Priest Kept Clerical Attire for Mexico Passport Photo
After staff cited internal rules barring religious symbols, the foreign minister ordered the passport issued and seeks written safeguards for clergy.
On Nov. 4, 2026, at the passport office in Mexico City’s Coyoacán borough, Father Alberto Medel was told he could not be photographed in ecclesiastical attire. Medel, coordinator of the theological committee of the College of Exorcists of the Primatial Archdiocese of Mexico, refused. He argued he had the right to dress according to his state of life so long as his face remained fully visible. After the employee consulted a supervisor, the photograph was taken with him in clerical dress.
While he waited for the passport, a woman who did not give her name or position and who showed hostility from the outset told him the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs would not process an application with a photo showing clerical attire. When he asked for the legal basis, she showed a page from the Secretariat’s internal regulations stating that photographs containing religious symbols are not permitted. Medel said a police officer standing behind her displayed an intimidating attitude.
Law, Constitution, and Court Precedent
Article 14 of Mexico’s Regulations for Passports and Identity and Travel Documents requires a forward-facing color photo against a white background, with the head uncovered and no garments or objects covering the face. It contains no general ban on religious attire. Medel said Catholic priests are treated as second-class citizens whose freedoms are restricted because of their faith, and that he was subjected to discrimination, had his human rights violated, and was humiliated through clear expressions of anticlericalism and Christianophobia. He argued the episode violated Articles 1 and 24 of the Mexican Constitution on nondiscrimination and religious freedom, and that no Secretariat internal regulation can stand above the Constitution or human rights.
On Dec. 11, 2025, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled in a case involving Muslim women required to remove their hijabs for passports that the regulations must be read consistently with freedom of religion and that the women could wear them, warning against the absolute sacrifice of religious freedom. Related jurisprudence was published on July 3, 2026.
Minister’s Order and the Priest’s Response
After Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco Álvarez publicly ordered that the photo be retaken in clerical attire and the passport issued, Medel received an email and a phone call from Secretariat staff. As of the latest accounts he had not returned to the office because of pastoral commitments, including the 500th anniversary of his parish, Santa María de la Visitación, in Santa María Tepepan on Saturday, Nov. 7, with Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Joseph Spiteri, and a planned trip to Rome on Monday, Nov. 9.
Medel said he does not need an apology. He seeks firmer steps so that no priest or religious faces the same treatment again, adding that other priests and religious sisters have reported similar experiences and that he is not the only person who has suffered this. Clerical attire, he stated, is not a uniform; it is his way of life. He asked for a written commitment and instruction to all Secretariat offices. The Secretariat has not said which provision was applied, whether it remains in force, or how it fits with the Supreme Court criteria; its communications office forwarded the minister’s statement.