AMERICA/PANAMA - “We must work for the poor”: Cardinal Lacunza says on the feast of Cristo de Atalaya

Monday, 23 February 2015

Veraguas (Agenzia Fides) – In Panama, the first Sunday of Lent is marked as the feast of Cristo de Atalaya, and Bishop Audilio Aguilar of the diocese of Santiago de Veraguas invited the newly created Cardinal José Luis Lacunza, Bishop of the diocese of David, the first Cardinal in the history of Panama, to preside the liturgical celebration.
"The Pope made me a Cardinal not because I am José Luis Lacunza, but because I am a Bishop of Panama" were the first words pronounced by the Cardinal welcomed with warm applause by the many people who filled the church in Veraguas. The Cardinal continued: "The responsibility is great, I must serve as a channel between the people and the heart of the Church". "Sad to say however the situation is threatened by evil: corruption, theft. We cannot stand by and see so many poor people, those who have nothing at all, being robbed. No less than 30 per cent of Panama’s people live in conditions of extreme poverty, denied schooling, denied health care, this is unacceptable" he affirmed.
At that moment as child shouted: "We have no water". The Cardinal looked at the boy and asked: "why do you have no water?". Then an elderly woman said: "We have no medicines" and the Cardinal, looking at the people in the front row said: "This means we must all set seriously to work ". In the front row, among others, was the President of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, considered a practicing Catholic, besides other important national authorities.
The feast of Cristo de Atalaya is perhaps the most popular and most loved Catholic feast in Panama. It is estimated that yesterday alone some 500,000 Catholics were in Veraguas to venerate the image of Cristo de Atalaya, a devotion that dates back as far as the year 1730, and which is today diffused across the country.
(CE) (Agenzia Fides, 23/02/2015)


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