Argentinean archbishop calls recent political campaign 'strange'

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jul 1, 2009 / 20:06 pm

Archbishop Hector Aguer of La Plata in Argentina, said yesterday that the political campaign leading up to this weekend’s elections has been marked by eccentricities.
 
“To be honest, one has the impression that voters were not aware of the precise nature of these elections, which are only for the legislature,” the archbishop said.  He urged voters to give serious thought to “who they will charge with promulgating the laws the country needs.”
 
Such reflection presupposes that there has been a debate about which ideas and values are best for Argentinean society, he added, “but this has not occurred, there has not been a debate about ideas in this campaign.”
 
“What gives meaning to a campaign season, in the end, is that candidates say what they think and that they do so truthfully, and that they respond to these basic and fundamental questions,” Archbishop Aguer said.
 
“It’s enough to make generic references to the past in order to demonize it or to romanticize it, or to the future in order to make promises that will probably not be kept,” the archbishop asserted.

“We must refer above all to the present and not run from clearly defining the issues that are of capital importance for the life of a just, unified and authentically human society,” he said.