Catholics demand freedom of worship in Bolivia

The Archbishop of Santa Cruz, Cardinal Julio Terrazas, has demanded that the Catholic faith and freedom of worship be respected in Bolivia, in the wake of the destruction of a chapel in the Diocese of El Alto.

During Sunday Mass, the cardinal commented that there are “some signs of concern, which we must think about with fraternal charity, because all of us as Catholics have been hurt by what has happened at the parish in our sister diocese. To destroy a parish, just because of some harassers, is hurtful. This cannot be permitted,” he said.

“We don’t need to take up arms to defend ourselves, but our people demand to be respected, that our way of worshiping our God be respected, that all efforts built to help those in need be respected and protected,” the cardinal added.

He also demanded that freedom of worship and religion be upheld. “Catholics are not a minority religion here and therefore it is important that if we have defects or errors that we be told, if something needs to be corrected, it will be corrected, but not by trampling upon us, because trampling upon others always leads to negative consequences.”

Cardinal Terrazas went on to point out that the Church is the bearer of peace, which is so greatly needed in our times in which terror “seems to have taken over everything, in which fear is increasing among our people. We need the peace of God, this is the first fruit that we need to bear and that the Lord wants.