Movement encourages Argentines to quit church

BUenOS AIReS: Hundreds of people gathered in Buenos Aires to oppose the influence of religion on Argentine politics and encourage people to quit the Roman Catholic Church in the wake of a Senate vote not to legalise some abortions.

Saturday’s event, called “Collective Apostasy”, centred on a signature drive for Argentines wanting to renounce their affiliation to the church through a form that will later be given to the Episcopal Conference in the homeland of Pope Francis.

People formed long lines in Buenos Aires and other cities, where organisers hoped thousands would register their desire that the church not interfere in Argentine politics and that their names be eliminated from its registries.

“We are receiving the apostasies of all the people who want to renounce their ties to the Catholic Church,” said one of the organisers, Maria Jose Albaya.

The movement is led by the Argentine Coalition for a Secular State and its backers often wear orange scarves.

“Obtaining the vote for women, the divorce law, marriage equality, the gender identity law, assisted human fertilisation law, the law of integral sexual education, the dignified death law were all done fighting clerical power, which seeks to have total dominion over our minds and bodies,” the event’s manifesto said on social media.