Venezuela Needs God

Hours before Nicolás Maduro announced that he had canceled his audience with Pope Francis, the apostolic nuncio in Venezuela, Aldo Giordano, gave an interview to the newspaper La Verdad. Among other very important things, he said, in substance, that Venezuela needs God, the God we have come to know in the Gospel; that Jesus Christ brought love to the earth, and we need Christian love; and that he also brought hope, the hope born of faith, which Venezuela needs.

Many of us who live in this country know that is a great truth. Venezuela needs God more than ever. It needs a great deal of Love, Faith and Hope… because it seems that those responsible for solving the serious problems we live with every day (shortages, inflation, crime, unemployment, lack of freedom, injustice, corruption and so on) are incapable of fixing what is happening.

Pope Francis, like our current nuncio and his predecessor, Pietro Parolin, knows exactly what is happening in Venezuela. They have tried by every means, as have the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino and our bishops, to dialogue with the government, to sow conciliation and peace at every turn, and to make hundreds of requests whose only demand is respect for the dignity and human rights of all Venezuelans.

But everything the Pope says about Venezuela, everything the nuncio says, everything the Cardinal says, everything the CEV says, everything our bishops say, seems to go in one ear and out the other. There is no way to get them to listen to, or accept, that we are living through one of the worst economic, political and social crises in our history. And worst of all, there is no way to get them to do anything serious to try to solve the problems.

The Church, as a hierarchy, has not been able, and will not be able! (I think), to do much in the face of Venezuela’s “diplomatic” deafness, which feigns good intentions and then acts by dodging all responsibility. What better proof of this than the cancellation of such an important meeting with Pope Francis, where fundamental human rights issues were to be discussed?

That is why, faced with the insistence of some people who think the Church (as a hierarchy) can do a great deal, we must remember that the Church is all! of us baptized Catholics, and that only through our intense prayer, unity, organization and work toward our democratic goals will we be able to move toward a better future for everyone.

God will help us to the extent that we help ourselves, by truly dialoguing and truly listening to one another (with no blocked ears), and by putting personal interests far aside, because pride is the worst thing there is: it builds up a giant plug of wax that blocks any ear and causes a terrible chronic deafness.

We are playing for the future of our country, the future of our children and grandchildren. We must pray, think and work together so that Venezuela recovers its institutions and Justice can be applied to each and every one of those responsible for the tragedy we are living.

Last week Pope Francis said clearly: “There is no Peace without Justice.” And until Justice comes to our country, we will not be able to live in Peace. It’s that simple!

To close this article, here is the substance of what our nuncio, Aldo Giordano, answered when the La Verdad reporter asked whether Venezuela needs to rise again. We must believe it is possible, he said; a people that believes it is possible will create peace. Having visited almost every diocese in Venezuela, he has seen that the Venezuelan people carry peace in their hearts, and that we must have the courage to build it. He noted that it is a young people, and that we have a responsibility to give them a world without violence.

So it is, Your Excellency! Of course we believe we can rise again. Of course the vast majority of us Venezuelans are men and women of Peace. That is why we must focus on bringing Christ’s peace to every corner of our land and work closely together to recover all our institutions democratically. That way Justice will be done and Peace will come to Venezuela. There are so many young people here who want exactly that, and who are preparing and working for it night and day!

We have a great country, with many good and wonderful people. Nothing and no one will stop us. Together we will come out of this sad chapter of our history. And we know that God and the Most Holy Virgin of Coromoto are our most important companions in this struggle for the Good of our Homeland.

We will triumph and Venezuela will rise again! And a new dawn full of Truth, Freedom, Justice and Peace for all will shine!