The Venezuelan Episcopal Conference (CEV) asks Venezuelans to wake up and react; however, they say they are not calling for protests or any similar activity; Rather, it calls for “walking together to sow hope, act decisively, cultivate values and promote a way of doing politics based on the common good and not on particular interests or ideological ends”.
In the Reading of the Exhortation of the CXIX Ordinary Plenary Assembly of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference (CEV), the Church assured that they are convinced that the “true path to travel is that of negotiations to obtain agreements between the powers of the State and the social democratic forces on major issues of national interest,” said Monsignor Lisandro Rivas , Auxiliary Bishop of Caracas.
In the same way, the CEV calls for the release of political prisoners, humanitarian aid, the constitutional functioning of public powers, the rehabilitation of political parties, the achievement of greater and better electoral guarantees, as well as plural and impartial international observation in the upcoming elections.
The bishops plead for particular interests or political parties that impede progress, that produce sterile stoppages and lengthen the agony of the entire Venezuelan people, to be left aside.
From the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference they assure that the urgent need of the present time is “rebuild the country” so that Venezuelans “get up and walk”, since they indicate that at the beginning of the year the country continues to experience a deep political, social and economic crisis.
They describe that the new economic elites that have emerged are a “bubble” product of a kind of “wild capitalism”, which is in stark contrast to and “is offensive” to educators, health sector workers, workers, informal workers and pensioners who ” they try to survive with very poor incomes” and that makes the gap between rich and poor increasingly wide and scandalous.
“National unity”
The Venezuelan bishops consider that the search for national unity that achieves the democratic reinstitutionalization of the country is “urgent, recovering that common meeting ground that should be the text and spirit of the Constitution.”
In the same way, the Catholic Church asks Venezuelans to wake up and react; however, they say they are not calling for protests or any similar activity; Rather, they ask “to walk together to sow hope, act decisively, cultivate values and promote a way of doing politics based on the common good and not on particular interests or ideological ends”.
They ask Venezuelans to be an organized, politically adult people who build the future. “It is a requirement of each person, but above all it is an essential and urgent requirement of all social leaders and those who exercise power.”
“Let’s not let ourselves be robbed of hope,” they recommend to all Venezuelans, together with everyone asking themselves from parishes, high schools, companies, shops and offices what each one can do, what they can contribute to multiply the good.
As a Church, they commit to continue sustained efforts in areas such as education, food and health, to accompany communities affected by natural phenomena such as Las Tejerías, Litoral, Los Andes and other areas of the country; as well as vulnerable people through different initiatives.
Monsignor Juan Carlos Bravo, Bishop of Petare, said that they will continue in their efforts to contribute to the construction of the country in the midst of a culture of peace, justice, tolerance and dialogue; likewise, in the same line as Pope Francis, they ask for peace in Ukraine, South Sudan, Congo, the Middle East and in other conflict scenarios in the world.
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