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President's Papal Kiss Sparks Controversy In Mexico

When a Roman Catholic churchgoer kisses a pope's ring, it's considered a traditional sign of veneration. When the president of Mexico does it, however, it generates a church-state controversy that dominates newspaper headlines.

In July, Pope John Paul II visited Mexico and canonized the Americas' first indigenous saint. Yet when Mexican President Vicente Fox greeted the pope by kneeling and kissing his ring, eyebrows were raised nationwide.

La Jornada newspaper, for example, ran a headline asking, "And the secular state?" Mexico, a historically secular country, has long struggled over the appropriate role of the Catholic Church in public affairs. The church hierarchy sided with wealthy landowners in pre-revolutionary days, and its public role was sharply restricted by law until recent years.

The presidential gesture was the latest in a series of events that reflect the growing influence of the Catholic Church in Mexico.

Copyright Americans United for Separation of Church and State Sep 2002
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