Honduran Archbishop Can't Stop Bitching: Blasts Zelaya and Chavez Again Today

[magbana]

"Honduran Archbishop Blasts Zelaya and Chavez

By John Rosenthal on 7.16.09 @ 4:46PM

An article published by the Catholic news agency Zenit quotes Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, the archbishop of Tegucigalpa, as saying that the Catholic Church is "not taking sides" in the current conflict in Honduras. But this is hardly the impression one gets from a lengthy interview with Cardinal Rodriguez published today in the German daily Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). In the FAZ interview, Cardinal Rodríguez accuses Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of fomenting unrest in Honduras in the interest of bringing about a "Bolivarian" revolution in the country and he rejects outright the return to power of ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

"You must know," Cardinal Rodríguez tells the FAZ,

that we are struggling against a very powerful, because very well-financed, campaign, which is being directed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez -- to the extent that agents of the Venezuelan secret services are active in the country and are organizing the supposed popular protests against the removal of President Manuel Zelaya. Weapons have also been brought into the country. Thank God that up to now more blood has not been shed. But not a day goes by without my receiving a death threat.

Asked why he was being threatened, the Cardinal continued:

Because the Catholic Church enjoys great moral authority in the country, but is determined to resist foreign powers again taking control of this country: this time, in order to "bolivarize" it. The agents are already working against the Church, using the same methods that we have come to know from Venezuela. Last Sunday, Mass could not be held in any of the three churches in downtown Tegucigalpa, because gangs had ransacked the churches and threatened the faithful.

Rodríguez said that it was "absurd" to qualify Zelaya's removal as a military coup, noting that "there is not a single military official that in any way belongs to the government." Accusing Zelaya not only of violating the Honduran constitution, but also of misappropriating international development aid, he insisted that the aim of negotiations "cannot be to bring about Zelaya's return to Honduras and his restoration to the President's office. The man has shown that he is dishonest and incapable of governing within the limits of the constitution."

"During the crisis, the parliament and the justice system have shown that they are functioning well," Cardinal Rodríguez told the FAZ, "Now everything depends on strengthening these institutions and not following the path taken by Venezuela, Bolivia or Ecuador in systematically discrediting democratic institutions."

Asked by FAZ reporter Daniel Deckers why the American government has publicly supported Zelaya -- "in perfect harmony with Chavez and his followers" -- Cardinal Rodríguez replied: "A lot of Hondurans would like to know that. But nobody can explain it to us."
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http://spectator.org/blog/2009/07/16/honduran-archbishop-blasts-zel

[EFerrari]

1. Yuck. That's one of the nasty ones.

:scared:

[Downwinder]

2. I might have paid more attention to what they say if

I hadn't been officially been declared a bastard. Instead I will just return the favor.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Chavez's tangle with the Catholic higher clergy was about their government SUBSIDIES.

Chavez tried to end them, as inappropriate in a secular, democratic society. They screamed and joined the coup forces. After the coup failed, Chavez negotiated a compromise with them, and they shut up. (--although they were very active, in 2007, opposing Chavez-proposed Constitutional amendments on equal rights for women and gays, and on free universal college education; the latter cut into their education monopolies).

I don't know about the status of government subsidies of the Catholic Church in Honduras, but I'm wondering about this Cardinal's allegation that Zelaya "misappropriated" international aid. That would be Bushwhack (US taxpayer) aid, most likely. Was some of that aid--like all other Bushwhack (US taxpayer) aid in Latin America (and the world), used to support rightwing political groups--supposed to go to the Catholic Church but got diverted by Zelaya to some more progressive cause?

This Cardinal has everything backwards, as the higher clergy (and fascists in general) so often do. On military interference, spies and weapons trafficking, he is just laughable. Who is the biggest and arguably the worst military meddler on earth--having slaughtered a hundred million innocent Iraqis in one week alone, to steal their oil? Who has a military base in Honduras, and trains the Honduran military at the "School of the Americas," and is building not just one but several more military bases in the narco/fascist-run Colombia? Who has the biggest and arguably the worst spy and 'black ops' network on earth--most certainly active in Latin America and, of course, in Honduras? And who is the biggest and worst weapons proliferator on the face of the earth?

Chavez? Venezuela?

God, I hope Venezuela has some spies in Honduras! And the cause of the poor majority in Honduras could not be better aided and supported than by the people of Venezuela, who put their bodies on the line, in the tens of thousands, to stop the Bushwhack-instigated rightwing coup in their own country?! I hope that there are Venezuelan activists in Honduras, organizing, inspiring and giving them courage! I can't think of anything more appropriate or efficacious than that the poor of Latin America should band together and peacefully throw off their oppressors, by strong organization and empowerment of each other.

Of course, the rich elite of Honduras--of whom this Cardinal appears to be the representative (elected by whom?)--would view this as a menace. How dare anyone help and inspire their slave labor force?

Sheesh.

[rabs]

4. In 2005 this guy threw his (cardinal's) hat into the ring for pope.

but he only got a couple of votes. Still he has been mentioned as a possible replacement for when the German pope croaks.

Yes, he know who butters his bread; he has received a stipend of US$5,000 a MONTH from the budget of the presidency of Honduras since 2001, (Executive Accord 046-2001 published December 7, 2002 in La Gaceta.)

That is 100,000 lempiras a month, in a country dirt-poor as Honduras. What does he do with that money :shrug:

I read a few days ago that his pro-golpe stance had caused deep discomfort in some Vatican circles:

From wiki:

Coup d'État in Honduras
Coup d'État in Honduras
The Church, according to a spokesman, did not favor deposed President Manuel Zelaya's alleged re-election plans nor a coup. In a televised speech, Rodriguez warned that the return of Zelaya could lead to a blood bath. He also called on the new government to promote national reconciliation and let aside revenge, pursuit, violence and corruption. He further urged the Organization of American States to investigate all the illegal deeds that happened during the rule of Zelaya. <3> <4>

-----------------------

Then there is the fascist, anti-Semitic side of him:

------

But the Church's Jewish problem is not limited to marginal priests or excommunicated Bishops. At least two of the Church's most influential Cardinals, including one who was in the running for Pope Benedict’s job and who remains a leading candidate to replace him, are overt anti-Semites and proud of it.

Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Meridiaga, who is the archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, has been telling anyone who is willing to listen that "the Jews" are to blame for the scandal surrounding the sexual misconduct of priests toward young parishioners!

The Jews? How did Cardinal Rodriguez ever come up with this ridiculous idea? Here is his "logic." He begins by asserting that the Vatican is anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian. It follows, therefore, that "the Jews" had to get even with the Catholic Church, while at the same time deflecting attention away from Israeli injustices against the Palestinians.

-----

The Jews managed to do this by arranging for the media which they, of course, control to give disproportionate attention to the Vatican sex scandal.

-----

Rodriguez then goes on to compare the Jewish-controlled media with “Hitler,” because they are “protagonists of what I do not hesitate to define as a persecution against the Church.”

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More here: http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=34722


(edit to fix typo)

[Peace Patriot]

5. Wow, he's a real winner, ain't he? I'm reminded of that foreign minister the coup had

for about a week who called Obama "that little black guy who knows nothing." And I'm also thinking that this coup and the rich elite behind it is more like the white separatist coupsters in Bolivia than I had guessed. They're not just rich, privileged elitists, living off of US taxpayers and sweatshop labor, spiriting their money out of the country to avoid taxes and utterly neglecting education, health care, local infrastructure and all the things that create a good country--like the Venezuelan elite. They are unrepentant racists!

Well, these kinds of folks--folks who, in Bolivia, only a generation ago, would not permit indigenous people to walk on the sidewalks--seem to be the only kind of folks whom Bushwhacks can get to front for their wars and their global corporate predation. I'm glad to see them being exposed. I hope it does some good.

[Judi Lynn]

6. This man is truly a piece of work. Slippery. Sneaky! This may be helpful:

News emerging from Honduras suggest that the country’s leading Roman Catholic, Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, opposes the return of President Manuel Zelaya, the victim of a coup by Honduras’ military. According to Spain’s El País, the new government instituted by the coup forced all of the Honduran TV channels to carry a broadcast by Rodríguez Maradiaga. In it the cardinal told Zelaya ‘I know that you love life…I know that you respect life, and until today not a single Honduran has died. But your return to the country at this point in time could lead to a blood bath. Please, meditate. Because afterward it would be too late’ (1).

This is an extraordinary statement. On the one hand, even President Obama, whose administration was criticised for effectively condoning the coup, belatedly acknowledged that Zelaya is still the rightful president of Honduras. Zelaya has every right to go back to his country and reclaim his constitutional mandate to lead Honduras as its democratically elected president. On the other hand, the nature of the discourse employed by Rodríguez Maradiaga is such that it blames Zelaya in advance for a bloodbath that could only be the result of the actions of the golpistas led by de facto leader Roberto Micheletti. In effect, Rodríguez Maradiaga is trying to prevent Zelaya from returning to Honduras by inverting the order of politics: Zelaya is the victim of Micheletti & Co’s actions, but in Rodríguez Maradiaga’s statement, Zelaya has been transformed into the would-be aggressor. Little wonder that the illegal Honduran government interrupted normal broadcasts to show Rodríguez’s intervention on television.

This raises the question: who is Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, and why has he allied himself with the Honduran oligarchy behind the coup?

Anyone who does superficial research on the cardinal’s background could be forgiven for coming away with the impression that Rodríguez Maradiaga is a progressive religious leader. If one goes, for example, by the first part of the Wikipedia entry on the cardinal, he certainly does seem to be a force for good: according to the Wiki, ‘His campaign for human rights and the poor have won widespread praise. Cardinal Rodríguez is further admired as a dynamic pastor who brokered peace accords with rebels and led rebuilding efforts after a natural disaster. He is an outspoken proponent of the cancellation of Third World debt’(2).

He also seems to have a formidable intellect: according to the same Wiki, the cardinal has a doctorate in philosophy, and, in addition to his native Spanish, speaks English, French, Italian, German and Portuguese. As if this weren’t impressive enough, Rodríguez has a diploma in clinical psychology and psychotherapy, has taught chemistry and physics, and has even trained in classical piano. He has, in effect, the kind of education that only the most privileged in Latin America could ever hope to obtain.

According to the media, Rodríguez Maradiaga was a key mediator during the stand-off between the democratically elected president Zelaya and the Honduran oligarchy. El País went so far as to say that ‘There is a man who has much influence in Honduras and who has, until now, remained in silence. This man went to all of the secret meetings that took place in the U.S. Embassy to try to avert the coup d’etat. In those meetings, Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez always remained in a position of exquisite equidistance’(3).

Alas, the good cardinal has now not only abandoned that ‘equidistance’, but as noted earlier, has effectively adopted a stance that renders him an accomplice of the Honduran coup leaders.

And an accomplice he certainly now is: a man with a doctorate in philosophy, and with a diploma in clinical psychology might have chosen any number of ways to continue his work of mediation. Instead he has chosen what is arguably the most Machiavellian way of trying to stop Zelaya from returning to Honduras: by making him responsible for any deaths resulting from his efforts to restore the duly-elected presidency. We must thus ask once again, who is Rodríguez Maradiaga, and why would he adopt such a stance?

Clues that Rodríguez Maradiaga is not quite as progressive as he seems to be may be found if one reads beyond the headline accounts of his apparent moderation.

First, the cardinal has taken an extraordinarily hard line when it comes to the trials in the U.S. of Catholic priest paedophiles. According to the Wiki cited earlier, in a May 2002 interview with the Italian-Catholic publication 30 Giorni, Rodríguez Maradiaga claimed that ‘Jews’ had influenced the media to exploit the current controversy regarding sexual abuse by Catholic priests in order to divert attention from the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. No doubt the Israeli state (as distinct from the category of ‘Jews’ in general) is capable of all kinds of deviousness. But for Rodríguez Maradiaga to try to blame ‘Jews’ for media reporting on the outrages of priestly paedophillia is simply ridiculous. It smacks of a devious and divisive effort to divert attention from the real issues.

Second, the French magazine Golias noted that when it came to AIDS and condoms, the supposedly progressive cardinal is ‘more papist than the pope’: ‘Archbishop Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga said he was indeed convinced that condoms are not useful for combating the AIDS virus. “The fight AIDS should not focus on condoms (…) The use of condoms does not prevent all transmission of AIDS”‘(4). It may be that this last sentence is valid, when taken in isolation of the bigger issue. However, anyone who focusses on this detail does miss the bigger picture: that Benedict XVI, and apparently Rodríguez himself, have adopted an utterly ideological stance vis-a-vis the matter of condoms. It is a stance that may endear them to the men who prefer not to use condoms, but it is also one that will result in needless, some would say criminal deaths. Apparently Rodríguez is not particularly concerned about those deaths (as opposed to the ones that might be caused by Micheletti if Zelaya returns).

Third, after making what many interpreted as relatively liberal comments regarding communion with pro-choice politicians in Time Magazine, Rodríguez Maradiaga engaged in a remarkable volte face: as noted by the Catholic News Agency,

…in statements to Carlos Polo, reproduced exclusively by the Catholic News Agency, Cardinal Maradiaga , who is in Aparecida participating in the V General Conference of the Latin American Bishops’ Council, said his comments to Time magazine should be reformulated “in light of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith teaches in its document, ‘Worthiness to Receive Communion’.”“A politician who publicly supports abortion, he excommunicates himself. It’s not question of receiving Communion or not; he has already done serious harm to the communion of faith of the Church, to the communion of moral life, and therefore that person himself is doing an act that is inconsistent with what he says he believes,” the cardinal said.(5)

For those unfamiliar with the workings of the Vatican, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith is the modern name for what used to be called the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Under the prefect-ship of the current pope, Joseph Ratzinger now Benedict XVI, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith became notorious for its world-wide persecution of liberal and liberation theology Catholics (more on this, below). From this point of view, Rodríguez Maradiaga’s u-turn may be seen as a recognition that Ratzinger’s hard line continues to dominate doctrinal matters.

One benevolent interpretation of Rodríguez Maradiaga’s intervention in favour of the Honduran oligarchy is precisely that Rome has ordered him to tow the hard line. This ‘Vatican-victim’ status is, however, flatly contradicted by the role that Rodríguez Maradiaga played while he was general secretary of CELAM, the Spanish-language acronym for the Latin American Episcopal Conference. CELAM was once a Catholic institution dominated by progressive Latin American clergy. The more radical members of the clergy initiated a movement known as ‘liberation theology’, and established what became known as ‘Ecclesiastical Base Communities’ throughout the continent. Such communities had a critical orientation that explored ways of helping the poor to overcome centuries-old exploitation by groups such as the ones that have carried out the coup in Honduras. The principle was that traditional Church calls for Christian generousity had clearly failed, and so what was needed was a radical redefinition of the Church’s policies and priorities in defence of the poor.

The Vatican initially tolerated the initiative. However, first under Pope Paul VI, and then again under the arch-conservative Pope John Paul II, the liberation theology movement was opposed, and then entirely eliminated by conservative CELAM general secretaries imposed by the Vatican, with Ratzinger as the Catholic Right’s éminence grise. Towards the bitter end of this process, from 1995 to 1999, Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga was one such secretary; as noted by the Washington Post, ‘although he has spoken out against free-market policies and in defense of millions living in abject poverty in Central America, Rodríguez Maradiaga is an opponent of the “liberation theology” that once supported leftist rebellions and sought to bend the rules of orthodoxy to bring the Church closer to Indian groups and the poor’(6). In 2001, John Paul II rewarded Rodríguez for his loyalty by making him the first cardinal of Honduras, and a few years later Rodríguez threw his hat into the ring of candidates to replace John Paul II when he died in 2005. The Golias article quoted earlier wondered if Rodríguez’s stance vis-a-vis condomns was part of a strategy designed to endear him to the Vatican’s all-powerful Right. The cardinal’s most recent actions raise similar questions: could it be that Rodríguez now has ambitions to replace Ratzinger and is willing to sacrifice the poor in Honduras in order to improve his chances of becoming the next pope?

Far, then, from being a victim of the Vatican, there is good reason to regard Rodríguez Maradiaga as the kind of Catholic leader that has haunted Latin American societies for centuries: a leader who, when it suited the Church, criticised the ruling elite for their greed; but also a leader who, when push came to shove, knew full well that the Vatican’s ideological interests were intimately aligned with those of the very oligarchies occasionally berated for their avarice. The Honduran cardinal’s sudden abandonment of a mediating role, and the extraordinary nature of his attack on Zelaya appear to be a sad example of just such a push, and just such a shove. The actions suggest that, at least where the Roman Catholic Church’s political interventions are concerned, Latin American history is being repeated.

UPDATE July 6

News today that the Honduran coup leaders have not only turned back Zelaya, but have killed one and maimed several others to ‘prove’ the cardinal’s point. (For updates on the rapidly evolving situation, see the Latin America News Review.) EcoLogics asks readers to consider: would the Honduran businessmen behind the coup have engaged in any of these actions if Obama had presented them with an ultimatum to cease and desist their actions immediately?

Update July 10

According to news in Britain’s Guardian, Joseph Ratzinger’s (Benedict XVI) third encyclical reportedly suggests that ‘The conviction that the economy must be autonomous, that it must be shielded from “influences” of a moral character, has led man to abuse the economic process in a thoroughly destructive way’.'In the long term, these convictions have led to economic, social and political systems that trample upon personal and social freedom, and are therefore unable to deliver the justice that they promise.’ EcoLogics will study the encyclical and will publish a post on the matter. However, on the face of it, it sounds eerily like Rodríguez Maradiaga’s own stance: the pope can certainly talk the talk of moral condemnation, but when one looks at his history, it becomes apparent that he has walked the path of destroying the very people who raised these selfsame concerns and tried to do something about them decades ago in the context of liberation theology.

Update July 16, 2009

Various news items have appeared that shed additional light on the points made in this post.

1) Rodríguez Maradiaga tries to row back. In an interview published in Argentina’s Clarín, the Cardinal has attempted to row back on his support for the coup leaders. He claims not to be a ‘Cardenal golpista’ (literally, a ‘coup-ist’ cardinal), and claims that he’s waiting for an explanation as to why Zelaya was deported in a flagrantly unconstitutional manner. But he fails to say anything negative about Micheletti… EcoLogics understands that there is a saying in Spanish, ‘El que calla otorga’, i.e. ‘He who remains silent agrees with…’ Rodríguez has not only failed to criticise Micheletti, but as noted in this post, has come out with ideological guns blazing against Zelaya… Are we really expected to believe the good Cardinal when he claims that he is not actually supporting the coup?

2) Rodríguez Maradiaga’s complicity with the military confirmed? The website of what appears to be a pro-Chávez radio station in Venezuela (YVKE), is both quoting, and showing the actual copy of a newspaper with an article published in January 1982 about a Catholic priest, Fausto Milla, who claimed at the time that the Honduran military forced him to leave Honduras after he denounced a massacre of Salvadoran refugees by Honduran and Salvadoran military in 1980. (This was at the beginning of the Salvadoran civil war; the Honduran military supported the U.S.-led Salvadoran military.) The priest says he was threatened and nearly kidnapped by the Honduran military. More glaringly from the point of view of Rodríguez Maradiaga’s complicity with the current coup, he also claims that Rodríguez, who was then the newly appointed bishop of Father Milla’s province, supported the military. The following quote, translated from a photograph of the article provided by the website, is quite damning, and refers to the kind of anti-liberation theology politics mentioned in this post:

‘I am also disappointed by those who were supposed to provide me with support and solace, but whose attitude suggests instead an alliance with those who persecute us, and this simply because we are doing the Church’s work.’ <…> ‘The Presbyterian Council of Santa Rosa de Copán has been dismantled by the new bishop . The changes in the ecclesiastical personnel have been so abrupt that it’s as if Monseñor Rodríguez were playing a game of chess, dismantling the entire organisation that the now deceased Monseñor José Carranza y Chévez created’. <…> ‘One cannot understand how it is that our superiors, who sign documents like the one in Puebla , now take the side of those whom that document condemns for seeking to maintain the national security doctrine, which actually leads to insecurity for the whole population and only security for the money that they accumulate’.

EcoLogics has no way of vouching for the authenticity of the article, but it certainly fits with what we know about the cardinal’s politics. Any information that critical readers may provide confirming (or indeed disproving) the account of this article would be gratefully received.

3) A warning to readers that, after the publication of this post, Cardinal Rodríguez, or his supporters, have been at work on the English language version of the Wikipedia article, promoting the view that the cardinal was only trying to ‘avert a bloodbath’ in Honduras. Wikipedia is great, but it does have the limitation that it is open to manipulation from all sides.

http://ecologics.wordpress.com/2009/07/05/the-catholic-church%E2%80%99s-true-colours-cardinal-oscar-andres-rodriguez-maradiaga/