This article was originally posted by About.com
The late Catholic leader of Caracas, Cardinal Rosalio Castillo Lara, was once asked if he’d give Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez a blessing. “More than a blessing,” the cardinal responded. “I’d give him an exorcism.”
And so sums up the rocky battles over the years between Chavez and the church. “If the Venezuelan people fail to grasp the seriousness of the situation and fail to categorically speak out in favor of democracy and freedom, we will find ourselves subjected to a Marxist-style dictatorship,” the cardinal said shortly before his death in 2007. His prediction has sadly come true as Chavez has cracked down on free media and nationalized industry after industry.
Castillo Lara’s predecessor didn’t have it any easier. The late Cardinal Ignacio Velasco, a longtime critic of Chavez, said in 2002, “Every day we turn another cheek. I have no cheeks left because every day there is a new insult.” Upon Velasco’s death in 2003, Chavez declared he was “in hell.” At Velasco’s funeral, Chavistas threw stones and held up pictures of the cleric with devil horns.
Of the present Catholic leader, Cardinal Jorge Urosa, and other opposition clergymen, Chavez once said, “If Christ were still alive and physically present, I’m completely sure he’d take them out with whippings.”
Now, as summed up in a week’s worth of battle by El Universal, Chavez is calling the cardinal a “troglodyte” and “unworthy” for trying to “scare people about communism.” But it’s hardly Chavez vs. a cardinal: The Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference weighed on the presidential threat to prosecute Cardinal Urosa and the state of the nation in a joint statement. More:
“In its traditional call, the bishops said: ‘People want to live in democracy, (in a state) under the rule of law, with a real participation of all citizens, in a climate of justice and freedom. That is what the referendum held on December 2, 2007 decided. Therefore, the imposition of a socialist state inspired by the Cuban communist regime that has been enforced through laws and facts that ignore the popular will and the Constitution is absolutely unacceptable.’
In the document, which was read out by Monsignor Diego Padrón, Archbishop of Cumaná, the Bishops reiterated their concern about the climate of violence and corruption in the country which is especially evident ‘in insecurity, violent deaths, both in streets and prisons, and the outrageous loss of food and medicines.’
Two months ahead of parliamentary elections to be held on September 26, the bishops invited the citizens to participate in polls. They recalled that the Parliament should not only pass laws but ‘it must also be a real and effective body to monitor public administration, to ensure the appropriate use of funds and to carry out management that meets democratic-oriented goals.’
They also pleaded for a new plural Congress with ‘divergent political views.’”
A pro-government deputy called the statements a fake, and Chavez recalled Venezuela’s ambassador to the Vatican.