Mexican bishops unveil pastoral plan to prepare for major anniversaries

Caracas, Venezuela, Jan 9, 2020 / 05:19 pm (CNA).- The presidency of the Venezuelan bishops’ conference warned Wednesday that the disputed election of Luis Parra as president of the National Assembly is “contrary to all constitutional legality.”

Parra was elected head of Venezuela’s de jure legislature Jan. 5 by pro-government lawmakers, while opposition legislators were blocked from entering the chamber. It is the latest in a crisis over the government of Venezuela.

Under the socialist administration of Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela has been marred by violence and social upheaval, with severe shortages of food and medicine, high unemployment, blackouts, and hyperinflation. Some 4.5 million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2015.

The Venezuelan bishops’ presidency said Jan. 8 that Parra’s election was “a shameful event” that “has replanted in the souls of Venezuelans reasons for hopelessness and a greater sense of helplessness.”

Opposition leader Juan Guaidó and 100 other opposition legislators were blocked Jan. 5 by Venezuelan National Guard troops from attending a vote in the legislature, where Guaidó was standing for re-election as its leader. Parra was elected instead, without a quorum, by pro-government lawmakers and some opposition politicians. Parra had been expelled last month from the Justice First party over alleged corruption.

Telesur, a state television network in Venezuela, said Parra was elected with 140 votes. The National Assembly has 167 seats.

Guaidó had declared himself interim president of Venezuela in January 2019, after president Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for a second term, having won a contested election in which oppositon candidates were barred from running or imprisoned. Guaidó and the Venezuelan bishops held Maduro’s second term to be invalid, and the presidency vacant.

He said that according to the Venezuelan constitution, when the presidency falls vacant, power is assumed by the president of the National Assembly.

On Jan. 5, Guaidó and opposition legislators held their session of the National Assembly at the headquarters of El Nacional, a Caracas daily. At that session, Guaidó was re-elected president of the legislature by about 100 lawmakers.

Then on Jan. 7,  Guaidó and 100 of his fellow opposition lawmakers accessed the National Assembly only after a half-hour stand-off with National Guardsmen who had cordoned the building. Pro-government legislators left when the opposition entered, and power to the building was cut.

Venezuela’s bishops said that the events of Jan. 7 were “a new abuse of power … which implies a hijacking of more than one democratic institution.”

They indicated that the recent events are “a new manifestation of the totalitarian ideology of those who hold political power. They have promoted and protected the lack of autonomy of the legitimate National Assembly; and, at the same time, they intend to recognize a directive chosen irritably against all constitutional legality ”.

The bishops urged members of the armed forces to place themselves “on the true side of the Constitution and of the people to which they belong and swore to defend.”

Archbishop José Luis Azuaje Ayala of Maracaibo, president of the Venezuelan bishops’ conference, said Jan. 7 that Parra’s election as speaker was an “invalid appointment” which pro-government lawmakers had done by “violating all norms of the assembly.”

Archbishop Azuaje’s statement was read at the opening of the Venezuelan bishops’ plenary assembly.

He said that because Parra’s National Assembly presidency is invalid, “it will be the responsibility of the true leadership elected by vote and according the  norms of the National Assembly, to continue to examine deeply how to  resolve the main problems afflicting the people.”

Archbishop Azuaje asked citizens to be aware because what is behind the crisis the country is undergoing is “power, as it is conceived and put into practice. Today, power as dominion is gaining ground against the truth.”

He called for “a new history based on the common good and on freedom.”

The opposition gained control of the National Assembly in a December 2016 election, and in 2017 Maduro formed a pro-government legislature, the Constituent Assembly, to supersede it. The Venezuelan bishops do not recognize the Constituent Assembly as legitimate or valid.

In 2018, Venezuela’s annual inflation rate was 1.3 million percent; late in 2019, the IMF forecast an inflation rate of 10 million percent for that year.

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Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dec 8, 2019 / 12:00 am (CNA).- A popular Argentine priest has explained why he frequently wears a priestly cassock, even while the garment has fallen out of favor among some priests.

Fr. Christian Viñas, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus parish in Cambaceres, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, explained in a recent essay why he wears his cassock as often as possible.

In the essay, entitled “I love my cassock!” Viñas explained that “Christ sends us all the time as sons to feed, console, correct, teach and sanctify. Of course to do that we must show ourselves and have to be seen as available.”

Viñas considers the cassock to be “uniquely priestly,” and “indispensable to identify us for what we are: Priests of the Lord! Dead to the world, so that others may live, and live in abundance (Jn 10:10). And in the world but not of the world (Jn 15:19).”

“The cassock of course never goes unnoticed. It situates us, distinguishes us, preserves us, and presents us in society. And, in a society like ours where the ideologues of hate sow all the time aversion against those in uniform, from clerics and nuns, to soldiers and police, on to hotel and building porters, it constitutes a clear identification of what one is and for Whom one is,” he wrote.

By wearing the cassock, “we receive anything from glowing praises to violent insults, to requests for confession, to spontaneous venting, to asking for advice, to requests for blessings for entire families, right out in public,”  Viñas said

Viñas says he has time for all of them. “I always stop even though I am often going from one urgent thing  to another. They are the children God puts on my path and they don’t take away my time but they give meaning to the time, as a priest, He gives to me,”

In the U.S., the norms regarding priestly clothing stipulate that while “a black suit and Roman collar are the usual attire for priests. The use of the cassock is at the discretion of the cleric.”

“I love my cassock, amid the pushback from the world. Give me the grace, Lord, to live and die with it, and for it!” Vinas wrote.

A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Santiago, Chile, May 1, 2019 / 10:35 am (CNA).- The Chilean bishops’ conference signed a collaboration agreement with public prosecutors Tuesday to streamline the investigation of clerical sexual abuse.

The April 30 agreement is meant “to facilitate the exchange of information concerning past, present, and future investigations of delicts of a sexual nature commited by diocesan clerics against children, adolescents, or persons with disabilities.”

The agreement protects the “confidentiality requested by those who have gone to the Episcopal Conference of Chile” as victims or witnesses.

The bishops have consented to deliver evidence of abuse-related crimes to prosecutors within 24 hours of receiving an accusation.

Auxiliary Bishop Luis Fernando Ramos Perez of Santiago, secretary general of the bishops’ conference, said the agreement is an “expression of reciprocity, of trust between institutions united by the same cause. It is a step that challenges us in the work of offering ever greater guarantees to the victims.”

He added: “When it comes to seeking truth and justice in delicts of sexual abuse of minors, the Public Ministry and the Catholic Church are not adversaries but collaborators, because we are animated by the same goal.”

Bishop Ramos called it “a very novel agreement” on the world stage, urging that “the authorities of the Holy See look at it with attention, because it can serve to illumine” other situations.

Chilean prosecutors are investigating 166 cases of clerical sex abuse or cover-up, involving 221 suspects and 248 victims, according to Reuters.

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