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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | December 2007 
Government Promises Cathedral Protection
 George Conger - Religious Intelligence
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 |  | Mexican television recorded a pitched battle between political activists and worshippers with the mob tearing down railings, overturning altars and smashing images of saints. |  | |
The Mexican government has vowed to protect the country’s largest Church after leftwing activists invaded the Catedral Metropolitana.
On Nov 18 a mob several hundred strong stormed the Baroque Roman Catholic cathedral in Mexico City during Sunday services after its 18 bells drowned out speakers in a rally organized by the left wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) on the Zócalo, the city’s Constitution Square.
Mexican television recorded a pitched battle between political activists and worshippers with the mob tearing down railings, overturning altars and smashing images of saints.
The mob denounced Pope Benedict XVI and chanted slogans of support for PRD leader Andres Lopez Obrador. Worshippers responded by overturning pews, forming a barricade around the Cathedral’s golden altar to prevent its desecration.
After police restored order, the Church shuttered the Cathedral for a week, demanding police protection. The PRD, which controls the Mexico City government, denied responsibility for the attack, and urged its members to respect the Church.
The Conference of Catholic Bishops of Latin America (CELAM) condemned the attack as ‘a brutal profanation’ but on Nov 23 urged the archdiocese to reopen the cathedral for worship. Following assurances by the city’s police chief that security would be tightened, Mexico City’s eight catholic bishops agreed to reopen the seventeenth century church on Nov 25.
Tensions between the PRD and the Roman Catholic Church in historically anti-clerical Mexico have been on the rise in the wake of church protests over the city government’s creation of gay marriages and relaxation of abortion laws. The Church’s support for the pro-Catholic PAN party, which controls the Federal government, has led to death threats against Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera.
In March 2006, Mexican police shuttered Christ Church in Mexico City, charging the capital’s English-speaking Anglican congregation with violating local land-use ordinances. Archbishop Carlos Touché-Porter, Primate of Mexico denied the charges, and the church was able to reopen following negotiations between the city and diocese. |
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