Religious freedom as a fundamental human right at the II National Interreligious Dialogue Meeting in Mexico, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico City): As part of the II National Meeting of Interreligious Dialogue and Communion Delegates, organized by the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM) and the Episcopal Commission for Interreligious Dialogue and Communion (CEDIC), a notable session on religious freedom in Mexico was held. The event, running from November 3 to 5 at the Casa de Ejercicios Jesús Eucaristía in Tlalpan, brought together religious leaders, academics and communication specialists.
On the first day, attendees took part in the opening Mass celebrated at the St. Joseph Chapel of the Basilica of Guadalupe, presided over by Bishop Héctor Mario Pérez Villarreal, auxiliary bishop of Mexico City and general secretary of the CEM.
Bishops Rodrigo Aguilar Martínez, president of the CEDIC and bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas, and Hilario González, bishop of Saltillo and first member of the Commission, concelebrated.
In the opening message, emphasis was placed on the motivation to “transform our lives to foster encounter and fraternity, and thus build together God’s project of love.” The pastors invited collaborators and delegates to remain united in prayer “so that this meeting bears abundant fruit and strengthens the commitment to build bridges of dialogue and communion.”
During Tuesday’s program, activities began with the opening Mass at the Basilica of Guadalupe and continued in the afternoon with a dialogue session featuring Dr. Javier Saldaña, a researcher and specialist in religious freedom at the Institute of Legal Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and Felipe Monroy, a specialist in religious information and director of the news agency VCNoticias.
Both specialists guided the reflection on religious freedom as a fundamental human right in the current Mexican context.
Monroy, drawing on an analysis of current socio-religious and ecclesiastical affairs, offered a reflection titled “Religious freedom in the public space, cases and contemporary controversies.” The journalist stressed the urgency of addressing these issues from an updated view of social reality, the social doctrine of the Church and religious diversity in contemporary cultures. He presented a list of recent cases of social and political conflict involving the free exercise of religion and the expression of religious identities.
“We constantly encounter different moments of religious conflict that generate controversy in the public space and that do not receive real attention from various authorities… All concepts get mixed up, realities get distorted,” he told attendees.
He also identified three recurring phenomena in the media: conflicts over religious symbols in public spaces, cases of religious intolerance and religious discrimination within institutions.
To illustrate the problem, Monroy cited recent high-profile cases, including complaints over Christmas nativity scenes in public spaces in Yucatán, the removal of an altar to Santa Muerte in the Iztacalco borough in 2025, and episodes of intolerance in Chiapas, Oaxaca and other localities, where evangelical citizens have been harassed, jailed or attacked for refusing to take part in Catholic festivities or religious roles.
He also mentioned the death threat against Bishop Juan Espinoza in Aguascalientes, which sparked accusations of a religious nature among senators.
The specialist emphasized that these conflicts will not be resolved solely through new laws or regulatory changes: “They will not be resolved exclusively with five or six words in the law… Actually, one of the things that can help is formation and the topic of religious freedom, as a fundamental human right that does not belong to the generosity of any State or any institution, but is intrinsic to the person,” Monroy concluded.
For his part, Dr. Javier Saldaña took part in the dialogue scheduled with the attending bishops, both in the session open to all participants and in the subsequent space reserved for prelates and faculty of the Pontifical University of Mexico (UPM).
The academic reviewed the conceptual and legal path underpinning the principles of religious freedom, criticized the lack of institutional commitment to understanding the essence of this right and its implications for the social order, and warned that the current constitutional framework in Mexico still preserves margins of specific discrimination against certain religious convictions and their organizational bodies.
He noted that the formative and reflective opportunity offered in the first half of 2026 through the course on Religious Freedom in Mexico, which he coordinated and which the Mexican Episcopal Conference and the CEDIC sponsored, is part of a permanent and necessary effort to engage with the cultural criteria that genuine religious freedom implies today.
Following the meeting, church authorities expressed interest in creating another training space, with the participation of more institutions and universities, on the challenges of religious freedom in the country.
The day concluded with dinner and a social gathering, reaffirming the meeting’s purpose: to share experiences, strengthen pastoral formation and encourage living the culture of encounter in favor of social peace, as stipulated in the event’s official program.
The II CEDIC Meeting will hold further activities through the rest of the week, mainly focused on dialogue and encounter. Planned visits include the Maronite Rite (Catholic) Church at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Balvanera, the Byzantine Greek-Melkite (Catholic) Church at the Cathedral of Porta Coeli, authorities of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico, and the Orthodox Churches in Mexico.
The participants will also meet with the Theological Community of Mexico, an inter-congregational training space that brings together the Seminario de San Andrés, the Augsburg Lutheran Seminary, the Mexican Baptist Seminary and the Latin American Faculty of Reformed Theology, dedicated to education, production and research in the theological field with an ecumenical Christian inspiration.
Finally, CEDIC bishops Rodrigo Aguilar Martínez (president), Hilario González and Margarito Salazar (members) will deliver a message to all collaborators and delegates of Interreligious Dialogue and Communion, offering guidance and pastoral directions to continue this service for peace, unity and the well-being of communities.
