The United States State Department understood this to be the establishment of the Church as the state religion. On June 18, 2006, the Archbishop of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Cardinal Julio Terrazas, addressed rumors being spread by some parliamentary candidates that the Catholic Church was demanding to be made the official religion of Bolivia. In his Sunday homily, the cardinal assured people that they were not championing the installation of Catholicism as the national religion. He noted that the bishops were receptive to notions of review to the Bolivian Constitution's article which granted special recognition to the role of Catholicism. The cardinal said, "They keep saying we are fighting for that article. Not so! Let it be reviewed, but let it be done intelligently and fully. Let's not deny that this country has truly received the seeds of the Kingdom of justice and of truth that the Lord has brought, and that that has been part of her history, and that is why in so many parts of Bolivia we are proud to be Catholics." The cardinal pointed out that Catholicism had not been the official state religion of Bolivia since 1967 and said the Church was merely asking for "respect" and "recognition of the work she has done." The Church was not worried that Bolivia would become a secular state, but those calling for secularism have ulterior motives to strip Bolivia of religion and not having the presence of God. Church land seized In early June 2006, the socialist party of Evo Morales—Movimiento al Socialismo—seized lands adjacent to the Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabana. These lands had been given to the shrine decades before by the Bolivian government so that income derived from the use of the land would help support the shrine. At the seizure, party loyalists declared that they were taking only the land that the Church was not utilizing. The land was divided into seven lots and several trees were cut down. Father Obermaier, in charge of the shrine, called for the government to resolve the situation. Call to stop having Catholic feast days as national holidays While the education reform controversy was ongoing, then-Senator Antonio Peredo joined with other members of Morales' Movimiento al Socialismo in the Bolivian Parliament to call for an end to recognizing Catholic feast days such as Corpus Christi and All Saints Day as national holidays. The suggested policy