Los laicos en la historia de las relaciones Iglesia-Estado en México durante el siglo XX

Abstract

In this paper I will present a history review of the socio politic action of the laymen associations and movements, during the Twentieth Century in Mexico. I start by acknowledging the complexity and heterogeneity that signed the different lay movements in this period, and to point out their positions with respect to the ecclesiastical “pastoral” lines. To do this, I describe their pastoral specialization, their trajectories and their positions inside the Catholic Church as well as the citizenship actions developed by each one of these secular organisms. I sustained that the lay pastoral action in the civic and politic space represented a protagonist force in the civil society of the 20 century. Their actions –be them in line with the religious hierarchy, or later in a more independent and critical fashion- have been strategic in the presence and hegemony of a catholic social action culture in a country ruled by a secular Constitution and secular institutions such as Mexico.