La Paz, Bolivia, Sep 8, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Responding to the decision by a local priest to run for the office of mayor, the Secretary of the Bishops Conference of Bolivia, Father Francisco Flores, issued a statement reiterating the church’s law that no clerics may seek public office.
“It is totally incompatible with Church law that a priest seeks public office,” Father Flores said. Father Wilson Soria announced this week he has joined the Movement to Socialism political party and that he would seek the office of mayor of the city of El Alto.
A day before making his candidacy official, Soria requested retirement from active priesthood but the Diocese has not yet responded to his request.
According to Father Flores, until the bishop of El Alto responds to his resignation, Soria “should continue to exercise his priestly duties,” although he clarified that “you can’t make somebody do something he doesn’t want to.”