Mexico: Government official praises Adventist Church s humanitarian work, registration follow-through

March 5, 2012 – Mexico City, Mexico….Jorge Garcia/Libna Stevens/ANN

Paulo Tort, Mexico’s director for religious affairs, recently praised the Seventh-day Adventist Church as exemplary for its emergency relief and community development work through the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).

Meeting with top church leaders last month, Tort highlighted ADRA programs like distributing drinking water to communities in need, family farming projects, and more, and said there is a need for a joint venture in rebuilding the social fabric the government has sought to rebuild.

Tort’s February 21 visit was at the invitation Pastor Tomas Torres, president of the church in Central Mexico and spokesperson for the church in Mexico. Pastor Torres thanked Tort for his professionalism, valuable support, and attention as the church engaged in a thorough survey and registration process of its temples nationwide three months ago.

The registration process carries out a 1993 mandate that all religious temples must register with the Mexican federal government.

Only 250 of 3,818 Adventist churches throughout Mexico were properly registered with, according to Pastor Cesar Hernandez, who is in charge of legal affairs for the church in Mexico and is overseeing the registration process.

“In the past, the process of registering temples was long, complicated and costly,” said Hernandez, “But we recently began working with the government to update our records and register each church properly throughout each district and corner in Mexico.”

Church leaders throughout Mexico’s four major church regions have been arduously working on surveying every district church since early December to ensure an accurate account of its churches and places of worship, explained Pastor Hernandez.

This process could have easily cost the church more than 2.3 million dollars, said Pastor Hernandez. Thanks to the thorough cooperation with the government and the church’s aggressive registration process undertaking it will mean a savings for the church, he added.

“This is a true blessing that we have saved so much financially,” said Pastor Torres, who has met with Tort several times. “All temples which were not registered with the government before 1993 will belong to the government and fall under its jurisdiction, so taxes will not have to be paid on these,” he added. “It will also prevent dissident members from taking over a church, something which has happened numerous times throughout Mexico before,” he added.

Adventist churches that were registered after 1993 will belong to the church in Mexico, he explained. Tort and church leaders took the opportunity to review the registration process, as church leaders asked the Mexico official questions about proper and accurate registration.

The church plans to complete the registration of all of its churches by the end of March.

Pastor Torres reassured Tort that the church’s commitment to working and collaborating with the government towards benefitting society will continue throughout the nation’s four major church regions in Mexico.

Hernandez also gave a special plaque of recognition to Tort on behalf of the church for his courtesies toward the church during the last three months in the process.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has nearly 700,000 church members spread out in the North, Central, Inter-Oceanic and South regions in Mexico. The church operates several universities, hospitals, a publishing house, and dozens of primary and secondary schools.