AMERICA/CHILE - Mgr. Goic Karmelic's reflection: For a democracy based on values

Wednesday, 26 July 2017 social situation   politics   abortion  

Aciprensa

Rancagua (Agenzia Fides) - "The debate in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies last week, on the abolition of abortion, saddened me with regards to democracy based on values which since my childhood I was taught to nurture" (see Fides 25/7/2017). This is what His Exc. Mgr. Alejandro Goic Karmelic, Bishop of Rancagua, writes in a letter published by today's newspaper "El Mercurio" sent to Fides, entitled "Democracy based on values".
The Bishop, who stresses that he writes "as a simple citizen of my nation", notes that "the urgency of the times and the debate have brought the subject to very extreme levels. A lawmaker treats another as an MP and at the same time a fundamentalist assassin or fanatic. One claims credit for the virtue of 'progressism' and accuses of 'conservatism' those who proclaim that human beings deserve an opportunity. Some invoke human rights by thinking only of women, others only for the child conceived... And when an indication or an abstention surprise, when the calculation of the votes does not work, one repremands MP’s as if they were nursery children... How can one contribute to restoring credit for the noble political activity".
Archbishop Goic Karmelic points out that these "are the risks of forcing electoral calculation to national projects", furthermore "extreme anger is a sign that we cannot let go unnoticed".
In the final part, the Bishop of Rancagua recalls that "40 years ago the Church became a protection and refuge for those who under the dictatorship were considered 'waste' (word used by Pope Francis). We welcomed them and filed an appeal to ensure their lives and rights. We did not ask whether they were baptized, or whether they were conservatives or progressives. Now we will do our best to help those who choose their lives and those who make a different choice. A Church that does not discriminate, faithful to Jesus, the Lord, to be faithful to his mission, it must protect today's waste: the elderly, immigrants, abused women, abused minors, expropriated indigenous peoples, people with chronic illnesses, all the vulnerable...". (SL) (Agenzia Fides 26/7/2017)


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