Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas exhorted Venezuelans this week to “go to the polls” on December 3 to exercise their right as citizens and vote in the presidential elections peacefully and to “respect the final results.”

Speaking with reporters, the cardinal called for peaceful elections and the cessation of dirty campaigning.  “Above and beyond the problems we may have, we must live and treat each other as brothers and sisters.  We must embrace dialogue, tolerance and allow dissidence and difference of opinions, because that is very important,” he stressed.

The cardinal also called on Catholics to be builders of peace and that having different or opposing opinions should not lead to “the fostering of confrontations and attitudes of hatred.”