Guatemalan Cardinal warns of social unrest

Guatemala City, Guatemala, Apr 19, 2004 / 22:00 pm

Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruño, President of the Guatemalan Bishops Conference, is warning that social unrest could result if a "poltical" consensus on the problem of poverty is not achieved.

The Cardinal called on President Oscar Berger to consider the growing demands of those who are suffering from the economic, employment and social crisis, or “we will suffer an unprecedented outbreak of social unrest.”

Cardinal Toruño added that “nothing would be better in these difficult moments than an open dialogue with all sectors of society to build a consensus, which is what we need to the most, so that the grave social problems we face, including fical problems, can be solved effectively.”

The bishops of Guatemala, he said, believe this to be absolutely necessary, not only for the president, but for the entire government, the congress and all sectores of society, “so that we can together come out of this crisis, if we consider ourselves true citizens of the same country.”

“The bishops are not experts in economic and social affairs, but we do have the eyes of shepherds and we are very concerned about the sufferings of our people because of unemployment,” he underscored.  Therefore, “we call on all sectors of society to reflection so that in some way we can cooperate in resolving this problem which our country faces.”