Mexican church draws fire for voting guidelines

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's Roman Catholic Church drew fire Tuesday for releasing a set of voting "guidelines" for the faithful ahead of the July 1 presidential elections.

All religious groups in Mexico are banned from engaging in electoral politics, or supporting or opposing any candidate or party. The guidelines published by the Archdiocese of Mexico on its web site appear to closely skirt the restriction.

But the issue is a sensitive one in Mexico, where harsh anti-clerical laws sparked the 1926-1929 Cristero war, an uprising by Roman Catholic rebels against Mexico's secular government in which tens of thousands of people died. While loosened in the 1990s, many restrictions …