Guatemala torn by conflict over religion in public schools.

Tension is increasing between Roman Catholics and fundamentalist Protestants in Guatemala over a "morality" program in public schools that the Catholics say is a cover for protestant religious indoctrination.

The controversy centers around a program for young people on morals and religion called "Free and Triumphant Youth." Spearheaded by Pentecostal leader Maria de Jesus Ordonez, the program has won the support of Guatemalan First Lady Patricia Escobar Dalton. Although a devout Catholic, Escobar has embraced the morality crusade as a way of stemming perceived "moral decomposition" among Guatemalan youth.

But Catholic Church leaders in Guatemala do not share Escobar's enthusiasm. According to the National Catholic Reporter, Guatemala's bishops have criticized "Free and Triumphant Youth" as a cover for proselytism by fundamentalist groups. Last October, the country's bishops declared the program incompatible with Catholic doctrine.

Guatemala, like many Latin American nations, is seeing increased tension between catholicism, traditionally the majority faith, and fundamentalist Protestant groups, which are winning many converts.

According to the bishops, the program has a "fundamentalist framework" and "cosmological dualism." They forbade Catholic students and Catholic teachers working in public schools to take part in it. The Conference of Evangelical Churches, an organization of liberal evangelicals, has also condemned the program.

Guatemalan media has also blasted the program. Cronica, a Guatemalan weekly, asserted that the project "is nothing more than a religion imposed from the heights of the state." The paper noted that although participation in the program is supposed to be voluntary, the first lady's involvement constitutes moral coercion, against which neither public school students nor teachers can resist."

Material prepared by the project's creators asserts that "Free and Triumphant Youth" is designed to be a personal project of individual Pentecostal churches. The documents state that the "fruit" of the program is that "those persons who convert will be given to that church."

Despite the attacks, Escobar refuses to drop her sponsorship of the project. She has criticized both the Catholic hierarchy and the moderate evangelicals, charging that for years they "have done nothing to improve the quality of education of our youth, who find themselves in a lamentable state of moral decomposition."

In other news about Guatemala, the National Assembly has approved a bill that may grant broad amnesty to those who committed human rights offenses during the past 36 years, including the rule of Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, an ally of TV preacher Pat Robertson.

Human rights organizations blasted the "Law of National Reconciliation," saying it allows murderers to go unpunished. During Guatemala's long civil war, more than 100,000 people were killed by the military, and an additional 40,000 are said to have "disappeared."

Rios Montt presided over an especially bloody period of the conflict 15 years ago. He is accused of unleashing a war of terror against civilians under the guise of stamping out a leftist guerilla insurgency. During the first four months of his rule alone, the army is said to have killed 2,000 civilians, most of whom had no connection to the guerrillas.

Despite this record, Robertson has hailed Rios Montt a fellow Pentecostal, for his "enlightened leadership."