Irreligion in Mexico

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The Street Gazette: "Anti Clerical Manifestation", by Posada, shows the Mexican Army cavalry attacking irreligious peasants who protested the power of the Roman Catholic Church.

Irreligion in Mexico refers to

1857 Constitution of Mexico and in the 1917 Constitution of Mexico
, limited the participation in civil life of Roman Catholic organizations and allowed government intervention in religious participation in politics.

In 1992, the Mexican constitution was amended to eliminate the restrictions and granted legal status to religious organizations, limited property rights, voting rights to ministers, and allowed a greater number of priests in Mexico.[3] Nonetheless, the principles of the separation of church and state remain; members of religious orders (priests, nuns, ministers, et al.) cannot hold elected office, the federal government cannot subsidize any religious organization, and religious orders, and their officers, cannot teach in the public school system.

Historically, the Roman Catholic Church dominated the religious, political, and cultural landscapes of the nation; yet, the Catholic News Agency said that there exists a great secular community of atheists, intellectuals and irreligious people,[4][5] reaching 10% according to recent polls by religious agencies.[6]

According to the 2020 census, 8% of the population is nonreligious.[7][8]

Religion and politics

Ignacio Ramírez Calzada
El Nigromante was hailed as the Voltaire of Mexico for criticizing the earthly, political power of the Roman Catholic Church
The assumption of the Mexican presidency (2000–06) by the Roman Catholic politician Vicente Fox raised speculation among liberals intellectuals that Mexican society might lose the secularism of public life.[9]

Since the

Catholicism as the state religion while prohibiting all others. Article 3 of the 1824 Constitution of Mexico
established that:

The

Religion
of the Mexican Nation, is, and will be perpetually, the Roman Catholic Apostolic. The Nation will protect it by wise and just laws, and prohibit the exercise of any other whatever". (Article 3 of the Federal Constitution of the Mexican United States, 1824)[1]

For most of Mexico's 300 years as the Imperial

Spanish colony of the Viceroyalty of New Spain (1519–1821), the Roman Catholic Church was an active political actor in colonial politics. In the early period of the Mexican nation, the vast wealth and great political influence of the Church spurred a powerful anti-clerical movement, which found political expression in the Liberal Party. By the middle of the 19th century, there were reforms limiting the political power of the Mexican Catholic Church. In response, the Church supported seditious Conservative rebels to overthrow the anti-clerical Liberal government of President Benito Juárez and welcomed the anti-Juárez French intervention in Mexico (1861), which established the military occupation of Mexico by the Second French Empire, under Emperor Napoleon III.[10]

About the Mexican perspective of the actions of the Roman Catholic Church, the Mexican Labour Party activist Robert Haberman said:

By the year 1854, The Church gained possession of about two-thirds of all the lands of Mexico, almost every bank, and every large business. The rest of the country was mortgaged to the Church. Then came the revolution of 1854, led by Benito Juárez. It culminated in the Constitution of 1857, which secularised the schools and confiscated Church property. All the churches were nationalised, many of them were turned into schools, hospitals, and orphan asylums. Civil marriages were obligatory. Pope Pius IX immediately issued a mandate against the Constitution, and called upon all Catholics of Mexico to disobey it. Ever since then, the clergy has been fighting to regain its lost temporal power and wealth. (The Necessity of Atheism, p. 154)[11]

At the turn of the 19th century, the collaboration of the Mexican Catholic Church with the

Mexican Constitution of 1917 legislated severe social, political, economic and cultural restrictions upon the Catholic Church in the Republic of Mexico. Historically, the 1917 Mexican Constitution was the first political constitution to explicitly legislate the social and civil rights of the people and served as constitutional model for the Weimar Constitution of 1919 and the Russian Constitution of 1918.[12][13][14][15] Nevertheless, like the Spanish Constitution of 1931, it has been characterized as being hostile to religion.[16]

The Constitution of 1917 prohibited the Catholic clergy from working as teachers and as instructors in public and private schools; established State control over the internal matters of the Mexican Catholic Church; nationalized all Church property; proscribed religious orders; forbade the presence in Mexico of foreign-born priests; granted each state of the Mexican republic the power to limit the number of, and to eliminate, priests in its territory; disenfranchised priests of the right to vote and to hold elected office; banned Catholic organizations that advocated public policy; forbade religious publications from editorial commentary about public policy; prohibited the clergy from wearing clerical garb in public; and voided the right to trial of any Mexican citizen who violated anti-clerical laws.[17][18]

During the

Latin American countries, much to the Catholic Church's chagrin. Defining laicist education as a 'secular religion' that is also 'imposed and intolerant' is the clearest evidence of episcopal intransigence."[24]

Demographics

From 1940 to 1960, about 70% of Mexican Catholics attended church weekly while in 1982, only 54% partook of Mass once a week or more, and 21% claimed monthly attendance. Recent surveys have shown that only around 3% of Catholics attend church daily; however, 47% percent of them attend church services weekly

INEGI, the number of atheists grows annually by 5.2% while the number of Catholics grows by 1.7%.[5][26]

Irreligion by state

Percentage of state populations that identify with a religion rather than "no religion", 2010.
Rank Federal Entity % Irreligious Irreligious Population(2010)
1  Quintana Roo 13% 177,331
2  Chiapas 12% 580,690
3  Campeche 12% 95,035
4  Baja California 10% 315,144
5  Tabasco 9% 212,222
6  Chihuahua 7% 253,972
7  Sinaloa 7% 194,619
8  Tamaulipas 7% 219,940
9  Sonora 7% 174,281
10  Veracruz 6% 495,641
11  Morelos 6% 108,563
12  Baja California Sur 6% 40,034
13  Coahuila 6% 151,311
14  Federal District 5% 484,083
-  Mexico 5% 5,262,546
15  Yucatán 5% 93,358
16  Oaxaca 4% 169,566
17  Nuevo León 4% 192,259
18  Durango 4% 58,089
19  Nayarit 3% 37,005
20  México 3% 486,795
21  Colima 3% 20,708
22  Guerrero 3% 100,246
23  Hidalgo 2% 62,953
24  San Luis Potosí 2% 58,469
25  Querétaro 2% 38,047
26  Aguascalientes 2% 21,235
27  Michoacán 2% 83,297
28  Puebla 2% 104,271
29  Jalisco 2% 124,345
30  Guanajuato 1% 76,052
31  Tlaxcala 1% 14,928
32  Zacatecas 1% 18,057

Timeline of events related to atheism or anti-clericalism in Mexico

  • 1926 – In June 1926, Elías Calles signed the "Law for Reforming the Penal Code", known unofficially as the Calles Law. This provided specific penalties for priests and individuals who violated the provisions of the 1917 Constitution.
  • 1926 – On November 18, 1926, the Pope issues the encyclical Iniquis afflictisque (On the Persecution of the Church in Mexico). The Pope criticized the state's interference in matters of worship, outlawing of religious orders and the expropriation of Church property. Alluding to the deprivation of the right to vote and of free speech, among other things, he noted that, "Priests are ... deprived of all civil and political rights. They are thus placed in the same class with criminals and the insane."
  • 1927 –
    Cristero
    uprising.
  • 1927 – November 23, 1927, Miguel Pro, SJ is killed after being convicted, without trial, on trumped-up charges of conspiring to kill President Obregon. Calles' government carefully documented execution by photograph hoping to use images to scare Cristero rebels into surrender, but the photos had the opposite effect.
  • 1927 – September 29, 1932 Pope Pius XI issued a second encyclical on the persecution, Acerba animi.
  • 1928 – July 17, 1928 the Mexican elected president
    Roman Catholic militant who was afraid that Obregón would continue with Calles anti-clerical agenda.[30]
  • 1934 – There were 4,500 priests serving the people before the rebellion, in 1934 there were only 334 priests licensed by the government to serve fifteen million people, the rest having been eliminated by emigration, expulsion and assassination.[31][32]
  • 1934 – Between 1926 and 1934 at least 40 priests were killed.[32]
  • 1935 – By 1935, 17 states had no priest at all.[33]
  • 1937 – The Pope issues the third encyclical on the persecution of the Mexican Church, Firmissimam Constantiamque.[34]
  • 1940 – Between 1931 and 1940 at least 223 rural teachers were assassinated by the Cristeros and other Catholic armed groups, because of their atheist and socialist education.[35][36][37][38][39][40]

Mexican atheists

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States (1824)". Archived from the original on March 18, 2012.
  2. ^ "Article 130 of Constitution". Archived from the original on March 3, 2007.
  3. ^ "Mexico". International Religious Report. U.S. Department of State. 2003. Retrieved 2007-10-04.
  4. ^ "Catholic News Agency Rise of atheism in Mexico". Archived from the original on 2009-03-14. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
  5. ^ a b "México sigue siendo católico… pero crece el número de ateos". www.aciprensa.com.
  6. ^ "El 90% de los mexicanos cree en Dios: Encuesta — la Jornada". Archived from the original on 2013-12-05. Retrieved 2013-12-03.
  7. ^ "'Soy ateo, gracias a Dios': Aumentan las personas sin religión en México" (in Spanish). El finaciero.
  8. ^ "Religion – Mexico Census". Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI). 2020.
  9. ^ Candidate Vicente Fox contributed to that perception with a letter (May 2000) to the religious authorities of the Protestant and Catholic churches in which he made ten promises, ranging from defending the "right to life", from the moment of conception until natural death (condemnation of abortion and euthanasia), to granting access to the mass communications media to religious organizations. Fox's promises proved expedient, because no political party held a majority in the Mexican Congress, elected on 6 July 2000. The Ten Promises appeared to be proof of a political alliance between Protestant and Catholic religious authorities and presidential candidate Vicente Fox.Laura Randall (2006) Page 433
  10. ^ "Mexico – Religious Freedom Report 1999". Archived from the original on 2010-10-10. Retrieved 2009-06-13.
  11. ISBN 1-60303-138-3
    p. 154
  12. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7735-3004-1
    .
  13. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7923-0362-6
    .
  14. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8160-6078-8
    .
  15. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7391-1635-7
    .
  16. ISBN 9780714685298
    .
  17. ISBN 0-8196-0189-6
  18. ^ Needler, Martin C. Mexican Politics: The Containment of Conflict p. 50, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995
  19. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8032-7997-1
    . huerta high clergy.
  20. ^ a b Ignacio C. Enríques (1915). The religious question in Mexico, number 7. I.C. Enriquez. p. 10.
  21. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7178-0710-9
    .
  22. ^ a b Carlo de Fornaro; John Farley (1916). What the Catholic Church Has Done to Mexico. Latin-American News Association. pp. 13–14. urrutia .
  23. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8156-2692-3
    .
  24. ISBN 0-7656-1404-9
    Page 435
  25. ^ "isbn:0195107845 – Google Search". www.google.com.
  26. ^ "Catholic News Agency". Archived from the original on 2009-03-14. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
  27. ISBN 978-0-8420-2662-8
    .
  28. ISBN 1-904859-24-0
  29. ISBN 1-58826-270-7
    .
  30. ^ Krauze, Enrique. Mexico: Biography of Power. A History of Modern Mexico, 1810–1996. HarperCollins Publishers Inc. New York, 1997. Pages 403
  31. ISBN 1-57488-452-2
  32. ^ a b Van Hove, Brian Blood-Drenched Altars Archived 2017-11-09 at the Wayback Machine Faith & Reason 1994
  33. ISBN 0-393-31066-3
  34. ^ Philippe Levillain The Papacy: An Encyclopedia p. 1208, 2002 Routledge
  35. ^ Nathaniel Weyl, Mrs. Sylvia (Castleton) Weyl (1939). The reconquest of Mexico: the years of Lázaro Cárdenas. Oxford University Press. p. 322.
  36. ISBN 978-0-275-95736-0
    .
  37. ISBN 978-0-86091-604-8
    . cristero rape teachers.
  38. ISBN 978-0-8047-4356-3
    .
  39. ISBN 978-0-520-08419-3
    .
  40. ISBN 978-3-8258-9751-2
    .
  41. ^ Mabry, Donald J. "Mexican Anticlerics, Bishops, Cristeros, the Devout during the 1920s: A Scholarly Debate." Journal of Church and State 20, 1: 82 (1978).
  42. ^ a b Tuck, Jim, "Mexico's marxist guru: Vicente Lombardo Toledano (1894–1968)" Mexconnect, October 9, 2008
  43. ^ Mexico: Church State Relations Country Studies Series by Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress June 1996
  44. ISBN 0-7178-0706-1
    , pp176
  45. ^
    Wall Street Journal
  46. ^ "Humanist Studies – Atheists To Hold Global March in Mexico, Spain and Peru".
  47. ^ Atheists take to the streets in Mexico – Philadelphia Atheists
  48. ^ "RELIGION: ATHEISTS TAKE THEIR VIEWS AND ISSUES TO THE STREETS – Inter Press Service English News Wire | HighBeam Research". October 25, 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-10-25.
  49. ^ "Calderon calls non believers likely to become addicts". Archived from the original on 2012-02-22. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  50. ^ La Jornada: No creer en Dios hace a la juventud esclava de narcos – Felipe Calderón
  51. ^ "El Universal – – Calderón lamenta muerte de Jackson por 'consumo de drogas'". archivo.eluniversal.com.mx.
  52. ^ La juventud no cree en Dios porque no lo conoce: Calderón[permanent dead link]
  53. ^ ABC New York
  54. ^ "Ateos responden a Calderón". Archived from the original on 2011-07-25. Retrieved 2011-02-01.
  55. ^ Ateísmo desde México Archived 2011-06-04 at the Wayback Machine
  56. ^ "I don't believe in god, but I believe in destiny." "Our working relationship involves a lot of dialogue...we have very different viewpoints on certain things, like Alejandro's Catholicism and the fact that I'm an atheist." Filter Magazine
  57. ^ Sense about science[permanent dead link]
  58. ISBN 0-292-71437-8
    Page 174
  59. ISBN 0-520-22408-6 Page 220 [1]
  60. ISBN 0-8223-3995-1
    Page 119
  61. ^ The War Against Oblivion : The Zapatista Chronicles 1994–2000
  62. ISBN 970-32-3555-7 [2]
  63. ^ "God is an excuse, a foggy abstraction that everyone uses for his own benefit and moulds it to the extent of his convenience and interests". Fernando Vallejo during the ceremony of the Rómulo Gallegos Prize in Venezuela
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