Aug 29, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Sister Elisa Monachesi, Provincial Superior of the Schoenstatt Sisters in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, said that the Church in Argentina is being forced out of the public’s discussion on moral issues. She told Aid to the Church in Need that the fact, “has clearly been proven during the ongoing discussion about the legalization of abortion and about the sterilization of poor women.”
“One sees that nowadays there are very few truly practicing Catholics in the country,” Sister Monachesi said.
Pointing to Argentina’s major social problems, Sister Elisa explained: “The unemployment rate is already enormously high. And the government as well as the trade unions are still pressuring the companies to the point that even more jobs will get lost. In the process the middle-class is slowly disappearing. Also, there is a lot of violence and numerous organised gangs are active. Immigrants from countries such as Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Peru are particularly likely to fall prey to bonded labour, if not mere slavery.”
The gap in consciousness for these issues must be filled by the Church, she said. The Church “has the task to build up a moral conscience,” but “in this regard, still much educational work has to be done.”