Juárez Law

Juárez Law (November 23, 1855) was decreed during the liberal reform, named after the Mexican liberal leader Benito Juárez, who became the president of Mexico in 1861. This law took away the special privileges of the Catholic clergy as well as the Mexican military, such as the fuero exemptions.[1] In addition, Juarez Law stated that members of the clergy and the military must be in the jurisdiction of the civil courts and the common law. So essentially, all Mexican citizens were made equal under this law.[2] This law was created under the liberal objectives of equality to be carried out under it.[3] It brought hope that there was change happening. When the law was first established by presidential decree, the increasingly unpopular Mexican president at the time, Ignacio Comonfort, proclaimed the immediate effect it had on the nation. "Yesterday and today feverish rumors were running in this capital of an imminent revolution...To support this law is a duty of the present administration..."[2] On the other hand, days after the Juárez Law was established, the conservatives came out with the slogan "Religion and Fueros!" in order to counter the law and show support to the Catholic Church.[2]

In addition, the liberals decreed the Lerdo Law (1856), which came about as a reaction of the Juárez Law. The Lerdo Law mainly attacked the Church. This time, the law stated that all Church property would be confiscated if not used for religious purposes. Due to this, the Church had to sell off large portions of their lands. The purpose of this law was to abolish collective land holding.[1] However, the negative effect of this law was that indigenous villages were in danger of losing their communal lands, which they believed they benefitted more from than from having their own individual land.[1]

Liberals vs. the Catholic Church

In Mexico, religion and politics almost always played within the same role as each other. In the 1830s and 1840s, liberals viewed the Church as a necessity for the social order of the state. However, when the Catholic Church became anti liberal, the liberals began to oppose it. The liberals directed their anger toward the institution of the Catholic Church. So, they were more anticlerical than anti religious. The liberals were mad about the fuero exemptions (legal exemptions) the clergy received, and they believed the Church amassed a lot of unnecessary wealth. Soon, the Mexican liberal uprising called the Reform, or La Reforma, began.[1]

Benito Juárez

Benito Juárez was the first person from a fully indigenous background to become a governor of a Mexican state. He was the governor of Oaxaca before becoming the president of Mexico. Before becoming president, he campaigned for liberal reforms. He believed in the separation of Church and State. He also believed that much of the land from the Church should be taken from it, that religious orders should be abolished, and that civil marriages and civil register of births, marriages, and deaths should be declared legal. Even when Juárez officially became president in 1861, his reforms were not guaranteed by constitutional amendment until 1873.[4]

Even though Juárez had no ideological or personal issues with the Church, there were still two motivations that drove his political conduct toward the Church. These included "the establishment of supremacy of the civil power and the removal of the clergy from predominance in education."[5] These two principles would later aid in the establishment of the Juárez Law in 1855.

Current events

The struggle between Church and state in Mexico can still be observed in the last fifteen years. In 2000, there was a debate about whether or not abortion should be banned in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. Since this, there has been a fear that there is an increasingly blurred line between Church and state. While the governor did veto the ban, this is an example of the continual survival of liberal ideals making sure there is a rigid line between Church and state.[6]

References
  1. Chasteen, John Charles (2016). Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America. New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
  2. Roeder, Ralph (1947). Juarez and His Mexico. United States: The Viking Press.
  3. Scholes, Walter V. (1957). Mexican Politics During the Juárez Regime 1855-1872. Columbia, Missouri: The University of Missouri Studies. p. 5.
  4. Swiggett, Glen Levin (1936). "Conflict of Church and State in Mexico". World Affairs. 99 (1): 40–42. JSTOR 20662711.
  5. Hamnett, Brian R. (1991). "Benito Juárez, Early Liberalism, and the Regional Politics of Oaxaca, 1828-1853". Bulletin of Latin American Research. 10 (1): 3–21. doi:10.2307/3338561. JSTOR 3338561.
  6. "Abortion rights in Mexican state intact". bbc. 29 August 2000. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
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