AMERICA - The President of CELAM: "Throughout our region there is a sort of unprecedented ‘social explosion’

Tuesday, 12 November 2019 celam   social situation   politics   human rights   poverty   development   local churches  

Trujillo (Agenzia Fides) - "I wish to express my strongest rejection of violence, wherever it comes from, and appeal to the rulers and the authorities of our region to implement concrete and real policies that guarantee the promotion of the human person and the common good, based on the fundamental rights of freedom, respect, equity, justice and care of our common home, so that our peoples can truly have integral human development". This is what was expressed by Mgr. Héctor Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte, OFM, President of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), in his message to the Chilean people, in the face of the serious situation the country is experiencing, similar to that of many other Latin American countries. "It is important to remember - emphasizes the Archbishop - that politics, which is above all a service, is not at the service of individual ambitions, nor of the power of factions, because the immunity enjoyed by many politicians should never become impunity".
"Profound solidarity and closeness to the Church and to the Chilean people who suffer violence, which affect especially the most humble and vulnerable people" are expressed by Mgr. Cabrejos Vidarte, who recalls the words of the Permanent Council of the Bishops' Conference of Chile: "the people are not only tired of injustice, but also of violence".
In his message on 11 November, which has as its title a verse from the prophet Isaiah: "Peace is the fruit of justice" (Is 32,17), Mgr. Cabrejos Vidarte, who is Archbishop of Trujillo and President of the Peruvian Bishops' Conference, also recalls "our brothers and sisters in the Latin America region and the Caribbean who are suffering from the violence that plagues entire families, especially in Bolivia, Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Chile and Peru".
For the President of CELAM the causes of this situation "are found in corruption, in imperfect democracies and in situations of poverty, inequality, unemployment or underemployment, in the poor quality and coverage of health, education and transport services. Throughout our region there is a sort of unprecedented "social explosion".
Mgr. Cabrejos Vidarte, after recalling that the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean is a single body and "when a part of that body suffers, the Church suffers, shares its pain, but also its hope", insists on the need to "seek peace through dialogue, with the participation of all the protagonists and institutions, to find real solutions oriented to the common good". To the Virgin Mary, the President of CELAM asks to help, guide and enlighten "the research of peace, justice and the common good". (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides, 12/11/2019)


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