AMERICA/PARAGUAY – The Archbishop of Asunción: increasing the salaries of politicians instead of supporting the poorest is “immoral”
Thursday, 7 November 2019
Luque (Agenzia Fides) – The request to increase the salaries of politicians instead of allocating money to create and strengthen health, education and housing programs for the most vulnerable sectors of the population is “immoral”: is what was denounced by the Archbishop of Asunción, Mgr. Edmundo Valenzuela, during a press conference held yesterday, on the occasion of the Plenary Assembly of the Bishops’ Conference of Paraguay, held in Luque (see Fides, 5/11/2019) and takes into consideration the main issues related to the social and ecclesial reality of the country.
During the press conference, Mgr. Valenzuela stressed that the request for an increase in salaries is only convenient for politicians, and added: “we already know that with politicians we will certainly not have justice and solidarity”. He then reiterated that the request is “immoral” precisely because there is no interest on behalf of the authorities to increase the budget for health, education and housing, in particular for those sectors that are at continuous risk.
The Archbishop has invited representatives of political parties to reconsider the request and rethink the situation taking the events occurred in Chile and Bolivia as an example, as this “can be a cause of revolt, following injustices, because of unjust reality”.
“With the money given to politicians, there is no progress. At least we have not seen it so far. We demand that good public money is well used in programs that promote the development of family farming, education and health that are always threatened”, reiterated Mgr. Valenzuela.
Although through the Tekoporà program of the Ministry of Social Development, 612 thousand people in extreme poverty receive a bonus for basic services, the reality of the approximately 7 million inhabitants of Paraguay is that poor families in extreme need increase every day. Furthermore, in family support programs, indigenous families are penalized for receiving lower subsidies.
The meeting of the Bishops will culminate on Friday 8 November. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 7/11/2019)
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Publish date : 2019-11-07 03:00:00
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