RELIGION

Beginning in 1940, the government and the Church sought to maintain relations of mutual tolerance and avoid invading each other's turf since both had learned that in direct confrontations each had much to lose and little to gain. Lorenzo Meyer, 2000217

The situation of the Church after 1940 resembled that of the Church during the Porfiriato. In both cases, anti-clerical legislation remained on the books, but was unenforced. Mexico remained staunchly Catholic. In the 1970 census, 96 percent of the population identified themselves as Catholic. The Church faced the same demographic pressures faced by the educational system. In 1940, there were 3,863 priests, or one per 5,088 Mexicans. In 1967, there were 7,922 priests, or one per 5,765 Mexicans.218

In 1940, presidential candidate Avila Camacho stated in the journal Hoy, “I am a believer.”219 This break with officially sanctioned anti-clericalism paved the way for cordial Church-state relations during the 1940s. The Church responded to Avila Camacho’s declaration of faith by backing the war effort. After Mexico declared war on Germany, Archbishop of Mexico Luis M. Martinez stated:

According to Christian doctrine, it is the duty of the civil government to set foreign policy, especially in regards to international conflict. When the civil authority has legally established such policy, it is the duty of Catholics to support it unless it is clearly against their conscience.220

During the 1940s, Church-state collaboration ceased to be covert as presidents and bishops openly participated in joint ceremonies. The Church increased its influence by controlling important centers of secondary and higher education that were attended by middle - and upper-class students. The Church lobbied the government, especially on matters concerning private education. It used a wide variety of magazines, books, and other publications to disseminate its views. In both the number

Of people organized and in the volume of its publications, the Church was second only to the

221

Government.

During the 1950s, the Church remained the non-governmental entity with the largest organizational base. In 1953, an assembly of Catholic leaders drew representatives from forty-four Catholic groups with a membership of 4,530,000. In 1955, Archbishop Martinez could find little to complain about concerning Church-state relations, noting: “The only thing that remains now is to change the constitution. But this is not yet possible.”222

The Church became more critical of social conditions and began to use the social sciences to critique the Mexican development model. It did not challenge capitalism as an institution—only its excesses. Church officials spoke out against corruption in government and the inequitable distribution of income. In addition to criticizing the government and the economic system, the clergy attempted to influence attitudes towards such innovations as movies, the mambo, and women’s sleeveless dresses—all of which were denounced.223

During the 1960s, events outside Mexico exercised an increasing influence on the Church. In response to the Cuban Revolution and the widespread sympathy for it in Mexico, the Church launched a vigorous anti-Communist campaign that used the slogan, “Christianity Yes, Communism No.” This was in part self-defense, since the hierarchy felt that there was a definite likelihood that the rest of Latin America would follow the Cuban model. The campaign varied widely from place to place. In Puebla, priests read a pastoral letter that called on the faithful to “pray to the Virgin of Guadalupe to protect Mexico against communism” and warned that “those who profess the antiChristian, materialist communist doctrine and especially those who defend and propagate it, will be ipso facto excommunicated.”224

In 1959, Pope John XXIII called for a Second Vatican Council to modernize the Church. The council, which was convened in 1962, issued statements defining Church responsibility concerning education, land reform, social problems, and poverty. The notion of sin was expanded and became “viewed as a social problem resulting from oppression and injustice and not simply as failings of personal behavior and morality.” As a result of this council, usually referred to simply as Vatican II, the Mexican Church became increasingly involved in political and developmental issues.225

In 1968, the religious status quo was further challenged by the General Latin American Episcopal Conference, held in Medellin, Colombia. Bishops there considered how Vatican II could be applied to Latin America. The conference concluded that Latin America was on the verge of revolution and that “audacious, urgent, global, and profound reforms were needed.” While this conference led much of the South American Church into unprecedented social and political activism, the Mexican Church distanced itself from the conclusions of the conference, which were viewed as reflecting South American, not Mexican, reality. However, the ideas discussed at Medellin were quite influential in a few Mexican dioceses where bishops were receptive to them. Their strongest influence was in Chiapas where they were embraced by Bishop Samuel Ruiz.226

The divergence of opinion within the Church was evident during the 1968 student movement. In September 1968, Bishop of Cuernavaca Sergio Mendez Arceo and thirty-seven other priests published a letter that downplayed the alleged communist threat posed by the students and justified some of their demands. Mendez Arceo was the only bishop to protest the killings of October 2. The rest of the hierarchy did not accept his view. The archdiocesan curia issued a statement declaring the September declaration was unrepresentative of the Church’s position. The episcopal hierarchy staunchly defended the government response to the 1968 student movement.227

Between 1940 and 1970, the number of Protestants in Mexico rose from 177,954 to 876,879. Membership in Protestant groups increased at twice the rate of the population during this period. Their membership rose in part due to an influx of U. S. Protestant missionaries, many of whom had been displaced from Asia by the Second World War. In other cases, Mexicans working in the United States during the war underwent conversion to Protestantism and then returned to Mexico.228

In 1940, Protestants in Mexico mainly belonged to “mainstream” U. S. denominations. Later, such groups as the Assembly of God and the Light of the World had the largest increase in membership. New members largely came from rural areas and urban slums. Increasingly, Mexican Protestantism moved away from its original U. S. and British origins and adopted Latin American values. Often a single individual embodied a church. For example, the Church of the Light of the World was founded in 1926 by an agricultural worker in Guadalajara. Its founder adopted the name Aaron and became the uncontested leader of the movement. Upon Aaron’s death in 1984, he was succeeded by his son who used the name Samuel. The influence of these groups varied widely. In traditionally Catholic west-central Mexico (home to the Cristeros), there were fewer Protestants. Protestants in Queretaro, for example, accounted for only 0.3 percent of its population in 1970. In contrast, in Tabasco, where the Catholic Church was traditionally weaker, 8.3 percent of the population was Protestant.229