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Vatican City, Oct 25, 2016 / 05:34 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Monday Pope Francis met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, head of the country’s socialist regime, at the Vatican to discuss the dire political, social and economic situation of Venezuela and its citizens.

“The meeting took place within the framework of the worrisome political, social and economic situation that the country is going through – a situation that is having serious repercussions in the daily lives of the entire population,” an Oct. 24 communique from the Vatican read.

Francis, who didn’t have any public commitments earlier in the day, met with Maduro privately Oct. 24 in the evening.

According to the Vatican communique, the Pope, “who has at heart the welfare of all Venezuelans,” wanted to affirm his continued contribution to Venezuela’s “institutionality and everything that will help to resolve the outstanding issues and build trust between the various parties.”

Nicolas Maduro took over for former Venezuelan socialist president Hugo Chavez when the latter died from cancer in 2013.

In the stormy aftermath of the takeover, Venezuela has been marred by violence and social and economic upheaval. Poor economic policies, including strict price controls, coupled with high inflation rates, have resulted in a severe lack of basic necessities such as toilet paper, milk, flour, diapers and medicines.

Venezuela's socialist government is widely blamed for the crisis. Since 2003, price controls on some 160 products, including cooking oil, soap and flour, have meant that while they are affordable, they fly off store shelves only to be resold on the black market at much higher rates.

The Venezuelan government is known to be among the most corrupt in Latin America, and violent crime in the country has spiked since Maduro took office.

Demonstrations broke out in the country in January 2014 after Monica Spear, a former Miss Venezuela, was murdered along with her ex-husband on a highway near Caracas when their car broke down.

Protests intensified after the attempted rape of a student shortly after Spear’s death, and since then Maduro’s government has jailed many peaceful protestors and political opponents. The regime is known to have committed gross abuses, including violence, against those who don’t share their political ideologies.

Maduro was scheduled to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican last year, but canceled his June 7, 2015, visit at the last minute due to a doctor’s note from the president saying he was forbidden to board a plane due to a cold and severe ear infection.

The situation in Venezuela has been steadily deteriorated, even since last year.

The Pope’s meeting with Maduro took place in the backdrop of a Sept. 1 demonstration, called the “Taking of Caracas,” in the Venezuelan capital, bringing together as many as 1 million citizens who support a referendum to recall President Nicolás Maduro.

Both opponents and sympathizers of Maduro’s government took to the streets. However, the government’s critics vastly outnumbered government supporters, according to organizers.

Archbishop Diego Padrón Sánchez of Cumaná, president of the Venezuelan bishops' conference, said in a statement that the country’s government is suffering from a “chronic” hearing disorder in face of the suffering of the people.

“What the people have done, both the opposition and government supporters, was a free, democratic, constitutional and peaceful expression of the awareness of their civil rights,” he said, charging that the government “carried out violence with the various persecutions conducted against different opposition leaders.”

“The government's hearing disorder has become chronic in the face of the people’s suffering, shortages, food shortages, the high cost of living and lack of public safety,” he complained.

According to the communique on the Pope’s meeting with Maduro, Francis invited the president “to undertake with courage the path of sincere and constructive dialogue.”

He also invited the Venezuelan dictator to make it a priority “to alleviate the suffering of the people – first of all, those who are poor – and to promote a climate of renewed social cohesion which would offer a vision forward with hope for the future of the nation.”

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday evening received, in private, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. A statement from the Holy See Press Office said, the meeting took place within the framework of the worrying political, social and economic situation that the country is going through, and that is having serious repercussions on the daily lives of the entire population.

In this way, the statement continued, the Pope, who has the welfare of all Venezuelans at heart, wanted to continue to offer his contribution to the country's institutionality and every step that will help to resolve the outstanding issues and build trust between all parties.

The Pope invited the parties to show courage in pursuing the path of sincere and constructive dialogue to alleviate the suffering of the people, the poor first, and promote a climate of renewed social cohesion, which allows the nation to look with hope to the future.

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(Vatican Radio) At least 59 people were killed and more than 100 wounded when gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed a Pakistani police training academy in the southwestern city of Quetta.

Christopher Wells reports: 

More than 200 police trainees were stationed at the facility when the attack occurred late on Monday, officials said. Some cadets were taken hostage during the attack, which lasted five hours. Most of the dead were police cadets.

Mir Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister of Baluchistan province, of which Quetta is the capital, said the gunmen attacked a dormitory inside the training facility while cadets rested and slept. Officials said there were five to six gunmen.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but one of the top military commanders in Baluchistan, General Sher Afgun, told media that calls intercepted between the attackers and their handlers suggested they were from the sectarian Sunni Muslim militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the LeJ, which translates to “Army of Jhangvi.”

The LeJ, whose roots are in the heartland Punjab province, has a history of carrying out sectarian attacks in Baluchistan, particularly against the minority Hazara Shias. Pakistan has previously acussed LeJ of colluding with al Qaeda.

Authorities launched a crackdown against Lashkar-e-Jhangvi last year, particularly in Punjab province. In a major blow to the organisation, Malik Ishaq, the group's leader, was killed in July 2015 alongside 13 other members of the central leadership in what police say was a failed escape attempt.

A home ministry official said it was unclear what motive the group would have in attacking the police academy.

Monday night's assault was the deadliest in Pakistan since a suicide bomber killed 70 people in an attack on mourners gathered at a hospital in Quetta in August.

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Djibouti, Djibouti, Oct 25, 2016 / 12:03 am (Aid to the Church in Need).- “Even if work has to be done silently, it is better to be here than not be here.” These are the words of Bishop Giorgio Bertin, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Mogadishu.

The prelate, who has been in the region for almost 40 years and is also Bishop of Djibouti, was hinting at the grave risks Christians face in the Horn of Africa.

There is only a single church in Somalia: St. Anthony of Padua in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, a semi-autonomous region. Saying Mass has been and continues to be “very dangerous,” the bishop told international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

Just last January, after the church had been boarded up for some 20 years, the bishop was able to re-consecrate the church, which now also serves as a base for humanitarian activities sponsored by Caritas.

“Not many people come to Mass – 10 at most – but nonetheless, it is important,” the bishop said. The church is a silent witness in a country where “there are more and more mosques”, thanks to financial aid from Saudi Arabia, he added.

For Catholics, however, “there is no possible way of having a presence in Mogadishu, since it is very dangerous. There are a few Catholics, but if they engage in any activities, for example with Caritas, they will be risking their lives. We can only be present there through the intermediary of other Somali associations.”

It was 27 years ago, after the assassination of Bishop Salvatore Colombo, that the Holy See asked Bishop Bertin to become apostolic administrator of Mogadishu, after rebels had destroyed almost the whole of the Somali capital and the Church’s entire infrastructure.

“They deliberately targeted us, though not only us; in fact they destroyed everything, including embassies, and all public institutions,” the bishop recalled.

To this day, Somalia has remained a completely dysfunctional state, with a host of unrecognized self-proclaimed independent regions – such as Somaliland – and the constant threat of the jihadist militia of Al-Shabaab.

Fortunately, in neighboring Djibouti, the former French colony where Bishop Bertin resides, the Church has freedom. “We are left in peace there; there is no danger and the Church is respected,” he said. The local Church is comprised of 5,000 Catholics, the majority of them expatriate, with only very few native faithful.

Providing education and humanitarian work are the primary tasks of the Church, which, the bishop stresses, is not out to make converts. The Catholic schools almost exclusively serve Muslim students, however.

Still, the prelate said, “we are sowing the seed of the Gospel among the people.” There are 30 missionaries in the country, serving two churches and four mission stations.

The bishop stressed that “a priest or a religious sister is not there for the Catholics only; they are there as a presence in society, in contact with the people and open to them. We cannot remain closed up within our structures.”

 

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