Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Managua (Agenzia Fides) – Archbishop Silvio Baez, Auxiliary Bishop of Managua, has launched an appeal to politicians, asking that they turn their attention to the poor without ulterior motives. "Populism and paternalism are a continuous temptation - Bishop Baez said in an interview with Channel 12 television - and can dangerously become a means of ideological propaganda of a party's interests. The poor should not be used, but we need to serve them, give them dignity and help them through decent work."
Asked about statements some time ago of President Daniel Ortega, who had criticized priests for speaking out from their pulpits and calling on the people to assert their rights, the Auxiliary Bishop of Managua said he did not feel harmed by those statements because this action does not safeguard the interests of any political party.
The note of the Bishops' Conference sent to Fides, says: "'I do not repent of what I said,'” said the bishop. 'In the Cathedral I said that the people have the right to hold politicians accountable, as it is the people that elected them...and they are to serve society and not to use it.'"
The bishop added that the main problem in Nicaragua is the lack of decent work, which gives dignity to people and could lead the country to development. He also noted the lack of legal structures responsible for the safety of domestic and foreign investment. He reiterated that "when the bishops speak and refer to the social and political issues, they do so because they are convinced that history and society are not only the dimensions in which people act, but they are also where the plan of God unfolds and this plan is one of justice and peace."
"We do not intend to enter politics, but the entire life of the human person is 'politics,'" said the bishop. Bishop Baez added that "the crisis in Nicaragua is more a question of ethics than politics. We need to recuperate the values of our society. I think the 'caudillismo', this cringing, the sale of the human conscience, the manipulation of the poor, the thirst for power disconnected from the attitude of service to the people, the lack of humility in ceding a place to another, in the light of Christian faith is sin." (CE) (Agenzia Fides 18/10/2010)
