percent of Bolivians surveyed had a favorable opinion of the Catholic Church. On July 30, 2006, after a two-and-a-half-hour conference in Cochabamba with Cardinal Julio Terrazas, Morales ended the dispute by reversing his stance and backing away from the proposal. The Associated Press reported that in a joint statement that had discussed diversity of religion but did not provide a way to deviate from predominant Catholic curriculum that is already taught in Bolivian state schools. Both men came to the consensus that both the Morales administration and the Church would retain the religious classes while also taking into consideration the diversity of religion within the country. Confederation of Inner City Education Workers of Bolivia In September 2006, the Confederation of Inner City Education Workers of Bolivia in a proposal called "Rescuing the Homeland", requested a law that would eliminate all religious instruction in state schools including the 200 state-funded covenant schools which are administered by the Catholic Church. The proposal said, "Education should be secular if we want it to be scientific." In response, Church representatives cautioned that advancements made by the Catholic Church could be lost if the State were to take over the covenant schools and rallied to oppose any such proposals. 2019 Political Crisis Bolivian Bishops previously opposed Morales's attempts to extend his presidency saying it "opens the doors to totalitarianism to the imposition of authority by force." In response, Adhemar Valda, high-ranking member of the Movement for Socialism, said that the clergymen exist "in the same vein as the US State Department." In response to the months of violent protests resulting in the death of many protesters by security forces, Bishop Aurelio Pessoa has called for a national dialogue involving all parties "to bring peace to the country and to agree on the conditions of new presidential elections and the election of new members of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal." Morales's successor, Jeanine Anez, was strongly pro-Catholic, in contrast to Morales. Sources Catholic Church in Bolivia History of Bolivia Evo Morales