ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome - Venezuelan Episcopate Urges End to Strike

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Code: ZE03012907 Date: 2003-01-29

CARACAS, Venezuela, JAN. 29, 2003 (Zenit.org).- The president of the Venezuelan bishops' conference appealed to citizens and the government to come to an agreement and put an end to the 2-month-old general strike.

The episcopate made this appeal at the start of its ordinary assembly, fearful that the country could degenerate into "anarchy or greater misgovernment," which would only lead to "greater violence and undesirable situations."

At the opening of the assembly, Archbishop Baltazar Porras Cardozo, conference president, emphasized the need for social reconciliation and rejected confrontation as a way to solve the crisis.

"A solution to the crisis through political exclusion is non-viable," he said. "The country must be reconstructed by all, materially and spiritually, ethically and institutionally. It is a task of giants, but not impossible."

The archbishop also lamented the systematic attack on the Church "as an institution and, in particular, its hierarchy" in Venezuela, in addition to the "indiscriminate use of Catholic religious symbols." The latter is a common practice of President Hugo Chávez.