CNA Staff, Oct 20, 2020 / 06:00 pm (CNA).-
The pastor of a parish destroyed by arson in Santiago, Chile on Sunday has urged local Catholics to reject temptations toward revenge, and to place their hope in unity with Jesus Christ.
Fr. Pedro Narbona, pastor of the Church of the Assumption in Santiago, Chile, which was destroyed by arsonists Oct. 18 called on people to open their hearts “without hatred and without revenge” and to “deeply reflect on the Chile that we want to build.”
“Death and pain don’t have the last word, rather hope and life always have the last word. The one who triumphs is always Our Lord and we are upheld by him and united with him,” Narbona told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner.
The priest said he was especially concerned because “with so much destruction, so much hatred and revenge” those most affected are the poor. “And in this case, a specific community that has seen the historic place where they meet and worship vandalized twice, three times.”
El dolor no tiene la última palabra mientras la esperanza y la vida vivan en la humanidad. (Parroquia La Asunción y Parroquia Francisco de Borja tras el ataque del 18 octubre) pic.twitter.com/94SKEsto5v
— Giselle Vargas ن (@Giselle_VN) October 19, 2020
“This is a living place,” Narbona said of his parish, where people “trust that Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd leads them through dark valleys and we fear nothing. The certainty and the strength that it gives us now is that, without hatred, without revenge, we may open our hearts to deeply reflect on the Chile that we want to build.”
Narbona was alluding to an Oct. 25 referendum in Chile on a new constitution that would replace the current one written in 1980 under the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli tutti “invites us to dream of the world we want, the country we want; we want an open country, a welcoming country, a country where we can all sit at the table, but truly everyone, with no one excluded,” Narbona said.
“Chile, as our bishops say, has a vocation to understanding, not confrontation, Chile is called to be a country of brothers where everyone has his daily bread, respect and joy. That is what’s fundamental, what’s most important. Opening our hearts to hope, to Jesus Christ.”
The priest asked believers to “find light and peace–may the Lord disarm our hands, cool off our heads and open our hearts to dialogue,” which would be the best thing that could happen, Narbona concluded.
Chilean police are investigating the church fire. After that, Narbona and diocesan officials say they will evaluate how to rebuild the parish community spiritually, morally and physically.
The Church of the Assumption had previously been attacked by looters in November 2019. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, it has been difficult for the community to begin rebuilding.
A few weeks ago, Masses and pastoral life resumed, putting in place the measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
On Sunday, at the same time that Narbona’s parish was lit ablaze, rioters also attacked nearby St. Francis Borgia Church, which serves the national police force. The two churches are located in Santiago’s downtown area near Plaza de Italia, where demonstrations began that day.
Both churches were looted, tagged with slogans, and completely burned, with bell towers and roofs coming down in the conflagration.
The Chilean Investigative Police and other federal police forces are still investigating the blazes. Some arrests have already been made.
The attacks came as demonstrators across the country marked the one-year anniversary of large anti-government protests that took place across Chile last year, during which riots destroyed supermarkets and other businesses, and reportedly caused more than 30 deaths.
The demonstrations began last October in Santiago over a now-suspended increase in subway fares. Other regions joined in the protests, expanding their grievances to inequality and the cost of healthcare.
Since last October 57 churches and religious buildings have been attacked in Chile.
Adding to that total, a large outdoor statue of the Virgin Mary in Pirque, a town located on the outskirts of Santiago, was doused with red paint and tagged with anti-Catholic abortion slogans on Oct. 18. The green neckerchief adopted by abortion advocates in Latin America was tied around Our Lady’s face.
On Monday night, unidentified vandals smashed windows, tagged, and tried to burn down Saint Francis of Assisi Church in Serena, Chile, about 245 miles north of Santiago. A quick response by the local unit of the national police put the vandals to flight and prevented further damage.
This report was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Another political stunt.
SOL,
I expect some people got inspired to participate in this for political reasons but still, good for the KC helping these folks at Christmas time.
I don’t like immigration used as a tool to gain political power & a larger constituency for Democrats either, but you know without it we’re going to be in the same kind of demographic implosion as Europe & Japan face. Look at the current US birth rates. Pretty dismal.
The strategy should be to attract honest, hardworking Christian folk from South of the border & not alienate them so that they run straight into the arms of liberal politicians who want to use them to overturn conservative states like TX.
I don’t believe liberal Democrats have the immigrants’ best interest-witness their campaign to abort migrant girls’ infants. But liberals claim to & they don’t publicly show the hostility that many of our conservatives do. We might could learn something from that.
Why not try the novel idea of increasing the native American birthrate? There are many valid reasons to declare an immigration moratorium and no good ones for continuing mass Third World immigration.
Tony,
Amen to your comments. And if demographic trends continue, the majority population will eventually be traditional Catholics, Amish, orthodox Jews, and others who bother to reproduce themselves. But that may take some time.
Mrscracker, the groups you list will be swamped by the dispararte (they are hardly all Latin American or Christian) Third World mob that is being ushered into this country by a treasonous elite. They will be united, temporarily, anyway, by their resentment of the country that was foolish enough to let them in. When the remnant middle class backbone of Americais finally vanquished, the war of all against all that is barely being suppressed today, will begin in earnest. May I ask if you at least oppose Muslim immigration into Western countries?
Mrscracker,
In an age of the ongoing collapse of industrial systems predicated upon cheap energy and easy access to resources, the problem of population implosion will eventually take care of itself, as those who are willing to surmount the hardship and reproduce will replace those who cannot.
The case for increasing the population through the reception of immigrants is one predicated upon infinite growth, which is not sustainable, and as you noted, aids the leftist revolutionaries. Immigrants are already alienated in so far as they have and seek to maintain a different identity and wishful thinking will not cause integration or their voluntary abandonment of their identity. And hostility by those being overwhelmed by them is a natural and just response. Violence is more likely than not if their numbers continue to increase. At this point the consequences are probably already in motion and very little can probably be done to prevent them. What can be done though is for Roman Catholics to preserve the credibility of their church and religion, but their bishops are ignorant of the dangers of the current situation and they are content to think the status quo can eventually favor their institution.
In continuing their current course Latin bishops will discredit themselves and their religion if and when there is a reaction to the status quo and the elites behind it.
Well stated, SOL. Based on their extreme leftist position on immigration alone, it is very hard for this practicing Catholic to regard the great majority of the Church hierarchy as being anything other than an enemy of my family, country and civilization.
SOL,
Thank you for your comments too.
Our plummeting fertility rates don’t foretell anything like infinite growth. More likely shrinking and aging. Without immigration that’s going to happen a whole lot sooner.
A smaller population isn’t the problem as much as an age imbalanced population. If you take a look at the demographic data and projections you see increasing numbers of elderly and fewer and fewer young people entering the workforce.
Birth rates are falling globally in all but a couple regions. One day we may wish we had more Christian immigrants to fill the empty places in our nation.
I don’t believe mass immigration is a good idea nor do I believe in open borders but Americans seem to have so little appreciation of their own culture that they can’t be bothered to create another generation to pass it down to.
The economic system and the decisions of the elites are based on the fantasy of infinite growth.
“but Americans seem to have so little appreciation of their own culture that they can’t be bothered to create another generation to pass it down to.”
I suspect this may be more true of blue urban areas than red rural areas, which have other difficulties.
See this link for more on infinite growth: https://psmag.com/.amp/magazine/fallacy-of-endless-growth
Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem to comply with the census. How many people were in the same boat and were there because of the census? The story of Mary and Joseph not finding a room at an inn could be a story of a community overwhelmed by there being more people than the community could handle at one time.
*
The USA may be a rich powerful nation, but it does not have unlimited resources. There are only so many people that the USA can admit at one time while maintaining an orderly immigration process. A responsible host doesn’t invite more guests than the host can provide hospitality for. Illegal immigrants are gate-crashers. The mess at the Southern border is what happens when you have a large number of gate-crashers.
SOL,
Thank you very much for the link to that article.
I think that illustrates exactly what the misconceptions are about population. People are still basing their fears on theories from the 1970’s. It’s not 1972 anymore and things have changed dramatically.
Population implosion is what we need to be concerned about in the coming decades.
Though it’s certainly not a Catholic book and the author doesn’t hold our views on contraception, etc., I’d really recommend reading “Factfulness ” by Hans Rosling. Things really have changed globally and will continue to change. Not necessarily for the better, but not what was predicted in 1972 either.
God bless!