Church in Mexico has right to speak out against abortion, government officials affirm

Mexico City, Mexico, Mar 29, 2007 / 09:43 am

In response to anti-clerical pressures from leftwing political parties to legalize abortion in Mexico City, the Secretariat for Internal Affairs in Mexico said the Catholic Church has every right to speak out in public on the issue of abortion.

In response to a plan that would make the killing of the unborn a legal act in the Mexican capital, the Archdiocese of Mexico began a campaign to mobilize the faithful against abortion.

The leftist coalition that promotes the legalization of abortion immediately denounced the Church before the Secretariat for Internal Affairs for supposedly meddling in politics illegally and convinced the government agency to act against the Church.

Nevertheless, Florencio Salazar, undersecretary for Population, Migration and Religious Affairs said the Church in Mexico, “as in any other democratic society, has the right to express an opinion.”

In response to the accusations by abortion supporters, Salazar recalled that fifteen years ago the government reformed Mexico’s constitution to grant legal recognition to religious associations and ministers of worship, and he emphasized that “in a democratic system, the fundamental focus is tolerance.”

Some of the more radical abortion supporters had said they would file charges against Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, for his statements in favor of the right to life in Mexico and throughout the world.  On March 24, the Cardinal was in Mexico for the 3rd International Pro-Life Congress.
 
Salazar said no charges have been filed against the Cardinal, who he said “is not violating any law; he is addressing an issue that is part of the doctrine of the Church to which he belongs.”  Salazar added that despite calls by some pro-abortion lawmakers, the Cardinal was not “expelled from the country.”

The spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico, Hugo Valdemar, said the threats from lawmakers were a sign of their “intolerance and ignorance.”  “Cardinal Lopez Trujillo was invited to Mexico over a year ago and not in connection with the debate on the legal reform related to the legalization of abortion in Mexico City,” he added.

“None of the activities violate Mexican law, which guarantees freedom of expression for all, despite those who wish to monopolize the debate,” Valdemar said.