Vatican’s Secretary of State condemns attack on crowd outside Venezuelan church
July 20, 2017
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, condemned an attack by supporters of President Nicolas Maduro on a crowd outside a church near Caracas.
After Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino celebrated Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Catia on July 16, armed Maduro supporters fired on a crowd of voters outside the church, killing one person and injuring several others. Hundreds took refuge in the church until the cardinal was able to mediate their safe departure.
The day was a tense one in Venezuela: amid rising malnutrition and fears of a future Marxist dictatorship, over seven million Venezuelans took part in an unofficial plebiscite on President Maduro’s proposal to convoke an assembly to rewrite the nation’s constitution.
In his telegram to Cardinal Urosa, Cardinal Parolin also expressed hope that the Maduro regime would “listen to the request for liberty, reconciliation, and well-being that comes from the Venezuelan people,” according to a L’Osservatore Romano report.
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Further information:
- Fuga in Brasile (L’Osservatore Romano, p. 1)
- Venezuela’s bishops back opposition plebiscite; shots fired on crowd outside church (CWN, 7/18)
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Posted by: balderdash -
Jul. 21, 2017 10:37 AM ET USA
How is it known that "Maduro supporters' fired on the crowd? Were any of them apprehended and identified? There is visual evidence that anti-government groups have organized 'false flag' attacks on themselves before, 'documented' by 'journlists' for western media and later proven to be contrivations. Who gains from firing into a crowd of ordinary people trying to vote in a referendum at a Catholic Church? Maduro's government?
