“They want to have a handcuffed and speechless Church”

The
Church in Mexico proposes the inclusion of the topic of religious
freedom in the present legislative debate about governmental reform.

“Conditions
are still not good enough to talk about a full religious freedom”
in Mexico, says an editorial in the archdiocese of Mexico City’s
weekly, Desde la Fe. Present law doesn’t go further than
to allow freedom of worship, which only permits the celebration of
“our faith in closed spaces, without openly recognizing the
possibility for every [member of the] faithful to express his or her
religious convictions in the social, cultural and political life of our
country,” says the June 17 editorial.

Though the 1992 Mexican constitutional reforms conferred legal
status to churches as “religious associations,” these
changes were not enough to guarantee Catholics, and especially the
clergy, the right to participate in public life and freely express
their opinions on topics related to their ministry.

This became evident in the recent national debate about abortion
legalization in the Federal District (which includes Mexico City). When
some Church leaders expressed their opinion against abortion,
politicians and others wanted the federal government to silence them.
Cardinal Norberto Rivera, Archbishop of Mexico City, and his spokesman,
Father Hugo Valdemar Romero, were accused by several political parties
before the Secretaría de Gobernación (Ministry of
Internal Affairs) of violating state laws by engaging in the abortion
debate. Though the ministry exonerated Rivera and Romero for lack of
evidence, the political parties who made the accusations will appeal
its decision.

In addition, Valdemar was sued on May 24 by the feminist
organization Equidad de Género, which accused him of
discriminating against women by refusing to accept their freedom to
choose the fate of their unborn child’s life. In his written
answer to this lawsuit, Valdemar said that the clergy were the ones
that should complain of discrimination. “Every time we ministers
of religion, especially Catholics, express an opinion, a choir of
anti-clerical and Jacobin voices rises up,” said Valdemar.
“They want to have a handcuffed and speechless Church.”

“It seems as if some members of the Federal District
Assembly, incapable of openly dialoging with different proposals and
listening to those who think differently, take refuge in their
legislative majority and would like to impose repressive and
authoritarian laws on their opponents,” said the Desde la Fe editorial.

Through Desde la Fe, the Archdiocese of Mexico City has
proposed the inclusion of the topic of religious freedom in the present
legislative debate in the federal Congress about governmental reform.