Pope urges respect for Venezuela’s sovereignty!
Vatican City, Jan 4 (EFE).-
Pope Leo XIV said on Sunday that urged respect for Venezuela’s sovereignty and rule of law following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro by the United States.
“The good of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail over every other consideration and lead us to overcome violence and to undertake paths of justice and peace,” the pontiff said from the window of the Apostolic Palace after the Angelus prayer.
He called for “safeguarding the country’s sovereignty, ensuring the rule of law enshrined in the constitution, respecting the human, and civil rights of each person.”
He also encouraged efforts towards “working to build together a serene future of collaboration, stability, and concord, with special attention to the poorest who suffer because of the difficult economic situation” of the South American country.
Leo XIV asked the faithful to pray for Venezuela and invoked the intercession of the country’s patron saint, Our Lady of Coromoto, as well as its first two saints, José Gregorio Hernández and Carmen Rendiles, canonized by him on Oct. 19.
The American-born pontiff, who also holds Peruvian nationality after years as a missionary and bishop and is a keen observer of Latin America, has addressed the situation in Venezuela with caution since his election in the conclave on May 8.
He last referred to the issue publicly on Dec. 2 during his return flight from Lebanon, when he advocated dialogue and even “economic pressure” as a means to encourage change in Venezuela, amid threats by US President Donald Trump.
A month earlier, on Nov. 4, speaking from Castel Gandolfo, the pope again called for dialogue to ease tensions between the US and Venezuela, amid Washington’s operations against alleged drug-related vessels in the Caribbean.
That position was welcomed at the time by Maduro, who said during a congress of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela. “Thank you, Pope Leo, thank you very much.”
In September, shortly before the canonization of Venezuela’s first two saints, opposition leader María Corina Machado asked the pope to intercede on behalf of political prisoners in the country.
The situation is also followed closely at the Holy See, where Venezuelan Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra serves as substitute, effectively the number two, of the Secretariat of State, headed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was nuncio in Venezuela until 2013. EFE
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