Mexican bishops call for human dignity safeguards in country’s Constitution

Mexico City, Mexico, Feb 12, 2007 / 10:27 am

The Press Office of the Bishops’ Conference of Mexico has issued a statement saying it is “necessary and urgent” that the country’s Constitution be updated on the basis of a “reconsideration” of human dignity, in order to “bring the social trials our country is experiencing to a happy ending.”

In the statement, the Press Office indicated that such an update should “begin with a reconsideration of the dignity of the person, of his rights and obligations, of the history of our nation and of the new national and international scene that allows our people to have fundamental norms more in accord with our human, cultural and institutional identity.”

The statement stressed that in their 2000 pastoral letter, the bishops called for a complete overhaul of the country’s political system, which would demand serious reflection about “which things should remain and which things should be modified.”

It also insisted that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, subscribed to by Mexico, “should help our society” and Mexico’s parliament “to make it explicit and manifest that all laws have their basis in the inalienable dignity of the human person and his fundamental rights.”

The statement came as Mexico celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Constitution of 1857 and the 90th anniversary of the Constitution of 1917.  The celebrations have “sparked debate on the need to revise our Magna Carta and adapt it to our national reality,” the bishops said.