A plea to the popeStop being soft on our despot, Venezuela's bishops tell Francis
Pope Francis could be franker on Venezuela
Erasmus
Jun 11th 2017by ERASMUS
AN UNEXPECTED item popped up on the agenda of Pope Francis in recent days. Although the meeting did not feature in his pre-announced weekly schedule, on June 8th it became known that he had squeezed in some time to confer with six bishops from Venezuela, one of the most troubled places in the historically Catholic world.
The visitors declared afterwards that they had stressed their absolute loyalty to the pontiff, and that he in turn had expressed his “full trust” in them. Neither statement is a platitude. There is massive contention over the role which the church has played and could play in halting a lurch towards civil war and humanitarian disaster in Venezuela, which is overwhelmingly Catholic.
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