AMERICA/COSTA RICA - The Church denounces drug trafficking in the country, asking that “evangelical principles be placed above any activity that, as profitable as it may seem, denigrates the human being and is a grave offense to God”

San Jose (Agenzia Fides) – The Church in Costa Rica is showing concern for the alarming reality of drug trafficking and consumption and the Bishops of the country have issued a statement expressing this concern.
In the statement, they mention that the country, “for its privileged geographic location, is no longer a 'passageway' to the North, but has become just another stop-over point for the odious business of international distribution, storage, sale, and local consumption of drugs,” which in turn engender “licentiousness, corruption, violence, criminality, disintegration of the family, and social instability.”
However, in addition to mentioning the causes of this phenomenon, well-known by all, the Bishops, as Pastors of the Church in Costa Rica, hope to above all “support all the initiatives and actions that attack the national problem at its very roots, as the Church cannot remain indifferent before this plague that is destroying society, especially the new generations.” Their attention focuses on the prevention, accompaniment, and support of the governmental policies that can fight this epidemic.
As for prevention, the Prelates insist on “education in values that should be offered to the new generations, especially in the value of life and love, personal responsibility, the value of honest hard work and the human dignity of the children of God.” In addition, “the Church, as Mother, accompanies the victims of this plight, to help them recover their dignity and overcome this illness.”
As for supporting the eradication of the problem, they strongly denounce the “criminality of the drug trafficking which seeks profit at the cost of so many human lives, being driven by lucrative ends and force in its lowest expressions,” and they also remind the government of its primary role in “firmly fighting, with legal means, the unrestricted commercialization of drugs and its illegal consumption.”
“In a nation in which, the majority call ourselves Christians, our identity and vocation should lead us to place evangelical principles above any activity that, as profitable as it may seem, denigrates the human being and is a grave offense to God.”
The Bishops conclude their message with a special appeal to the protection of Mary, as Our Lady of the Angels, especially in this month in which the Church in Costa Rica focuses its attention on the youth, “so that these members of society who are so important to our people make the decision to follow the path that Christ offers them: to live in authentic freedom, through the theme we have chosen: 'Conversion: The Path of the Young Person Towards Life.'” (RG) (Agenzia Fides 15/7/2009)