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 Editorials | Issues | November 2007 
Lawmakers Vow to Revise Mexico's Constitution to Strengthen Separation of Church, State
 Associated Press
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 |  | There are increasing signs that the secular republic, based on the Mexican legal system, is at risk.
- Rep. Maria Beatriz Pages Llergo |  | |
Mexico City - A group of opposition lawmakers said Friday they will introduce a measure to strengthen Mexico's long-standing separation of church and state, which they see as imperiled.
"There are increasing signs that the secular republic, based on the Mexican legal system, is at risk," Rep. Maria Beatriz Pages Llergo, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, said at a forum on religious tolerance.
Pages Llergo and lawmakers from the Revolutionary Democratic and Convergence parties have drafted an initiative that would amend Mexico's constitution to more clearly define the separation between church and state and punish government employees who fail to respect that divide, she said.
Mexico's 1917 constitution guarantees religious freedom of speech and nonreligious public education. But Pages Llergo said it needs to be changed to guarantee that private education is also nonreligious.
"Both public and private education should be secular," Pages Llergo said.
Armando Martinez, president of Mexico's Catholic Lawyers College, said that placing religious restrictions on private education would violate the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights. He said the convention establishes the fundamental right of parents to choose what kind of education they want for their children.
Any changes to Mexico's constitution must be approved by both houses of Congress and at least 16 of the country's 31 state legislatures.
Mexico is an overwhelmingly Catholic country, but has a long history of secular government that dates back to the mid-19th century. The country broke relations with the Catholic Church in 1867 and didn't restore them until 1992, under President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who also oversaw the elimination of laws banning priests from wearing clerical garb in public.
Recent attempts by the church to ease rules barring clergymen from participating in politics signal that cardinals and bishops want to run for public office — which is illegal in Mexico, Pages Llergo added.
Martinez said Mexico's lay state is functioning well, and said lawmakers were attempting to impose their personal beliefs on the nation.
"What they're trying to do with these so-called reforms is a counteroffensive to a reform we've proposed seeking greater religious freedom," Martinez said in a telephone interview. |
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