MEXICO
204
MEXICO
papal nuncio in Mexico ; but the negotiations for a new couccjrdat failed from reasons that have not yet been fully cleared up. ,\lter the re-establishraent of the re- publican government under Juarez, the Church again complained of the liberal policy i)ursued by the govern- ment, and these complaints continued when Juarez was succeeded (1872) by president Lerdo de Tejada. The new president, as well as the majority of the Mexican Congress, adhered to the principles of religious toleration. In May. 1873, the ilexican Congress adopted a new law for the regulation of the affairs of the Koman Catholic Church, and the relation between Church and State, which contained the following provisions: Art. 1. Church and State are independent of each other. Con- gress can issue no laws which establish or prohibit any religion. Art. 2. Marriage is a civil contract, which is under the exclusive jurisdiction of the state authorities, and regulated by law. ^Vrt. 3. Religious societies can possess no real estate. ^Vrt. 4. All inhabitants of the republic are declared free from religious vows. The first article of this law was adopted unanimously, the remainder by overwhelming majorities, the minority in no case consisting of more than seventeen votes.
III. ConsHluiioH and Statistics of the Roman Catholic Church. — Soon after the conquest of the country by the Spaniards, the tirst bishopric was established in Mex- ico. About 1600 the vice-kingdom was divided into 7 dioceses : Mexico, Chiapa, Michoacan, Oajaca, Puebla, Guadalajara, and Yucatan, forming the ecclesiastical province of Mexico. Subsequently the number of dio- ceses rose to 11, and the number of parishes, in 1856, amounted to 1235. In 1863 pope Pius IX raised the dio- ceses of Michoacan and Guadalajara to archbisho[)rics, and erected 7 new dioceses. Accordingly the country is at present divided into 3 ecclesiastical provinces: Mexico, with the dioceses of Puebla, Chiapa, Oajaca, Yu- catan, Vera Cruz, Chilapa, and Tulancingo; Michoacan, with the dioceses of San Luis Potosi, Queretaro, Leon, and Zamora ; and Guadalajara, with the dioceses of Duran- go, Linares, Sonora, and Zacatecas. All the old dioceses have chapters. According to the decrees of the third Provincial Council of Mexico, each cathedral shall have 5 dignitaries (itcan, archdeacon, cantor, theologus, thesau- rarius), 10 canons, 6 prebendates, 6 half-prebendates, and 6 clerks, " with a good income." The new dioceses have as yet no chapter. Besides the regular parishes, there are many missionarj' stations, part of which were supported by six collegios de propaganda fide. jNIost of the latter were, however, sup|)ressed by a decree of pres- ident Santa Anna, and parishes erected in their place. Under the Spanish rule the bishops were appointed b.v the king. After the establishment of the republic, the president of Mexico claimed the same right, and ap- pointed bishops for ever}' see that became vacant. But the popes refused to recognise the rights claimed by the presidents, and to confirm the appointments. Thus in 1820 all the dioceses, with the exception of one, had become vacant. In 1830 the canon Valdez, as en- voy of the Mexican republic, succeeded in concluding a convention with the pope, which regulated the elec- tion of Mexican bishops by providing that the chapter were to propose to the government three candidates, among whom the latter woidd designate one as the fut- ure bishop, who thereupon woidd recei\"e the canonical institution from the pope. The emperor Maximilian again claimed all the rights and privileges which the Spanish kings had possessed in ilexico, inclusive of the right of appointing the bishops. These, as well as oth- er controverted points, were to be settled by a con- cordat, for the conclusion of which he was negotiating with the pope; but before an agreement had been ar- rived at, Maximilian lost his throne and life. The Mex- ican bishops formerly enjoyed all the rights conferred upon the bishops by the canon law as it prevailed in Spain ; but the presidents of the Alexican republic re- fused to recognise many of these rights, and pope Pius IX, in an allocution of Dec. 15. 1856, complained that
' president Commonfort had abolished the ecclesiastical jurisdiction altogether. The emperor Maximilian also failed to meet the expectations of Rome in this respect; for a note of the cardinal secretarj- of state to the Mex- ican ambassador in Home, dated 3Iarch 9, 1864, reclaimed from the imperial government '• the full freedom of the bishops in the exercise of their pastoral office." The income of the bishops during the Spanish rule amounted to from 25,000 ducats to 100,000 ducats annually. The republic confiscated the entire property of the Church, and promised to gi\e to the bishops a fixed income from the public revenue ; but the bishops protested against this, and declared that they preferred to be sup- ported by the voluntan,- gifts of the faithful. The num- ber of priests is variously estimated at from 6000 to 10,000; they are partly educated in diocesan semina- ries, partly in convents. Nearly all of them are of In- dian descent; the native Spanish priests were in 1828 expelled from the countrj-, in common with all the oth- er Spaniards. The parish priests derived their income formerly from the verj- high fees which had to be paid for the ecclesiastical fimction. These fees were abolished by a decree of Santa Anna (Aug. 17, 18.33), and again