Posted on 07/16/2019 5:34:09 PM PDT by marshmallow
SÃO PAULO, Brazil - An archbishop in Brazil has been accused of abetting “a leftist infiltration” of the Church in a letter to the Vatican ambassador sent by a group of professional and employer associations from the city of Londrina.
The letter was published July 2 and is signed by trade associations that represent building companies, metal industries, growers, retailers and professional associations of physicians and engineers. The document, which contains fierce criticism of Archbishop Geremias Steinmetz, is addressed to Archbishop Giovanni D’Aniello, who has served as apostolic nuncio to Brazil since 2012.
In the document, the associations praise the virtues of Steinmetz’s predecessors and then accuse the archbishop of “allowing the [center-left] Workers’ Party to instrumentalize the structure of our Church.”
The Workers’ Party (PT, in Portuguese) ruled Brazil from 2003 - when Luís Inácio Lula da Silva became president - to 2016, when then-President Dilma Rousseff was impeached. Since then, the country has seen growing political polarization, further complicated with the election of arch-conservative President Jair Bolsonaro in 2018.
“In almost every manifestation and public document of the archdiocese, it is possible to notice the influence of the leftist and socialist thesis advocated by that party (which are, it must be said, contrary to the Social Doctrine of the Church),” reads the associations’ letter.
“In several parishes, the publicizing of half-truths and ancient lies has been allowed, such as the identification between socialism and Christianity; the Marxist class struggle, that opposes rich and poor; the ill-fated Liberation Theology (strongly condemned by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI); and the ideologization of the Church (strongly condemned by Pope Francis),” the document continues.
The letter concludes by saying that many Catholics in the city feel like “orphans.”
(Excerpt) Read more at cruxnow.com ...
The letter could easily be about the usccb.
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