The political crisis in Venezuela could be described as a “government war against the people,” Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas said on June 29.

“We (the bishops) ask the national government to reconsider, stop that attitude of wanting to establish a totalitarian, Marxist, militaristic system in Venezuela, and, of course, to refrain from using legal resources to dismantle the State. All this is reprehensible and intolerable and it is not what most Venezuelan people want.”

The cardinal insisted that this criticism was not his personal opinion, but the shared belief of the Ve­nezuelan bishops. The episcopal conference has opposed President Nicolás Maduro’s call for constitutional changes, saying the country’s people have more immediate needs for food, medicine, and respect for the existing Constitution.

Cardinal Urosa issued his denunciation of the “reprehensible and intolerable” government on June 29, the feast of saints Peter and Paul.

New head for Vatican congregation

Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer has been appointed by Pope Francis to succeed Cardinal Gerhard Müller as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

The decision not to renew Cardinal Müller’s tenure fuelled a lot of speculation in the media and in Church circles. Many said the change was made because Müller was not adequately reflecting the Pope’s positions.

But in an interview with a German newspaper Algemeine Zeitung, Müller said “there were no differences between me and Pope Francis”. He strongly denied that he was replaced because of persistent differences on theological issues.

Archbishop Ladaris is a Spanish Jesuit who has been serving since 2008 as secretary of the CDF.  He will also be president of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, the International Theological Commission, and the Ecclesia Dei commission.

‘Missionary disciples put Christ first’

During his Angelus address last Sunday Pope Francis said: “Any and every disciple, whether he be a lay man, a lay woman, a priest, a bishop: the relationship [with Christ, the divine teacher] takes precedence.

“The Virgin Mary felt in her own person what it means to love Jesus, detaching oneself from oneself, giving new meaning to family ties, beginning with faith in Him: may she help us, with her maternal intercession, to be free and cheerful missionaries of the Gospel.

“The condition of the disciple requires that one’s relationship with the Master take precedence over all others.”

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)

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