Don’t abandon drug addicts, says president of Chilean Bishops’ Conference

Santiago, Chile, Jun 27, 2008 / 12:21 pm

The president of the Bishop’s Conference of Chile, Bishop Alejandro Goic, called on Catholics and society in general this week not to abandon drug addicts and to combat the plague of drugs. This plague, he said, affects not only those with low incomes “but also those who are well-off and are often burdened by the lack of meaning in their lives.”

“Addicts are suffering people who, having lost their freedom through drug use, have developed a terrible capacity for hiding their pain, often living in a state of isolation that becomes increasingly desolate and dramatic,” Bishop Doic said in a message for the International Day Against Drug Use.

“If it is true that the person is the most important thing and that the person must be cared for and developed, then we cannot ignore this situation that harms so many of us and that therefore harms us all,” he added.

We Christians cannot “wash our hands of this social problem and leave these brothers and sisters abandoned,” Bishop Doic continued.  He said society needs to be more humane in dealing with the problem of drug abuse and that greater effort needs to be made to reach out to those suffering from this addiction.

“This is not only a problem that affects those suffering from this scourge,” he said, “but rather a problem that affects us all as a society, although it manifests itself in concrete individuals.”