by saying, "Today some people live as if they were allergic to religion or the Church... [depicting it as] a danger for the future of the country…[they are trying to] remove not only religion from the classroom but God as well." Archbishop Edmundo Abastoflor of La Paz made comments believed to be in response to the education question. At a commemoration of Bolivian independence, in front of the attending Bolivian President Evo Morales, the archbishop declared, "It is crazy to think that God doesn’t exist or that we can forget about Him. ... No matter how important we might be in this world, there is someone who is more so than us." Anti-Catholic Church Responses Announcement by Education Minister In June 2006, Felix Patzi incurred organizational opposition against the Morales government's declaration that "Catholicism would no longer be 'the official' religion taught at schools." Patzi said that he wanted to end "the religious monopoly" of the Catholic faith in schools and allow all faiths to be taught, "from oriental religions to those practiced by our native peoples." He said he would end the policy that made Catholic religious classes obligatory for students, and called the existing system "colonial". In an interview with the newspaper La Razon, Patz said, "In Bolivia the people are not only Catholic, but also of other religious faiths." He stated his fear of the issue "leading to confrontation among Bolivians". After protests by the Catholic hierarchy, Patzi clarified that the sectarian Roman Catholic classes taught in state schools would be replaced with a "history of religions" class that would include a focus on traditional indigenous beliefs alongside Catholicism and other faiths practiced in Bolivia. The Morales government announced its policy as a call for "secular education that respects the beliefs, the spirituality of indigenous and native nations and of the Bolivian nations as the basis of individual and communitarian rights." It was announced that the proposal would come before the National Assembly for a vote on August 6, 2006. Morales' reversal The calls by the Catholic hierarchy to resist Morales’ policy against sectarian religious classes in state schools caused a dip in his popularity. In mid-July 2006 the newspaper La Razon did a survey of 1,009 Bolivians living in the country's four major cities. The survey showed Morales with an approval rating of 68 percent, down from 75 percent in June. It also found that 83