Catholic lawyers criticize Mexican lawmakers for “hatred” of the Church

Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 18, 2007 / 09:48 am

The president of the College of Catholic Lawyers of Mexico, Armando Martinez Gomez, criticized Mexican lawmakers this week for their “hatred for the Church” and for insulting Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City over his defense of human life.

According to the Notimex news agency, the Cardinal did not hold his normal Sunday press briefing “in protest over the aggression and repression of his freedom of expression by Mexico City lawmakers.”

“We have attacks above all on human rights and on the freedom of expression, and for this reason the Cardinal is not speaking today in protest of the repression against him and all members of the clergy by lawmakers,” explained Martinez, who is also legal counsel for the Archdiocese of Mexico City.

Martinez said lawmakers have displayed open anticlericalism as well as hatred of the Catholic Church in their attempts to legalize abortion in the Mexican capital.  He noted that law provides that the only proper democratic channel for voters to address the issue of abortion is through referendum, and that 20,000 of the 36,000 signatures required by Mexican law for a referendum to take place have been collected so far.

Martinez also recalled the exaggerated reaction of local and federal lawmakers in Mexico to the comments on abortion made by Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, during a recent visit to the country.

Nevertheless, he pointed out, other foreign individuals such as Italian political scientist Giovanni Sartori and Spanish philosopher Fernando Savater have commented about Mexican politics and yet they were not criticized.