SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, June 13, 201 (Somos Pueblo, translated from Spanish) Education Minister Antonio Pena Mirabal insisted on his opposition to reading the Bible in schools because there is religious diversity in schools. “In the public schools of this country there are thousands of Haitian students who practice in voodoo. So, what are we going to do with them? Or with another child who, for example, practices Hinduism?” he said. The official explained that although it is in Law 44-00, it violates the Constitution, which establishes freedom of belief.
“The reading of the Bible will not be mandatory in all schools in the country,” he said. “That makes no sense. The Bible, which is an eminently spiritual book, you can not impose it in a mandatory way.” The Minister of Education said that in the Dominican Republic there are people of different religious beliefs. “Spirituality is a mandatory right of every human being. I am a Catholic, I was born and raised in an eminently Catholic home. Even so, the act of forcing schools to read the Bible does not make any sense.”