The president of Venezuela’s episcopal conference told the Vatican newspaper that the Church there “strives to be a place of encounter for all and to constantly accompany the population in its struggle for the triumph of goodness, truth, and justice.”
Archbishop Andoni González de Zárate Salas of Valencia said that the Church is emphasizing “the primacy of the dignity of the person, the common good and the great evangelical values” amid dire poverty and great political uncertainty.
The prelate also renewed the Church’s call for the immediate release of all political prisoners; he said that the “release process” under new Venezuelan leadership has been “very slow.”