Caracas, Venezuela, Apr 5, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Bishop Roberto Luckert Leon of Coro, Venezuela, responded to new attacks by the country’s president Hugo Chavez, emphasizing that the Catholic Church in Venezuela “will not be silent” in the face of aggressions.
Last Sunday in his television program, “Hello Mr. President,” Chavez responded to a recent document by the Venezuelan Bishops Conference that calls for a recall vote, saying he prays that God “will forgive the bishops.”
While clutching a statue of Jesus carrying the cross, Chavez dramatically stated: “Forgive them for forgetting the preferential option for the poor…, for aligning themselves, like Judas, with the most ominous and evil interests of the Venezuelan capitalistic oligarchy. I ask the poor to pray with me: forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do.”
Bishop Luckert underscored that despite the crisis the country is facing, the Catholic Church “will not be silenced…Chavez seeks to make the bishops afraid, but we are not afraid of the boogey man.”