November 17, 2003

RIO DE JANEIRO - The Inter-Religious Movement of Rio de Janeiro (MIR) held a protest last Thursday in front of the legislative assembly to object to the governor Rosinha Matheuss veto of a legal bill about religious education in public schools.

MIR, according to the Kairos news agency, states that religious teaching should be carried out by Churches and religions themselves. The role of the public school is to give students a sociological and historic vision of the different religions, without discriminating among the different creeds.

We need an education for peace, that will help break down the prejudices regarding those who are different and the only way to overcome prejudice is through knowledge, said MIR coordinator Andre Porto.

The Evangelical bench of the Legislative Asembly in Rio de Janeiro is opposed to confessional religious teaching.

The Law on Non Confessional Religious Teaching, presented by Congressman Carlos Minc (Partido de los Trabajadores) was approved by the Assembly 52 votes to 2. How can we offer classes to all the Evangelical denominations that exist, asked Evangelical Pastor and representative of the Partido Movimiento Democratico Brasileqo (PMDB) Edna Rodrigues.

Governor Rosinha Matheus is married to former Governor Anthony Garotinho and both are Presbyterians. The law that establishes confessional religious teaching was presented by former Catholic representative Carlos Dias and passed in 2002 by then governor Garotinho.

Pastor Jose Robero Cavalcante, of the United Presbyterian Church, said he felt mistreated by governor Matheus, who scheduled an interview with the secretary of state for government integration, Luiz Rogirio Magalhces to address the issue the same day the veto was published.

We are now campaigning for non confessional religious teaching the law on confessional teaching, as well as being unconstitutional is conservative and politically incorrect. It is unfortunate that the governor did not even wish to hear our arguments, said Cavalcante.

Religious teaching in public schools has been on the agenda since last October when the State Education Secretariat published the conditions for those who wished to teach the course. Among these conditions it states that a teacher can be suspended or even dismissed if they lose their faith or become agnostic or an atheist.

The regulations stated that the National Bishops Conference can certify religious teachers who are Catholic, The College of Evangelical Ministers can certify the Evangelicals and the Rabbinical authority those who are Jewish.

It also states that there are 342 positions for Catholic teachers, 132 for Evangelicals and 26 for other creeds. The public school system in Rio de Janeiro has 1.5 million enrolled students.

ALC News (Agencia Latinoamericana y Caribeqa de Comunicacisn)