The Vatican expressed its solidarity with the bishops of
Venezuela as they lead a flock divided over the country's president, Hugo
Chávez.
Archbishop Renato Martino, the new president of the Pontifical Council for
Justice and Peace, sent a message to the bishops applauding their latest appeal
to their countrymen, expressed in the motto: "Let us avoid destruction and
build reconciliation."
The message on behalf of the pontifical council hopes that "the government
and Venezuelan people, especially those who are responsible for giving concrete
answers and offering alternatives for the solution of the conflict, turn their
attention and heart toward Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace, so that they will be
able to promote reconciliation and protect Venezuela's unity."
Archbishop Martino stressed that "peace requires truth, justice, love and
freedom as conditions that can never be given up, and that the problem of
peace, properly understood, cannot do without moral principles nor can it be
separated from respect for dignity and human rights, in the first place the
right to life."