President Nicolas Maduro Archives

En route to Colombia, Pope addresses U.S., Venezuelan leaders

Both the United States and Venezuela were among the countries to which Pope Francis sent telegrams while passing over their airspace en route to Colombia on Wednesday. As is customary, Francis avoided commenting on political developments in either country, but it’s likely people in both may have been hoping he’d offer up a special prayer.

Maduro calls on Francis to help ‘prevent Trump from sending troops’ to Venezuela

Embattled authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro has asked Pope Francis to “help us prevent Trump from sending troops” to Venezuela. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Maduro also criticized the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who’s currently in Russia, where he’s discussed the Venezuelan crisis with Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister.

Parolin and Russian Foreign Minister discuss Middle East, Ukraine

Vatican Secretary of State, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed a vast array of topics during their meeting on August 22. On the agenda were the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, religious freedom and violence in Venezuela.

Venezuela’s Maduro says line of Vatican’s top diplomat is ‘regrettable’
- Global Church
- August 5, 2017
On Friday, the Vatican’s Secretariat of State called on Venezuela to suspend a Constituent Assembly, aimed at re-writing the national constitution. According to Socialist President Nicolás Maduro, the Vatican has succumbed to the “violence against the Bolivarian Revolution, Venezuela’s legitimate government and Venezuela as a whole.”
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Vatican’s strong Venezuela stand gives backing to bishops
- Commentary, Global Church
- August 5, 2017
In the aftermath of Sunday’s vote for Maduro’s new constituent assembly – boycotted by the opposition – the government seized opposition leaders and continued its killing of protesters in the streets. The Venezuelan bishops stood with the opposition, and with the protesters. Now the Vatican has forcefully called on the government to back down.
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Vatican calls on Venezuela to suspend constitutional assembly
- Global Church
- August 4, 2017
In a statement released on Friday, the Vatican called on the Government of Nicolas Maduro to consider the “avoidance or suspension of ongoing initiatives such as the new constitutional assembly,” which would give the president the power to re-write the constitution and govern by decree. The Holy See also asked for the security forces to abstain from “excessive and disproportionate use of violence.”
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