VENEZUELA: Pope Ends Tour on a High Note

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Marquez

CARACAS, Feb 12 1996 (IPS) - Pope John Paul II reiterated criticism of abortion and euthanasia, and calls for an end to violence and sensualism at the close of his Central American tour in Venezuela Sunday.

“Faced with alienations like narcotraffic, violence, the negligence of the needs of abandonned children, the sick and the old, I invite you to be prophets of life,” he told a crowd of 100,000 young people.

He praised them for their “insatiable thirst for the truth, peace, liberty and will to live,” warning them against “the world of appearances, injustice and matierialism which surrounds us, in an era threatened by the culture of death…and the temptation of the idols of power, money and pleasure.”

The Pope warned parents and teachers that “it is an illusion to think that a culture of life can be constructed if young people are not helped to understand and live their sexuality, love and existence and the close correlation of these.”

The speech closed his tour of Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Venezuela, once again stressing the key messages against “savage capitalism,” and against liberal attitudes on sexuality and birth control.

When speaking to a meeting of 2,500 Venezuelan business leaders he called for a supportive society based on “a participation economy,” calling on politicians to work “for the common good, with especial attention on the more needy classes.”

He recommended that workers and business owners “maintain labour relations which combine their own interests with a supportive spirit and (considering) the ecological demands of the present and future generations.”

In a mass attended by faithful from all over Venezuela and the Caribbean earlier in the day, including a large indigenous contingent, the Pope spoke of social renovation and the core “human and evangelical values of fraternity, solidarity, justice and truth.”

He told the 48 Venezuelan bishops that to overcome the crisis and acheive this would require the work of “vast numbers of qualified envangelisers,” praising the fact that there were 1,150 young trainee priests in the country this year, compared with only 300 in 1985.

During his tour of Central America, the 14th of this region and his 69th foreign visit, John Paul the second appealed repeatedly for “no more war” in the isthmus, criticising the marxist and capitalist doctrines which fed “the horrors of hate and armed conflict on Guatemalan soil.”

His first stopping off point in Venezuela was the Reten de Catia, the most horrific jail in the nation, where he blessed the inmates from afar and pleaded with the Justice Administration to make the prison system “respectful of the human condition.”

The Pope’s main message to the youth of Venezuela was that a strong society needs strong families to form the basis, asking them to “prepare yourselves well to form your own family solidly,” working on “everything which encourages the sanctity, unity and stability of the family.”

The family must “be founded on the indissoluble sacrament of matrimony and open itself generously to the gift of life,” as the Church does not allow artificial birth control methods.

He warned them against the dangers of not “defending the sacred value of their homes” against the dangers of divorce, calling on them to be “the protagonists of their own stories and social renovation workers.

The meeting was closed when the Pope blessed the crowd and the protest singer Soledad Bravo sang him out of the meeting with “Angelitos Negros” (Little Black Angels) – an antiracist poem by Andres Eloy Blanco – and “Gracias a la vida” (Thanks to LIfe) by the Chilean singer Violeta Parra.