CNA Staff, Jan 8, 2021 / 13:00 pm
Pope Francis sent a message this week to Cardinal Baltazar Porras Cardoza, as Venezuela suffers the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on top of a severe socio-economic crisis.
"May God continue to give you strength and parrhesia so that with a father's heart you know how to accompany and comfort His holy faithful people, tried by the suffering caused by the scourge of the pandemic, the arrogance of the powerful and the growing poverty that strangles them," Pope Francis wrote on Wednesday.
The pope sent the message on January 6, Cardinal Porras' "name day." He is named after King Balthazar, one of the three Magi whose visit to the Child Jesus the Church celebrates on the Feast of Epiphany.
In his letter, Francis assured the cardinal of his prayers for him and for his ministry as archbishop of Mérida and as apostolic administrator of Caracas, Santiago de Venezuela.