MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

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.

Morales is single, father of two, and comes from the aymara ethnic which is very religious and practices Catholicism but combined with ancestral rituals

The Bolivian Catholic Church does not demand that their creed be mandatory in all government schools but is against banning religious teaching and claims that decision belongs to the head of the families.

"What concerns the Catholic Church is that fundamental human principles and values are respected, among which the right to religious education", said the Monsignor Jesus Juarez head of the Episcopal Conference.

Bolivia is a country predominantly Catholic although in recent years evangelist groups have advanced.

Morales recalled that when living in Chapare, in the heart of Bolivia, he had Catholic and evangelist neighbors and "they got along fine, and were extremely supportive".