Bolivian president rejects criticism by bishops, calls for founding of ‘new church’

La Paz, Bolivia, Feb 2, 2009 / 12:58 pm

President Evo Morales of Bolivia said last Thursday in Brazil during the World Social Forum that the Catholic Church in Bolivia is the “main enemy” of the reforms his government hopes to implement in the country and that the Church needs to be replaced.

During his remarks, Morales said, “In Bolivia new enemies have appeared, not only now in the right-wing media but also in groups from the Catholic Church, the leaders of the Catholic Church who are the enemies of peaceful transformation.”

Later, referring to the theme of the World Social Forum, Morales continued, “I want to say to you what we hear shouted all the time: ‘Another world is possible,’ I want to tell you another faith, another religion, another church is also possible, brothers and sisters.”

Morales attended the World Social Form together with his counterparts from Brazil, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, Ecuador, Rafael Correa, Paraguay, Fernando Lugo and Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, and representatives of some four thousand left-wing social movements.

The attack on the Church by Morales comes after remarks he made the previous day in La Paz to foreign reporters, in which he accused the Church of trying to prevent the reform of the Constitution from passing in a popular referendum held last Sunday.