.- The Bishops’ Conference of Bolivia issued a statement this week saying, “The Church cannot cease from speaking about social problems” or “renounce human promotion because it is an essential part of her mission.”
One of the essential characteristics of democratic life is freedom of expression, practiced with responsibility, at the right time, and for the common good,” said Bishop Jesús Juárez Párraga, secretary general of the conference. The bishops will continue to exercise their right to speak out on social issues, as it is the task of the hierarchy to “teach and interpret authentically the moral principals that must be followed in temporal affairs.”
“The Church cannot cease to speak out on social problems,” the bishops said, after Bolivian president Evo Morales said the Church should choose between “prayer and politics.”
According to the statement by the bishops, the political community and the Catholic Church “are independent and autonomous although both are at the service of the personal and social vocation of man.”
