Venezuelan Bishops: Church called to build up the nation
By Vatican News
The Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference recently held their 124th Ordinary Plenary Assembly, concluding with a pastoral exhortation entitled “Builders of Peace in Justice and Freedom.”
The title drew from the first words spoken by 杏MAP导航 Leo XIV on the evening of his election to the papacy—“Peace be with you all.”
In their letter, the Bishops offered a reflection on holiness, justice, truth, and commitment as “ecclesial action for the fulfillment of its prophetic mission and its evangelizing work.”
Working for greater justice
Peace is built day by day “in the establishment of an order willed by God,” which implies, the bishops wrote, “a more perfect justice among people, and the recognition that the dignity of the human person and the common good stand above the tranquility of those who do not wish to renounce their privileges.”
They said the canonization of Venezuela’s first saints, St. José Gregorio Hernández and St. Carmen Rendiles—is “a source of great joy” for all Venezuelans and for the universal Church.
They said it an opportunity for Venezuelan children to fix their gaze on “the ideal of holiness as the end and purpose of their own existence.”
The Bishops also called for justice in the country. “As pastors,” they said, “we exhort the governmental authorities to ensure that the fundamental rights of citizens enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic are recognized, respected, and promoted.”
They drew on the verse from the Gospel of John which affirms that “Only the Spirit of the Risen One makes us just and holy, leads us into all truth, and gives us true peace (cf. Jn 16:7).”
The Bishops expressed their desire for the same Spirit “to make us capable of contributing to the spiritual, moral, social, and political renewal of our country according to the truth of the Gospel of salvation.”
Neither victors nor vanquished
The Church would like “all sectors of national life to engage with the faithful, in order “to create the necessary conditions for the development of a dialogue aimed to generate a true social pact, even if this involves certain sacrifices.”
The Bishops hope that this dialogue will not boil down to a mere political agreement “that would aim only at power struggles between partisan groups, at the margins of—or even contrary to—the common good of the people.”
All Christian faithful and to men and women of good will should be builders of peace, pilgrims of hope, they said, expressing the hope that allows us to dream of a future “where there are neither victors nor vanquished, but brothers and sisters, all children of the same God, with a common homeland and nation.”
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