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Caracas (Agenzia Fides) – “Just two days ago, we began the year with the prayer of Pope Leo XIV, asking for peace in a wounded world. However, today we see with profound sorrow how that peace is being violated by the United States’ military intervention in Venezuela.” Thus begins the message entitled “No to War. Free and Sovereign Latin America,” released by the World Meeting of Popular Movements a few hours after the operation and bombings carried out by US forces on Venezuelan territory, a military action that led to the removal of President Nicolás Maduro, who was taken out of the country along with his wife.
As the hours passed, statements and pronouncements from networks and groups linked to the Catholic Church multiplied, expressing criticism and a clear rejection of the US military operation in Venezuela. For the Meeting of Popular Movements, this is “an aggression that attacks not only a territory, but the dignity of an entire region. The popular movements of Venezuela,” reads the statement from the network, which held its Jubilee pilgrimage to Rome from October 21 to 24, 2025, “have been fundamental protagonists of our World Meetings. They are comrades who have taught us by example, promoting models of public policies built from the ground up, guaranteeing housing and work for the poor. They have always promoted peace, solidarity, and autonomy. To attack their sovereignty means attacking the possibility for peoples to decide their own destiny.”
The Brazilian Justice and Peace Commission calls the aggression in Venezuela “unacceptable” and recalls the self-determination of peoples as “a fundamental principle of international law.” “The Venezuelan people,” continues the message disseminated by Justice and Peace of Brazil, “have the right to choose their own path without external interference. The kidnapping of the president and the US attack on Venezuelan territory represent an unacceptable challenge to national sovereignty and a dangerous precedent for regional stability and the international order.” The statement also reaffirms the urgency of protecting a “multipolar world” in which conflict resolution is based on “dialogue and cooperation,” and not on “violence and oppression.” The Brazilian branch of the “Economy of Francis and Clare” network also expressed its solidarity with the Venezuelan people, recalling, with a quote from Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, that “historically, countries invaded by US imperialism have known misery and hardship.” For its part, Pax Christi International deplored the “grave violation of international law by the Government and Armed Forces of the United States of America through the military aggression perpetrated in the early morning of January 3, 2026, against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. This act of interventionist force directed against the territory and the civilian population,” the statement from Pax Christi International emphasizes, “constitutes an attack on world peace and a direct threat to the foundations of sovereign coexistence among states. The violation of international sovereignty by the United States represents an extremely dangerous precedent, which risks justifying and legitimizing further actions of this kind by the armed forces of the most powerful nations, plunging us into an uncontrollable situation of injustice and violence.” Pax Christi International, “by virtue of its Catholic faith,” also calls “on the international Catholic community to heed the repeated calls of Pope Leo XIV for non-violence and for a ‘disarmed and disarming’ peace, which will restore international order and return centrality to the Charter of the United Nations and the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.”
Meanwhile, José Antonio Da Conceição Ferreira, Bishop of Puerto Cabello and Secretary General of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, addressed a message on Saturday, January 3, to the "Pilgrim People of God" of his diocese. "We are living through moments of confusion, uncertainty, and pain, in which, just hours after the events that occurred in Caracas and other surrounding areas, we still lack a complete understanding of what has happened. In these circumstances," the bishop continued, "we must trust in the strength and hope that the Lord Jesus brings us, because He is the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6). Therefore, I urge you to remain united and to foster prayer that leads us to discernment in the Holy Spirit. Let us pray without ceasing (cf. 1 Thess 5:17) and let us be prudent (cf. Prov 3:21)." (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 4/1/2026)
