page_title: History of the Catholic Church in Mexico
section_title: Ecclesiastical privileges
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Catholic Church in Mexico / Spanish Habsburg Era (1550–1700) / Ecclesiastical privileges
caption_attribution_description: Catedral es uno de los símbolos más representativos de la ciudad. Inició su construcción en 1551 y se terminó en 1618. Es famosa por su arquitectura ecléctica donde el dórico y gótico marcan su influencia. Esta es una vista desde el Palacio de Gobierno, por la avenida Morelos, donde se aprecia el bautisterio con su cantera rosa.
context_page_description: The history of the Catholic Church in Mexico dates from the period of the Spanish conquest and has continued as an institution in Mexico into the twenty-first century. Catholicism is one of the two major legacies from the Spanish colonial era, the other being Spanish as the nation's language. The Catholic Church was a privileged institution until the mid nineteenth century. It was the sole permissible church in the colonial era and into the early Mexican Republic, following independence in 1821. Following independence, it involved itself directly in politics, including in matters that did not specifically involve the Church.
  In the mid-nineteenth century the liberal Reform brought major changes in church-state relations. Mexican liberals in power challenged the Catholic Church's role, particularly in reaction to its involvement in politics. The Reform curtailed the Church's role in education, property ownership, and control of birth, marriage, and death records, with specific anticlerical laws. Many of these were incorporated into the Constitution of 1857, restricting the Church's corporate ownership of property and other limitations.
context_section_description: The ordained clergy (but not religious sisters) had ecclesiastical privileges (fueros), which meant that they were exempt from civil courts, no matter what the offense, but were tried in canonical courts. This separation of jurisdictions for different groups meant that the Church had considerable independent power. In the late eighteenth century, one of the Bourbon Reforms was the removal of this fuero, making the clergy subject to civil courts.
caption: The Guadalajara Cathedral.
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