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International Affairs
Presidential Elections in Chile:
Political and Ecclesiastical Scheming
Jorge Zamora, Chile
A note on Chile’s political situation - From 1964 to 1970 the President of the country was Eduardo Frey Montalva, a member of the Christian Democratic Party (CDP), who paved the way for the victory of Marxist Salvador Allende in 1970. After three years of a bold communist government, Allende was deposed by an anti-communist coup d’État led by General Augusto Pinochet. The latter governed Chile as a dictator until 1988, when he lost a referendum to govern the country for the next eight years.
Patricio Aylwin, a member of the CDP was elected President (1990-1994). His successor, CDP member Eduardo Frey Ruiz (1994-2000), paved the way – as did his father – for socialist Ricardo Lagos to be elected (2000-2006). Michele Bachelet, a socialist and a former member of Allende’s Marxist Youth, was elected president in 2006.
The next president will be elected on December 11, 2009. The electorate is tending toward the right, and the Catholic Episcopate is also using its prestige to influence the elections. Jorge Zamora writes on what will be decided for Chile in the next month. TIA
Some days ago the candidate of the right, Sebastian Piñera, endorsed a document, the Co-Habitation Agreement, which presents his plan to regulate marital liaisons in Chile. Such liaisons represent a spurious replacement for the Catholic family founded upon the Sacrament of the Matrimony, whose paradigm is the Holy Family.
Piñera, the right's candidate, promotes a law to legalize homosexual marriages |
Piñera’s proposed legislation offers legally binding civil unions to couples, including couples of the same sex. Also when it deals with the inheritance of those unions, it recognizes the “legitimacy” of same-sex unions, by giving couples protection in the areas of shared assets, inheritance and making medical decisions on the part of their partners. Any of such unions could be made by a couple’s appearing before notary or civil registry officials.
Someone could object: “These unions do not harm the social order.” This is not true. Imagine if drug dealers would be recognized as a legitimate association. One could also allege that they do not harm social order. Such approval, however, would lower the public morality and give the drug dealers a great victory. Something much graver happens with homosexual unions. By admitting their legality, the Natural Order and Catholic Morals are destroyed and the door is opened for further radical requests such as the “right” to adopt children.
We see that Piñera seems to be inaugurating a new right that accommodates the leftist and socialist agenda. This right is being launched with little protest from optimistic and sluggish conservatives who always choose the “lesser evil” in order to keep peace.
Why is Piñera’s election a lesser evil? The new right he represents is the only possible alternative to avoid another term of a corrupt socialist government, which has controlled the country for almost two decades. Indeed, this right has a great chance of winning the coming elections. So, our alternative is either a right that promotes homosexual unions and the morning-after pill that produces abortions or another term of the leftist coalition, which has degraded Chilean society - still with many convictions of its Christian past - to the lowest level of morality it has ever seen.
No one should accept the “lesser evil” without conditions. Catholics should demand a clear-cut commitment from Mr. Piñera not to violate the precepts of Natural Order and Catholic doctrine. Among other points, they should firmly reject giving the same-sex couple legal footing as the legitimate family and oppose free distribution of the morning-after pill in public health centers. If Catholics do not act now to corral this new right into appropriate moral boundaries, they will be accomplices of a government that can be more lethal than the Socialism that we have had enough of in Chile.
The clergy supports homosexual unions
Bishop Goic, left, cordially meets with Rolando Jimenez, leader of the Chilean homosexual movement |
Resistance is coming from more conservative areas of the right, which sees the Piñera plan as an enormous triumph for the homosexuals. In face of this, we are seeing Catholic Pastors stepping in to assist the wolf’s advance against the flock Our Lord gave them to protect. For example, Fr. Felipe Berrios, SJ, is supporting the pro-homosexual lobby groups and publicly backing the proposal for homosexual couples. “It would be unjust not to do so,” he affirmed. (1)
Many Catholics spoke out against the Jesuit’s support for this measure, waiting for him to be deservedly chastised by the Bishops. What happened?
Instead of a punishment, Bishop Alejandro Goic, President of the Chilean Episcopal Conference, also defended the pro-homosexual legislation in an interview with Agricultura Radio. (2) Shortly afterward, he was applauded by the Homosexual Liberation Movement, which issued a release stating: “We sincerely thank the Church for her recognition of homo and hetero couples living together and for her advice to regulate their common patrimony.”
Even the Archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Francisco Errazuriz, praised the measure. In a television interview, the Prelate commended the proposal, offering this justification, “These are realities that we have to face: The many couples living in Chile without marriage constitute a reality” (3). He added that the document “is, however, very rudimentary.”
Card. Errazuriz in 2000, after singing a Te Deum for the inauguration of socialist President Ricardo Lagos |
What does “rudimentary” mean here? It would seem that the Cardinal thinks that all the pro-homosexual pressure exerted these last years to promote homosexual “marriage” is just the first step.
So, instead of clearly condemning this measure and giving a sound orientation to the faithful and politicians, we have more confusion being caused by the principal religious authority of our country.
It is sad to say, but what we are seeing is Pastors who are demolishing Morals by anesthetizing the consciences and discouraging the political resistance of Catholics against homosexual “marriage.” Those called by Our Lord to guide the flock are plotting with the wolf that threatens to destroy what remains of the Christian Order.
Yesterday, it was the unconditional support of the Chilean Bishops that maintained Communist and Socialist regimes. Today, they unconditionally support a pro-homosexual effort. They do so right before the elections – when their orientation is so crucial and decisive.
1. El Mercurio, October 17, 2009.
2. El Mercurio, October 15, 2009, “Gays valoran que la Iglesia apoye regulación a uniones de hecho”
3. http://www.emol.com/noticias/nacional/detalle/detallenoticias.asp?idnoticia=380740
Posted November 5, 2009
Jorge Zamora first published this article in Spanish on his blog
El Cruzado
A site to expose Socialism, Communism and the Revolution in the Church
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