AMERICA/MEXICO - June 6 elections: bishops ask for the best option, beyond the clashes between parties and candidates

Monday, 3 May 2021 elections   human rights   local churches  

desdelafe.mx

Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) - The Mexican Catholic Church has urged its faithful to discern and seek, among the candidates in the June 6 elections, "the best option", beyond the confrontations between parties and candidates. In its Sunday editorial of the weekly "Desde la Fe", published yesterday and sent to Agenzia Fides, the Archdiocese of Mexico invites the lay faithful to reflect and separate the real needs from the easy offers and human rights from ideologies. It is necessary to "look for the best option, beyond the market offer and the attacks among candidates. We invite candidates to put the common good and crucial issues as their first goal, before their personal goals", reads the text. The Editorial recalls that in Mexico, above all, the link between politics and the Church "was very delicate", since Church-State relations have caused at least two major internal wars: the so-called Reform, in 1857, and the Cristera, 69 years after the first. On the question of whether when the Church takes positions on public matters it commits a violation of the secular state, the Archdiocese clearly states that "the answer is no" and that "the Church has the freedom and the right to spread her doctrine, as long as it is not associated with a political option or proselytizing for or against a particular option". Three weeks ago, at the beginning of the election campaign, the Mexican Church had invited the population to vote for candidates who show "a clear capacity for government and public management" and stressed that voters should promote and protect issues such as life, family and religious freedom. Even a group of Bishops had denounced the wrong way of doing politics, seeking only personal interests or, even more serious, being complicit in much discussed political actions, such as allowing the infiltration of organized crime (see Fides, 22/3/2021). The Bishops therefore underline the role of the laity at this time: "It is up to the lay faithful to actively participate in the construction of any political option that seeks to give better governments and results to this country", reads the text of yesterday's editorial, which continues: "Catholics should avoid falling into confusion or voting without knowing everything that voting entails". In the current legal context, the Mexican Constitution protects the right of people "to profess the faith of their choice", through article 24, and the same article "prohibits meetings of religious associations for worship purposes from being used for political proselytism". On June 6, 93.5 million Mexicans are called to the polls to elect 500 federal deputies, 15 of the 32 state governors, 30 local parliaments and 1,900 city councils, in what are considered the largest and most important elections in Mexico. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 3/5/2021)


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