No One Expects The Evo Inquisition!
Evo compared the Church to the "Inquisition". In Spanish here, and from the Miami Herald Wire Services
MORALES CRITICIZES CHURCH HIERARCHY
LA PAZ - President Evo Morales said some members of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy are behaving as if they were in ''the times of the Inquisition'' Tuesday as he defended his government's plan to remove Catholicism as the sole religion taught in schools.
Morales' comments came a day after Education Minister Félix Patzi referred to Catholic ''monsignors'' as ''liars'' and said they have been serving the oligarchy for the 514 years since Spain colonized the country.
''I want to ask the [church] hierarchies that they understand freedom of religion and beliefs in our country,'' Morales told reporters. ``It's not possible to impose their views.''
My Take: Evo is walking a tightrope, to some part of his making. On the one hand, the Church does have a Costitutionally-favored status, which seems rather illiberal and antiquated. But, Evo appointed a radical like Patzi to run education, and the guy is trashing the Church hierarchy, insulting many traditional Catholics in the process. And, the growing Evangelical churches are also worried, because they fear that the curriculum will now be expanded to teach Aymara and Quechua religious practices as semi-official religions. Unlike Catholics who have long winked at the populations "dual" belief systems, many protestants strictly discourage the practice of indigenous religious as being pagan abominations. They would rather have Catholicism as an official doctrine, than any endorsement of Pachamama.
2 comments:
When Portuguese merchants came to Japan and brought catholic priests, the Japanese sent back the priests immediately and look at Japan now. The less catholic a LatinAmerican country is, their human development index is higher. Mexico, our largest Spanish speaking country, is the most catholic in the world and look at the tremendoues inequality(also highest in the world by UN data) and the low level of education of the average citizen. The catholic thrive on the ignorance of the people and their oppression. They monopolize education for the elites and clergy.The catholic church is just concerned about loosing the political power it has. In Bolivia is just over 50% of the population and it is loosing a lot of ground, they are in panic mode.
Did you know that other than religion teachers, the state in Bolivia pays the priests? This is what the catholic dominated media of Bolivia don't want you to know (Fides, ERbol)
The arguments on line discussions definitely paint a different picture of the Catholic Church than the one I've seen at work in Bolivia. Anon, have you any personal accounts to back up your claims? The Catholic priests, nuns and monks that I've met here (and elsewhere) take a vow of poverty, work long hours throughout the week, provide day care services and educational services to the children of the poor and ask of them only enough to partially cover expenses for the food and materials they provide. You really ought to go out and meet these people. They're not monoplozing anything for the elite.
By the way, as far as the Catholic Church's motivations, understand that the Church believes itself to be correct in matters of faith. That logicaly means that it believes all other belief systems to be flawed, some gravely flawed. That's a basic point that people seem to miss. The Church believes in God (Father, Son and holy Spirit), believes in man's immortal soul, believes in a true heaven and a true hell, and believes that the way to heaven, God's Kingdom, is through Jesus Christ. The Church's objective is NOT to ensure that other belief systems are given a fair chance, but rather to see all people saved in the only way Scripture tells us. The Church is commanded to proclaim one Gospel only. If you expect them to step aside to give other religions a “fair chance”, you are missing the whole point.
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