Woops… missed an important date

Not Bastille Day, but the one Burro Hall caught:

It’s hard to think of another country that was so heavily controlled by a religious entity (in this case, the Catholic Church) and that so radically and suddenly handed that entity a steaming platter of Shut the Fuck Up the way Mexico did 150 years ago today. The law passed on July 12, 1859,  basically nationalized all Church property (with the exception of actual churches) and suppressed religious orders. Additional laws nationalized cemeteries, separated Church and State, made births, deaths and marriages civil functions and allowed other religions to exist.

The Burro adds “it was an enormous event in the history of this country…  and is, for reasons we don’t fully understand, being completely ignored on its sesquicentennial.  It’s the same reason Benito Juarez’ birthday was moved to a Monday holiday.  PAN has the Presidency, and is a clerical party.

Kevin G. Hall (“Miami Herald,” July 22, 2006)

Calderon’s father was among the many who took up arms in defense of the church, and it was that sense of persecution that led him in 1939 to join with other conservative Catholics to found the National Action Party, or PAN in its Spanish initials, the party whose banner Calderon appears to have carried to victory.

Unless Mexico’s Federal Electoral Tribunal overturns the disputed July 2 election, Calderon, 43, will be the first president of Mexico whose life is steeped in the brand of conservative Catholicism that gave rise to the Cristero guerrilla movement, which fought against the anti-clerical policies of Mexico’s ruling generals from 1926 to 1929.

The return of clericialism… it’s not just for FeCal anymore:

PAN officially claims to be a non-confessional party in a country that is 90% Christian; however, while on the campaign trail in 2000, Vicente Fox appeared holding a banner emblazoned with the revered icon of the Virgin of Guadalupe – and was fined MXN $20,000 for mixing religion and politics. As president, he continued to make public appearances attending mass as well as proclaiming his faith (even kissing Pope John Paul II’s ring upon his arrival in Mexico in 2002) and at times ending his speeches with a “God bless you”, enraging several sectors of Mexican society for mixing politics and religion  In some cases, PAN mayors and governors have banned public employees from wearing miniskirts (Guadalajara), clamped down on the use of profanity in public marketplaces (Santiago de Querétaro), and the last and most polemical had to be with the mayor of Guanajuato City, who tried to prevent couples from kissing on the streets.