were shut down. Catholics were left with only their churches – after they were stripped of all the paintings, sculptures and baroque altar pieces. During this period of persecution, the Church was confined exclusively to liturgical activities.
If the left wing has its way, Mexico will return again to those dark days – where the Church has no voice in the public square, and the state is sole arbiter of good and evil. |
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