The Bishops Speak of Our Anxieties

Last week the president of the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Diego Padrón, spoke about several very important issues that worry every sector of society. First, he said that Venezuelans suffer the same problems as in recent years and ask ourselves the same questions about our country’s destiny: its democracy, its freedom, its production, its security.

He also addressed the president’s health. The biggest question, he said, has been and still is the truth about the illness of the President of the Republic. Secrecy as a strategy is one of the characteristic features of the government’s attitude, a secrecy that does nothing for the country’s peace of mind, above all because it is normal in a democratic nation for its people to know with certainty the state of health of those who govern them. All of us Venezuelans are concerned and/or worried about the president’s health, and the rumors about it do not help at all, precisely because we have not been properly informed of what he is suffering from. In any democratic country the authorities have a duty to report (through medical teams) on the health of those who govern.

Another issue that weighs on ALL of us day and night is insecurity. When Archbishop Padrón says that the fear of a population exhausted by violence and insecurity has become a national health crisis, it is because it truly has. Those of us who live in Venezuela are “constantly on guard,” from the moment we get up until we go to bed, to protect our belongings, our lives or the lives of our loved ones. And the only resource we have left to defend ourselves (laughable as it may sound) is to Pray for God to protect us, because sadly we see this problem getting worse every day instead of better, because impunity reigns so widely.

We Venezuelans live in perpetual anxiety. Anxiety about not knowing whether our children, or we ourselves, will get home alive; anxiety about not knowing our President’s state of health; anxiety about prices rising more and more every day, about not being able to find the medicines or things we need, and so on. We live in perpetual anxiety. That’s the truth!

Archbishop Padrón also addressed the prisons. He said secrecy about the real situation in the prisons reached its peak with the recent closure of the prison known as La Planta: the number of weapons, the number of inmates who escaped and the number of people wounded or killed inside and outside the prison are still unknown. Our bishops also know the pain of all the mothers and wives of prisoners, who live in a situation utterly unworthy of a human being.

Some will ask why the bishops are meddling in politics, and I answer: they are not meddling in politics! The bishops know how we Venezuelans are suffering, because they too have experienced firsthand the assaults on or murders of people they know, and they live the same problems we live every day. What they are doing is fulfilling their duty because, as John Paul II said, in the face of injustice the bishop must be the defender of human rights, must defend the right to life from conception to natural death, must defend the values of the Church’s social doctrine, and must be the voice of those who have no voice to defend their rights.

I hope the government listens to our bishops’ concerns and sets about solving, immediately and effectively, the problems that are overwhelming us. I also hope it heeds Archbishop Padrón’s call that the coming election not paralyze the country, split it in two or plunge it into violence and uncertainty, but rather lead opponents to embrace, restore unity and help the people advance in humanity, culture and hope.

Because all of us Venezuelans want Peace. We want to live in peace, regardless of the color of anyone’s shirt. Because what we want most right now is to work together to solve our problems and walk together toward a better homeland, where we can embrace one another and forget the meaning of the words hatred, violence, division and resentment.