Madagascar: bishops lament national crisis

June 02, 2010

“Insecurity reigns everywhere, families are divided, unemployment rises, political differences cause disorder, drugs of all kinds are spread everywhere,” the bishops of Madagascar write in a new pastoral letter on the crisis that has gripped the island nation for the past year. “Some media deviate from their calling to inform, stoking passions that could trigger a civil war. The army, the last bastion of the nation, has been strained in recent times.”

“International mediation is needed,” they add, “but we can all see that it has strong limitations, because we Malagasy are causing the problem and only we can find the real solution.”

29% of the nation’s 19.5 million people are Catholic.

 

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Further information:

• All Malagasy people are committed to finding a solution to the crisis in the country,” Bishops write (Fides)
• 2009 Malagasy political crisis (Wikipedia)