Quito, Ecuador, Aug 8, 2008 / 01:00 am
The Ecuadoran Council of Lay Catholics has called on the country’s president, Rafael Correa, to tone down his rhetoric against the Catholic Church. During a press conference, Council president Max Loaiza said the president’s criticisms have been offensive to priests and bishops.
“It’s important, Mr. President, that you change your language, that you correct what you are saying because you are encouraging others to commit these kinds of sacrileges, offenses and threats against the hierarchy of the Church,” Loaiza said.
“We don’t know who is behind this,” Loaiza explained, but he reminded the Ecuadoran president that the Church has the right to speak out publicly, “especially when a constitution or laws go against fundamental values.”
Speaking to reporters this week, President Correa rejected the criticisms of the Bishops’ Conference of Ecuador regarding the favorable treatment given to abortion, homosexual unions and the restrictions on religious freedom in the new Constitution. Correa chided the bishops for “intervening in politics.”