ROME (ITALY)
Crux
May 1, 2019
By Inés San Martín
There’s no such thing as a dull moment when it comes to the Catholic Church in Latin America, Pope Francis’s backyard and home to an estimated 40 percent of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics.
Tuesday was, once again, a day of revolt and protest in Venezuela, where an ongoing crisis has led a country with the world’s 10th largest oil reserve into a place where an estimated 96 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
With Juan Guaido, leader of the opposition and proclaimed president by the General Assembly leading the Operación Libertad, or Operation Freedom, hundreds of thousands took to the streets with the support of at least one military base that revolted against President Nicolas Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Chavez.
Maduro won elections last year, but the result was rejected by the opposition, the country’s General Assembly and many foreign countries and institutions, including the European Union. Guaido was sworn in as a rival temporary president in January, but Maduro never stepped down.
The bishops, who are gathered in their national assembly from April 29 to May 1, are expected to release a statement during the last day of the meeting, and at press time they hadn’t yet made any official comments on Tuesday’s revolt.
However, the Venezuelan bishops in the past have been very vocal against Maduro.
Among those who spoke is Cardinal Jorge Urosa, emeritus Archbishop of Caracas, who told the French newspaper La Croix that the bishops are “appalled.”
“The government has ruined Venezuela with the application of a totalitarian economic, political, statist, Marxist-style plan that has ruined agriculture and industry,” Urosa said.
Bishop Fernando Castro of Margarita had a reflection published by the conference on its Facebook page right before the assembly began, comparing Venezuela to Paris after the Cathedral of Notre Dame was engulfed by flames on Monday of Holy Week.
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