Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Santo Domingo (Agenzia Fides) – The President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Dominican Republic, Bishop Gregorio Nicanor Peña Rodríguez, has launched a proposal to focus on prevention in order to address the increasing state of criminality and violence in the area. The Bishop, who heads the diocese of Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia en Higüey, acknowledges that the authorities have already worked at this aspect, but laments that they act only after facts have occurred. The Bishop also remarks that when there is prevention on the part of government authorities, with concrete involvement of police and army forces, criminality finds less space in which to act.
"If we succeed in articulating programmes and activities for the formation of our young people in schools, youth groups, in the families and in civil society in general, we can prevent this social scourge" the Bishop said during celebrations for the 10th anniversary of the ordination of Bishop Julio Cesar Amaro Corniel, Bishop of Puerto Plata
The voice of Bishop Peña Rodríguez joins other voices in the Dominican society calling for intervention by the authorities to halt spiralling violence and criminality in the Dominican Republic, activity which involves mainly young citizens.
A month ago, on June 26, the President of the Dominican Republic, participating at an international meeting of SICA (Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana), Central American Integration System, spoke of violence by organised criminal groups in central America and he urged the other countries of the region to "work together" to tackle the problem of violence and insecurity definitively.
(CE) (Agenzia Fides, 24/07/2015)
