Posted on 01/25/2006 10:34:34 AM PST by Pyro7480
Venezuela nearing Marxist dictatorship, cardinal says
Jan. 16 (CNA/CWNews.com) - In one his harshest criticisms to date of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Cardinal Rosalio Castillo Lara accused that country’s government of having “lost its way” and of showing “signs of dictatorship.”
The retired Salesian cardinal presided at the traditional procession of the Divine Shepherdess—a popular Marian devotion that draws millions of people every year—through the downtown streets of Barquisimeto. Although he focused most of his homily on Marian devotion and the Catholic roots of Venezuela, Cardinal Lara launched his criticism of the Chavez regime at the end of his remarks. “On this solemn occasion I ask that we all together fervently pray to the Divine Shepherdess to save Venezuela,” the cardinal said. “We are facing an extremely grave situation like few others in our history.”
"A government democratically elected seven years ago has lost its democratic way and shows signs of dictatorship, where all powers are in the hands of one person who exercises them in an arbitrary and despotic way," Cardinal Castillo added, “not for the purposes of bringing about the greater common good of the nation, but rather for a twisted and archaic political project: that of implanting in Venezuela a disastrous regime like the one Fidel Castro has imposed on Cuba, at the cost of so many human lives and the progress of his nation.”
“The seven years of this government,” he warned, “provide abundant proof of what the future of Venezuela will be like if this regime continues in power.”
Pointing to the risks of a continuing Chavez government, Cardinal Lara noted that “dissidence, which is barely tolerated, is in many cases persecuted. Courts hand down unjust sentences in the name of the law. There are dozens of political prisoners, while common crime increases and reaps a tragic sum of 10,000 murders per year. Corruption—which they promised to radically eliminate— is spreading in the face of silence and complacent inaction by the General Comptroller of the Republic, resulting in the creation of thousands of new millionaires. At the same time, poverty is increasing, unemployment is widespread,” the cardinal stated.
Cardinal Lara also warned that “the extremely high price of oil, which would allow many problems to be solved, is being used instead to fund multi-million dollar gifts to obtain uncertain political loyalty from other nations, while in Venezuela we are painfully feeling the lack of interventions and projects to equip hospitals with what they need, to repair communication channels and city streets, to build housing and schools.”
Cardinal Lara said a future with Chavez would be “a very grave situation that could be compared to the cholera outbreak of 150 years ago that led to the miraculous intervention of the Divine Shepherdess.”
“If the Venezuelan people fail to grasp the seriousness of the situation and fail to categorically speak out in favor of democracy and freedom, we will find ourselves subjected to a Marxist-style dictatorship,” Cardinal Lara said in conclusion.
By denying her place in God's plan through the use of heretical theology.
Where did I deny her place in God plan? Where did I not say God preserved Isreal and Marys Bloodline so that she could bear Christ?
What? That is all you beleive she was granted by God?
The point is it is the the Holy Spirit that empowers believers and carries our petitions to the heart of the Father...Christ is our intercessor before the Father. So called "venerated saints and Mother's of God", have no part in that matter. In the end, God himself does the heavy lifting, Christ himself does the interceding, and the Holy Spirit himself is the empowering of the Saints. Does the "cloud of witnesses" as Paul describes have importance? Certainly, I have no doubt we are prayed for and God listens. But to actually pray to a saint and say..."okay Saint 'whatever',grant my petition and intercede for me," is far different from Praying directly to God in Jesus name. We can ask other "saints" meaning other Christians to pray to the father with us and for us, but the Biblical pattern is that men are to direct their prayers and devotion directly to God the Father and obey his command to place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ!
Your response is, of course, correct. We pray for each other by the power of the Holy Spirit through Christ, our one and only mediator, to the Father. But my question remains:
So do we have any reason to believe Mary...is not among the persons we can ask to pray for us?
She's either part of the body of Christ or she's not. St. Paul doesn't think death will separate us from Christ, Jesus indicates as much in Mt 22, God is the God of the living. At the Transfiguration, Moses is somehow or other interacting with Christ.
I know it appears very weird if it is not part of the faith tradition you were raised in. I know it can look as if Catholics somehow think saints who have preceeded us in death have a "separate" ability to grant petitions. They don't. And that's not what the Church teaches or has ever taught. They are just like any other member of the body, Christ is the one mediator for all of us and the head of the body.
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