Venezuela: Catholic church denounces Lord's Prayer to Hugo Chavez
- 10 years ago
A reworking of the Lord’s Prayer to commemorate the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has been causing controversy.
The trouble started on Monday when a Socialist party delegate read the prayer at a party convention.
“Our Chavez who art in Heaven, land and sea, and in us, your delegates,” began Maria Estrella Uribe.
The Archbishop of Caracas has denounced her ode to the late president as “profanity.”
“The Lord’s Prayer comes from the lips of Jesus Christ and we must therefore ensure that it remains so, any other use is profanity,” explained Cardinal Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino. “And if people say that Chavez was God, well that would be idolatry.”
The country’s president said the poem was being turned into a sin.
“A minority of bishops who do not represent the Catholic faithful have come in a new inquisition to persecute this young woman, a working woman, because she read a poem,” said Nicolas Maduro. “We see a hate toward Chavez from them. They (Catholic bishops) have not given up on their hate toward Chavez.”
Since his death last year, rosaries adorned with Chavez’s face and images depicting him with a Christian cross have become commonplace.
The trouble started on Monday when a Socialist party delegate read the prayer at a party convention.
“Our Chavez who art in Heaven, land and sea, and in us, your delegates,” began Maria Estrella Uribe.
The Archbishop of Caracas has denounced her ode to the late president as “profanity.”
“The Lord’s Prayer comes from the lips of Jesus Christ and we must therefore ensure that it remains so, any other use is profanity,” explained Cardinal Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino. “And if people say that Chavez was God, well that would be idolatry.”
The country’s president said the poem was being turned into a sin.
“A minority of bishops who do not represent the Catholic faithful have come in a new inquisition to persecute this young woman, a working woman, because she read a poem,” said Nicolas Maduro. “We see a hate toward Chavez from them. They (Catholic bishops) have not given up on their hate toward Chavez.”
Since his death last year, rosaries adorned with Chavez’s face and images depicting him with a Christian cross have become commonplace.