A Mexican court has upheld the conviction of two leading Catholic prelates for having “pressured and/or induced” the faithful to vote in last year’s elections.
Cardinals Carlos Aguiar Retes of Mexico City and Juan Sandoval Iniguez, the retired Archbishop of Guadalajara, were convicted of violating Mexico’s strict legal separation between Church and state. The court explained that the law bars religious leaders from “proselytizing for or against any political party, any candidacy, or any political organization.” Two other priests were convicted of the same violation.
The cardinals had not endorsed political candidates for the June election, but had sharply criticized the current government. Cardinal Sandoval Iniguez, in a pre-election statement, said: “If those who are in power win, a dictatorship will come—that is, liberty will be lost—because we’re talking about a system that is communist, socialist, that enslaves.”