Two Stories about Evo and Catholic Education

From New Zealand Herald
Bolivia's Morales drops secular education proposal
By Mario Roque
LA PAZ, Bolivia
Bolivian President Evo Morales has scrapped a proposal to drop religious education from the school curriculum because of opposition by the country's powerful Catholic Church.

About 80 per cent of Bolivians are Catholics and the leftist government's proposal to replace religion lessons with ethics classes has been one of the few issues to spark controversy as the country prepares to rewrite its constitution.
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From MercoPress, Uruguay
Morales accepts defeat and declares he’s Catholic

Bolivian president Evo Morales said Friday he was Catholic and admitted praying regularly to ask favours from God and therefore will not eliminate religion classes in Bolivian government schools.

Morales back stepped from his original plan to make the government school system strictly laic following massive criticism from different sectors. However he asked that “Catholics” are not manipulated, in response to the strong protests from the country’s three most important cities that vehemently condemned his project to ban religious teaching.

Religious groups in Sucre, Cochabamba and El Alto in La Paz organized noisy protests all along the week demanding that the Morales administration project to “decolonize education” does not lead to the elimination or banning of religious education in the schooling system.

“I want to tell you I’m Catholic and I also believe in the aboriginal religion, that of mother earth, Pachamama, and these two religions have historically lived next to each other, how can I forget that?”, said Morales addressing a group of journalists in La Paz.

“If I ever have to marry, I hope the Pope accepts I marry”, he said jokingly.
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