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Published: November 24, 2007

“The cathedral belongs to the nation”

Government authorities say Catholic Church powerless to close Mexico City’s Metropolitan Cathedral despite recent attacks by leftists because it is state-owned property

When ecclesiastical authorities decided to close the doors of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City indefinitely following a Sunday, Nov. 18, attack on worshippers by leftists during the noon Mass, some politicians, instead of condemning the aggressors, severely criticized the Church for shuttering the cathedral.

The first reaction came from Marcelo Ebrard, chief of government for Mexico’s capital city, the Federal District. After learning the cathedral had been closed, Ebrard declared, “The cathedral belongs to the nation, not to the Catholic church, so they cannot unilaterally close it up.”

The Church has imposed a condition on the government before it is willing to reopen the cathedral: City authorities must sign a written pledge to protect the faithful and safeguard freedom of worship. There are clear signs that civil authorities are going to do just that, and that the cathedral will soon re-open. Nevertheless, the Nov. 18 and other recent attacks on the cathedral have revived a long-simmering debate about what rights churches have over their places of worship in Mexico.

The eminent attorney Raúl Carrancá y Rivas said in a radio interview that, according to Mexican law, by closing the cathedral, the Catholic Church has violated the rights of third parties by preventing them access to a national monument.

Both Carrancá and Ebrard insist that the only authority empowered to close down a place of worship is the Secretary of Government, who, according to the General Law of Public Property, is in charge of anything related to publicly owned real state assets. But the same law says the Church has not only the right but also the responsibility to “preserve the integrity of public property under its custody.”

According to Mexican law, the cathedral does not belong to the Catholic Church, even though it was built by the Church in the 16th century. The Metropolitan Cathedral, as with all other places of worship in Mexico, is “public property.” All Church property was confiscated -- churches, schools, hospitals, seminaries and convents -- by the anti-Catholic faction that took power in Mexico during the second half of 19th century.

The General Law of Public Property provides that the places of worship of any religion are “federal real state used for religious purposes.” The government concession is temporary and conditioned, and it can take them back at will. Article III of this law provides that the government is the only institution authorized to “decide which religious association has the right to use and guard a federal real state property.” So the government has the right to take a Catholic church and give it to a different denomination, as it has done during periods of anti-Catholic persecution. In 1880, the government transferred the emblematic 16th century temple of San Francisco in Mexico City to a Protestant denomination, and the same thing happened to many other Catholic churches during that period.

Although it is highly unlikely that anything like this would happen in Mexico today, the fact that the anti-clerical laws still remain in force and that churches do not have the right of ownership even over their own places of worship, illustrates the reality that full religious freedom is still a long way off – even in such a religious country.

© California Catholic Daily 2007. All Rights Reserved.