Bishop Laments State of Venezuelan Politics

KOENIGSTEIN, Germany, NOV. 2, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Intolerance and a possible lack of division of power are tainting politics in Venezuela, warns Bishop José Luis Azuaje.

"We urgently need to use the means of mass media in order to educate people to be critical about the government's doctrinal messages," the new bishop of El Vigia said during his recent visit to the Germany-based charity Aid to the Church in Need.

"The social doctrine of the Church must be the foundation of social, political and cultural formation and education," he said.

The 48-year-old prelate, who is a former secretary-general of the Venezuelan bishops' conference, continued: "The main problems the Catholic Church in Venezuela has to face are a Law of Education soon to be implemented as well as the forthcoming approval of a curriculum which will ban religious education from schools."

These problems, he said, affect the whole of Venezuelan society, not just the Church.