Guadalajara, Mexico, Sep 8, 2010 / 10:05 am
The newspaper for the Archdiocese of Guadalajara, El Semanario, warned this week that overcoming the confusion between anti-clericalism and secularism is a goal that is still decades away from being achieved in Mexico.
An article, signed by Father Maurilio Martinez Tamayo, offered a reflection on the vision of secularism that prevails in the country, amidst a barrage of attempts by government officials and political groups to silence religious leaders.
Fr. Martinez began by pointing out that Mexico has always been a religious country despite attempts to silence the faith.
Neither “the separation of Church and State, promoted by Benito Juarez Garcia’s legal reforms,” which stripped the Church “of her material goods and put her in a position of subordination,” nor “the civil war, caused by the drastic application of anti-clerical laws” were able to change the profound faith of Mexicans.