Church Mounts Offensive After Cleared by Mexican Government of Illegal Participation in Politics

LifeSiteNews.com ^ | June 13, 2007 | Peter J. Smith

[monomaniac]

MEXICO CITY, June 13, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Mexican government has exonerated the Catholic Church from accusations of illegal interference in politics for warning Catholic lawmakers for Mexico City that they incur automatic excommunication for supporting the legalization of abortion. The victory has motivated the Church to fight to overturn a current law important to anti-life politicians trying to silence the Church’s influence in Mexico.

On June 8, the Ministry of Internal Affairs ruled that Cardinal Norberto Rivera of Mexico City, and his spokesman, Father Hugo Valdemar, had not violated the Religious Associations law and Public Cult Law—which laws restrict the clergy’s participation in political affairs—during the debate over the city’s new law legalizing abortion in the first trimester. The abortion law was passed April 25 despite warnings that lawmakers who voted would no longer be considered Catholics in good standing or welcome at Communion.

“The storm is over,” the Archbishop told hundreds of faithful Catholics attending Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral on June 10, declaring the Ministry’s ruling a victory for the Church’s right to express itself publicly.

“A reform of the current law—to create a situation where ministers are not considered third class citizens by annulling their constitutional guarantees, among them their right to free speech—is urgent,” said Father Valdemar, director of social communications for the Archdiocese of Mexico City, according to the California Catholic Daily.

The Associated Press reports that the Church has requested Armando Martinez, president of Mexico's Catholic Lawyers College, to draw up a proposal to be presented in approximately two weeks to change the laws that would permit the Church to engage fully in public debate.

Once constructed by an anti-clerical Mexican government in the 1990s, the current law is favored by anti-life politicians seeking to silence again the Church’s political influence in Mexico, where 90 percent of citizens describe themselves as Catholics, and 70 percent oppose abortion.

"We didn't want to limit their right to free speech,” Jesus Robles, who filed the complaint against Rivera and other church officials, told the Associated Press. “But for historical reasons, which I think are still valid, in our country they cannot be allowed to attack our country's institutions and political parties.”

Robles belongs to the same coalition of political parties that has launched a “progressive agenda,” which, in addition to legal abortion, also includes legalizing euthanasia and same-sex “marriage”. The coalition sees the Catholic Church as its most organized, influential, and outspoken opponent in the struggle for the heart of Mexico that has begun in Mexico City.

See related coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:

Mexico City Legislature Pushes Through Abortion Bill http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/apr/07042501.html

Interior Ministry begins proceedings against the Church for violating laws prohibiting its involvement in politics http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/apr/07043005.html

Mexican Bishop: “If You Vote to Legalize Abortion – You Excommunicate Yourself from the Church” http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/apr/07040502.html