Buenos Aires, Argentina, Oct 18, 2005 / 22:00 pm
The Apostolic Administrator of Resistencia, Argentina, Bishop Carmelo Giaquinta, said this week he was disgusted by the inappropriate words and actions of President Nestor Kirchner at the Basilica of Our Lady of Lujan.
Recently during the inauguration of the first phase of restoration of the church, Kirchner took the opportunity to ask the Argentine people for help and to say, among other things, that "many genocides and terrible things have been done using the faith and using God. It would be hypocritical for me to deny having spoken out about certain attitudes of my own Church."
Bishop Giaquinta said he read about the President’s comments in the newspapers and that he felt "very disgusted. Not only by what the President said, but by the improper role he was given at the church."
During an interview with the newspaper Norte, the bishop noted that the Church respects the role of political parties in a democracy, but that the Church does not act like one because the term "party" means "part" while the term "Catholic" means "universal."