The Politics of Regulating Religion in Mexico: The 1992 Constitutional Reforms in Historical Context

Abstract

On 28 January 1992, the Mexican national legislature approved changes to the 1917 Constitution and effectively reversed over a cen tury of officially sanctioned hostility to religious organizations. Six months later, the federal government released La Ley de Asociaciones Religiosas y Culto Publico (henceforth: Ley Reglamentaria), a detailed set of legal statutes that form the basis of contemporary church-state relations. Having obtained the legal recognition and freedom it had sought for many years, leaders of the Catholic Church greeted this new legal framework with a sense of optimism. Jeronimo Prigione (the pa pal nuncio who spearheaded the church's struggle to obtain legal rec ognition throughout the 1980s and 1990s) stated: We [the Catholic hierarchy] are sincerely appreciative and thankful for the effort of the House of Deputies, and the concern of the President [Carlos Salinas], a wise statesman, ... for opening new horizons in the relations between the Church and State, channeling the forces of the two societies to wards the service of social and religious peace.1 Archbishop Adolfo Suarez Rivera, then president of the Conferencia del Episcopado Mexi cano (CEM), declared that this legislation marked a new stage in our history. It has been the fruit of a long process. ... it is undeniable that it has represented a big step that has opened roads to the freedom