Wednesday, December 07, 2016

PARAGUAY - "The indigenous suffer indifference, misunderstanding and lack of respect for their rights", denounces Mgr. Alfert

During Mass on Sunday, December 4, in the Basilica of Caacupé, the Bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Pilcomayo, His Exc. Mgr. Lucio Alfert, O.M.I. criticized the treatment given to the indigenous of Paraguay. 

He urged young people to be the hope for ethnic groups and thus to put an end to injustice, inequality and rejection towards this sector of the population. 

"God created us all differently but with the same dignity", said Mgr. Alfert during the homily, and added: "we are called to live fraternally in a multiethnic and multicultural society".

According to information sent to Fides, the celebration was attended by about 2,500 indigenous from different parts of the country, mostly from Chaco. For this reason, a reading of the Mass and the prayers of the faithful were read in Nivaclé, the native language of Paraguay.


The Bishop complained that "for society being different is wrong". 


This generates rejection, mockery and lack of respect for the fundamental rights of the indigenous communities", he reiterated. "The real problem of the Paraguayans is ignorance of different cultures. Among us, the indigenous people are the ones who suffer indifference, misunderstanding, are driven away from their land, their rights are not respected", he said.

He therefore harshly condemned politicians and drug traffickers who use ancestral lands for their particular purposes, abusing those who live there.

"It will not be easy to dream a new home if there are people with too much power; I just hope they listen to St. John the Baptist, who defines these people as a brood of vipers" concluded the Bishop.