Tegucigalpa Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga has backed a Honduran bishops' conference statement that appeared to tolerate the June 28 military coup saying that deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya engendered "class hatred." In an interview with a Tegucigalpa journalist, published July 8 on elfaro.net, the cardinal denied that the church supported a coup d'etat.
He said those who accuse the church of siding with Honduras' elite "are not listening", Catholic News Service reports.
"An unemotional person would read the church's message and would understand it," he said.
Cardinal Rodriguez said he has seen an unwelcome change in Honduras that he attributes to Zelaya's alliance with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
"Recently, I have observed something that did not previously exist in Honduras: class hatred," the cardinal said in the interview. "Zelaya had advisers in Venezuela, and stirring up class hatred was the strategy."
Cardinal Rodriguez explained that he was traveling between Rome and Tegucigalpa the day of the coup and thus did not participate in drafting the bishops' statement.
The statement emphasized the reportedly illegal actions by Zelaya prior to his ouster - he scheduled a popular consultation on a constitutional amendment that would allow him to run for a second term.
The Honduran Constitution says a president who promotes or supports changes to the one-term limit must step down as head of the executive branch.
The bishops' statement said Zelaya must answer to charges of treason and abuse of authority and criticized the international community for concerning itself only with elections rather than the democratic exercise of power.
Two lines in the two-page statement calling for an "explanation" of the June 28 "incidents" are the only reference to the coup d'etat.
Cardinal Rodriguez backed up the bishops' statement, stressing that the events had to be evaluated in a context in which the executive branch had broken the law several times over the previous few months.
He stressed that the bishops' attitude is one of seeking peace and offering to mediate a solution to the current political crisis.
"We cannot continue with the serious social injustices in this country that the actions of politicians have been perpetuating," he said.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Source (CTHUS)
SV (ED)