Mexican masons lament decline of influence and launch new attack on the Church

Mexico City, Mexico, Aug 9, 2007 / 09:43 am

After decades of indirectly criticizing the Catholic Church through friendly media outlets, the powerful Mexican Masonry has now directly gone after Catholic bishops, accusing them of pretending to “control” Mexican politics by demanding the right to education and information.

The previous Mexican Constitution, because of Masonic influence, stripped the Church of the right to own schools and communications media.  Recently, the Mexican bishops announced they would begin a campaign to regain these rights.

The Grand Lodge of the Valley of Mexico, which brings together 12,000 Masons, reacted to the proposal by calling a press conference in which Great Teacher Pedro Marquez accused the Church of wanting to “return to the past.”

“The Catholic hierarchy wants to dictate a political policy and that is a very grave error, as our society is no longer in the era of Christianity and priests are no longer viceroys of New Spain,” Marquez said.

“There is a tendency in the Church to meddle in the social and political affairs of Mexico, but the priests should return to their Churches,” he added.

Mexican Masonry played a decisive role in the configuration of the Mexican State and in political measures such as the stripping of the Church’s right to own schools and communications media, the right to vote of priests and religious, and the rupture of diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

The anti-clerical policies were kept in place throughout the entire period of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), dominated by the Masons, from 1929 to 2000.

The Mexican bishops, together with the College of Catholic Lawyers, intend to present a proposal to the Mexican Congress that would nullify laws that are “discriminatory and outdated.”