Why was the Virgin of Guadalupe mentioned in the presidential debate in Mexico?

The Virgin of Guadalupe took center stage during the presidential debate in Mexico on Sunday, May 19, after Xóchitl Gálvez accused her opponent, Claudia Sheinbaum, of “political opportunism,” by wearing a skirt with the image of Saint Mary, “a even though you don’t believe in her or in God.”

Gálvez is running for president for the Fuerza y ​​Corazón coalition—which brings together the political groups National Action Party (PAN), Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD)— and Claudia Sheinbaum, of the Sigamos Hazando alliance History, headed by Morena, the political party founded by the current president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Various surveys released in recent weeks in Mexico place Sheinbaum and Gálvez as the two candidates with the most possibilities in the electoral process. In third place is Jorge Álvarez Máynez, from Movimiento Ciudadano.

During the third presidential debate on May 19, when the topic of “Migration and Foreign Policy” was addressed, Gálvez made reference to a previous meeting that both candidates held in the Vatican with Pope Francis in February of this year.

“We both had a meeting with the Pope, did you answer to his Holiness how you wore the Virgin of Guadalupe on a skirt, even though you do not believe in her or in God, did you tell him that you destroyed a church when you were delegate of Tlalpan? You have every right not to believe in God, it is a personal issue. What you do not have the right to do is use the faith of Mexicans as political opportunism. “That is hypocrisy,” said the candidate.

In response, Sheinbaum said that Gálvez’s accusations were “an absolute provocation” to which he would not respond.

According to the portal Infobae, on May 5, 2022 Claudia Sheinbaum, then head of Government of Mexico City, attended a popular celebration at the Venustiano Carranza mayor’s office, in the central-eastern area of ​​the Mexican capital. During the event, she received gifts, including a skirt with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which she later wore during the celebrations in the streets.

As for the collapse of a church, it refers to the partial demolition of the Chapel of the Lord of the Works in the mayor’s office of Tlalpan, south of Mexico City, on April 29, 2016. Sheinbaum was then head of the Tlalpan delegation when For what the authorities described as a “mistake,” government workers demolished part of the Catholic temple.

What impact does faith have on elections?

Father Hugo Valdemar, who for 15 years was the Director of Communications of the Primate Archdiocese of Mexico, during the pastoral government of Cardinal Norberto Rivera, spoke with ACI Prensa about the complex relationship between faith and politics in the context of the Mexican elections.

The priest explained that although “the element of faith is not definitive in the balance of an election,” he warned that “it is a sensitive issue, which can have negative effects on the candidates.”

“Public opinion does not approve of the Church intervening in politics and even less so in partisan politics, and the institutional Church is very careful not to cause division among the faithful due to partisan preferences,” said Father Valdemar. .

The priest attributed the “deep rupture between the people’s faith and political participation” to the religious persecution experienced in Mexico during the 1920s, which, in his words, turned the topic “into a true taboo.”

Conflicts between the Catholic Church and the Mexican State date back to the second half of the 19th century, but tensions reached a critical point with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution, which was markedly anticlerical.

This Magna Carta paved the way for the religious persecution that took place in Mexico in the 1920s under the regime of Plutarco Elías Calles, which in turn sparked the Cristero War, with Catholics from various parts of the country taking up arms to defend themselves. of the government persecution, which left martyrs such as San José Sánchez del Río, Blessed Jesuit Miguel Pro, Blessed Anacleto González, San Cristóbal Magallanes and fellow martyrs, among many more.

Although the Cristero War ended in mid-1929, the persecution lasted several more years. It would not be until 1992 that the Constitution of Mexico was reformed and the Law of Religious Associations and Public Worship was promulgated, which recognizes the legal status of the Catholic Church in the country.

The Mexican Constitution allows Mexican priests to vote, but prohibits ministers of worship from “proselytizing for or against any candidate, party or political association.”

Faced with this situation, Father Valdemar pointed out that “active and partisan” participation in politics is the responsibility of lay people, and assured that it is through “trained lay people” that “a positive influence can be produced for a policy that is more ethical.” and, why not, with Christian values.”

The Mexican priest recalled that the Episcopate “calls for awareness of voting and participation. Likewise, it guides from a moral perspective on values ​​that are inalienable, such as the family, life from conception to its natural end, religious freedom, the right of parents to educate their children and the common good, etc. .”.

“I think that in the dioceses that have organized workshops there can be an influence on the vote,” he highlighted, although he regretted that “unfortunately there are few dioceses that have worked on it.”

Given the current political situation, Father Valdemar considered that “the Church has failed miserably in the search and training of lay people who will fight for a dignified politics, today so degraded and corrupted, and the training of Catholic leaders who will do possible the integration of the social doctrine of the Church in public life.