But slowly, since the constitutional changes, the church has become more vocal and visible. This May a symbolic outdoor Mass, the kind that had been banned for generations, was held in Mexico City's historic main square, the Zocalo. But as the church has broken its long silence, it has attracted critics. Recently, a leading church journal, Nuevo Criterio, publicly advised Fox, who has been divorced for nine years, to either reconcile with his ex-wife or vow never to remarry, as a moral example for Mexican Catholics. We all know that the church does not agree with divorce.
Marriage is a commitment for life.
The journal article caused a stir in a country that has seen its divorce rate double in recent years and is unaccustomed to the church making such personal comments about Mexico's political leaders. These are issues exclusively for the person. Then on Thursday, just as that controversy was settling, the state legislature in Guanajuato, where Fox was governor until his run for the presidency, dropped a bombshell that became the talk of the airwaves. The legislature, controlled by PAN, extended the state's ban on abortions to include cases of rape. We have been saying, 'Beware of the PAN . . .