Pope Francis and Venezuela

For all Venezuelan Catholics it was very important that Pope Francis addressed the Venezuelan people last Sunday, Good Shepherd Sunday, at the end of the Regina Coeli prayer.

As a Good Shepherd who watches over his sheep, the Pope expressed his concern for the country and said he was praying intensely about “the events taking place in Venezuela.” In his own words: “I follow them with deep concern, with intense prayer and with the hope that just and peaceful ways may be sought and found to overcome the moment of grave difficulty the country is going through.” Pope Francis then invited “the dear Venezuelan people, and in particular those with institutional and political responsibility, to firmly reject every kind of violence and to establish a dialogue based on Truth, on mutual recognition, on the search for the common good and on love for the Nation.”

He ended his words of support for Venezuela like this: “I ask believers to pray and work for reconciliation and peace,” and he asked us to join “in a prayer full of hope for Venezuela, placing it in the hands of Our Lady of Coromoto.” If you would like to see and hear Pope Francis’s full message to Venezuelans, you can find it in this video from minute 16: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJUxI75VZsU

We Venezuelan Catholics are deeply grateful for these words of support and this call to truth, dialogue and Peace. The Pope spoke them precisely on the Sunday when the feast of the Good Shepherd is celebrated. For Venezuelans, our pastors have been a very important support in these years of so many problems. With their prayers, advice and work, they have shown us what it means to be a spiritual father, watching over all his children, all his sheep.

Our Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, in statements to Globovisión, said: “I am very pleased that the Pope has offered these prayers for our country so that we may all make the effort to get out of the political crisis we are in. The Pope has stressed the responsibility of the whole people, but above all of political leaders, so that through mutual recognition, the search for truth and an open dialogue, just and peaceful solutions to the current situation can be found.”

Cardinal Urosa said: “Along the same lines, the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference (CEV) published a statement on April 17 in which we call for that peaceful solution. It is important that there be mutual recognition between the parties, that there be no confrontations, especially among the Venezuelan people, and it is important that the matter be resolved on the basis of Truth and Justice… In that statement the CEV offers itself as a mediator to foster that dialogue, which is in line with what has always been the Episcopate’s conduct in seeking peace for the country and for all Venezuelans to understand one another, to feel and live as brothers and sisters, members of a single people… We have to get to work on dialogue, take the steps needed for that dialogue to happen. It has to be an open dialogue, without pressure, with mutual recognition between the parties. The leaders of the two large polarized groups in the country need to come to an understanding (without giving up their own convictions) in order to seek unity, encounter and a way out of situations that could later lead to more serious problems… In its statement the CEV very strongly rejected violence, which we must rule out, including threats, because we cannot live with such terrible violence in our hearts.”

It is important to read carefully the “Statement for the Social and Political Peace of the Country” that the CEV issued last week: http://www.cev.org.ve/noticias\_det.php?id=3805

To conclude, I am infinitely grateful to our Pope Francis for his prayers and for watching so closely over all his children throughout the world. And a thousand thanks to all our bishops and priests, who have at every moment supported their Venezuelan spiritual children with their prayers and advice, like the good shepherds they are. Today more than ever we need their prayers and support so that Peace may reign in our homeland at all times. We will keep praying fervently for the Pope and for all our pastors, and for Truth, Justice and Peace to reign in our beloved Venezuela.