Warn of danger that Catholic hierarchy induces vote for determined candidates

MEXICO CITY, México, June 9, 2006

The danger that the Catholic hierarchy could influence people to vote for determined candidates in Taxi Heathrow Airport the July 2 elections was pointed out by the Ecclesial Observatory, which said the risk is higher in this process given the close relationship between the federal executive and the Secretary of governance. 

The Ecclesial Observatory, made up of the Antonio de Montesinos Center, Catholics for Free Choice, the Ecumenical Studies Center, the Center for Theological Reflection, the International Franciscan Family, the National Center for Social Communication and the Alas Collective, affirmed that the risk exists that the “tenuous frontier between orientation and imposition is broken” by bishops, priests, religious and Catholic lay people.

According to the representatives of this organization “in this electoral process the growing political militancy of the Catholic hierarchy has joined misinformation, together with the risk of inducing the vote in the name of the sexual and reproductive moral norms in official Catholic doctrine.”

The spokespeople from El Observatoro indicated that the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM) is promoting the workshops “Participate and Decide Common Good in Justice and Peace,” without any monitoring on the part of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE). They said that accusations against Bishop Onesimo Cepada and the private presentation of the presidential candidates in the last CEM assembly are signs that the Catholic hierarchy has the intention of having a strong impact in these elections.

They announced that on June 11 they would distribute flyers about the clear separation between religious and state institutions in the electoral field and Catholic norms and Mexican laws regarding the responsibilities and limits of the faithful and the religious hierarchy in the elections.

The flyer will inform the Catholic community that there are Church documents that establish that the Catholic Church cannot substitute the State and will exhort it to maintain its independence regarding political parties and their ideologies. 

At the same time it will list laws that impede bishops, priests, religious and lay people from taking advantage of their religious authority to promote the vote for a political party or candidate, to carry out campaigns, to induce the vote and to promote absenteeism.

It called on people to report any Church authorities who take advantage of their religious position to call on people to vote for a party or candidate or to impede them from doing so.