Mexico: Cathedral to re-open when government guarantees security in writing

Mexico City, Mexico, Nov 22, 2007 / 12:06 pm

The president of the College of Catholic Lawyers, Armando Martinez, said this week the Archdiocesan Cathedral will re-open when Mexico City officials have committed in writing to guaranteeing security at the church, where sympathizers of the Democratic Revolution Party recently engaged in violent protests.

After a meeting between representatives of the archdiocese and city officials, Martinez said the Cathedral would open when an agreement exists that is “in writing and signed by both city officials and the Episcopal Council of the Archdiocese, which is made up of the eight auxiliary bishops of Mexico City.”  This is because on other occasions, “when we have denounced the attacks against Cardinal Rivera, nothing happened, and although we saw a goodwill effort on the part of the Mexico City government, something in writing would speak much more clearly,” Martinez stated.

The meeting took place at the Cathedral, where officials reconstructed the events.  They promised to discuss a comprehensive security plan that would include the installation of closed-circuit cameras, security guards and additional police protection.

Likewise, Martinez confirmed that the archdiocese plans to file a lawsuit against the members of the PRD who committed the vandalism and that government officials would be presented with a surveillance video that shows exactly how the events unfolded and would enable officials to bring to justice those responsible for the unrest.

Martinez said the lawsuit would be based on a federal law forbidding discrimination, since the vandalism was motivated by “ideological persecution against those who were at the Cathedral.”  In addition, he called the violent protests an act of “religious intolerance, because those people entered here in response to the ideas of the cardinal.”