Archbishop says Chavez government has fueled corruption, violence
MIAMI (CNS) -- The people of Venezuela are suffering under the government of President Hugo Chavez, and the Catholic Church is suffering along with them, according to Archbishop Diego Padron Sanchez of Cumana. The Venezuelan archbishop, in Miami for a continental congress on catechesis, commented on the political unrest in his homeland during an interview with The Florida Catholic, Miami archdiocesan newspaper. "We do not even have the freedom to express ourselves," Archbishop Padron said, referring to the curtailing of civil liberties. The church has been the object of "rejection, of strong criticism. Offenses have been committed. Right now, it tends to be marginalized. We do not matter," the archbishop said. Government funding for Catholic schools and charitable agencies arrives late and often is less than what had been agreed upon, he said. But it is the people who are truly suffering, the archbishop said. Violence and corruption have increased and jobs have disappeared, to the point that fewer than 20 percent of the people currently support Chavez.