Catholic Mexico
It is over 150 years now since the Mexican state first sought to break the power of the Catholic Church - a long, and at times, bitter battle between the two major establishments of the country, which has seen the church stripped of most of its property, its place within the political structure of the country and much of its control over people's lives. In its turn, after a calamitous beginning which saw the Church's fervour for saving souls forcing baptism on hundreds of thousands of Indians, and the Conquistador's lust for wealth forcing most of them into slavery, the Church has fought hard for the rights of indigenous people, beginning with the call for an end to slavery as early as 1544. The state may well have won the battles but it has yet to win the war. For the majority of Mexicans the Catholic church remains at the very heart of their being, and their devotion shows no sign of...
