Cardinal Canizares: ‘It is my duty in charity to communicate the Church’s teachings’

Madrid, Spain, Dec 16, 2008 / 12:31 pm

In an interview with the Spanish daily La Razon, the new prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Antonio Canizares, said, “It is my duty in charity as a service to mankind and to society to communicate the Church’s teachings” in response to laws that are contrary to man and the Christian faith.

 

Cardinal Canizares, who will continue to serve for a brief period as Archbishop of Toledo also stated, “I am not speaking out against anything, much less against the government. I am among those who will always treat the government with respect and fidelity.”

 

But, he went on, “this does not mean that, as the Pope said in ‘Deus caritas est,’ that out of political charity, I can say that human rights are being respected when they really are not being respected.”

 

For this reason, he stated, “I will have to complain along with parents when the right to education is not fully respected. Or I will have to ask that the right to life be respected from conception to natural death.”

 

He continued, “People say I am the bishop who is the most against the Zapatero government. This is completely untrue. But, I insist, I do proclaim and defend what the Church says. I don’t impose it on anyone, I propose it, and I demand that when fundamental questions are at stake, citizens need to wake up.”