Chavez should “bite his tongue” and stop attacking the Church, archbishop says

Caracas, Venezuela, Nov 7, 2007 / 10:55 am

The vice president of the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Roberto Luckert said this week President Hugo Chavez’s attacks on the Church are due to his dislike of opinion polls that show the public does not support his proposed constitutional reforms.

The archbishop said Chavez should “bite his tongue” and stop being “rude” and “degrading.”  He recalled that for several years he has criticized Chavez for his “belligerent aggressive attitude” and for “picking a fight with everyone.”  “You can’t govern like this,” he said.

Archbishop Luckert said Chavez’s aggressive attitude was because his is bothered by the polls that show little support for his reform.  “Nobody likes this reform,” he said, “and even his supporters are afraid to go to vote.”

The archbishop noted that Chavez himself invited Venezuelans to suggest ideas, “and the bishops simply expressed their opinions and judgments about what they consider the consequences of this reform would be.”

Chavez, he explained, wants to center everything on himself and not on the proposal of constitutional reform.