Venezuelan Church Meddling in Politics and Losing Support:

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Venezuelan Church Meddling in Politics and Losing Support:

 

Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit

 

AP via The Washington Post - Jul 16, 2007

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/16/AR2007071601465.html

 

Chavez: Catholic Church Losing Backing

 

By Christopher Toothaker

The Associated Press

 

CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez criticized Venezuela's

Roman Catholic leaders on Monday for condemning his plans to rewrite

the constitution, saying the church is losing support in this

politically divided nation because priests are meddling in politics.

 

The Venezuelan Bishops' Conference complains that proposals for the

forthcoming constitutional reform are being drafted without public

involvement by a committee appointed by Chavez.

 

"They act as if they were a political party," Chavez said during a

televised speech. "Everyday, there are fewer Catholics in the world,

and in Venezuela, and that's worrisome. The attitudes among Venezuela's

Catholic hierarchy is one of the causes."

 

Chavez _ a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro _ lambasted the

clergy of "lying" about his plans for the reform, warning Venezuela's

Catholic Church leaders they were "sinning" by spreading falsehoods.

 

Since taking office in 1999, Chavez has repeatedly clashed with church

leaders. But tensions between the bishops' conference and Chavez's

administration have grown particularly tense in recent months.

 

Critics accuse Chavez of becoming increasingly authoritarian as he

steers Venezuela toward socialism. Many fear the former paratroop

commander will use the pending constitutional reform to lay a legal

framework allowing him to override democratic institutions such as the

National Assembly.

 

In an interview published last week by the local El Universal

newspaper, Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, the Vatican's top

representative in Venezuela, reiterated the church's reform-related

concerns.

 

"We are in an absurd situation in which one person tries to become the

only, lifelong authority," Urosa Savino was quoted as saying. "A

constitutional reform done behind the country's back or cooked up by a

small group will be a failure."

 

 

 

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