Pleas to end looting as police strike for pay rise

Argentina’s bishops have denounced widespread looting that erupted last week during police strikes in provinces across the country. In a meeting with President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the president of the bishops’ conference, Archbishop José María Arancedo, said that the dispute over pay should not have been allowed to happen.

The looting, which left at least 13 people dead and hundreds of properties wrecked, began when police in the city of Córdoba went on strike over their wages. The strike spread quickly to other towns and cities as more police forces demanded pay rises. With the streets unguarded, people took advantage of the situation to loot shops and supermarkets. Meanwhile, self-appointed vigilantes gathered weapons to defend their neighbourhoods.

The Archbishop of Córdoba, Carlos Náñez, told parishioners at Mass that Pope Francis had rung him to find out what was going on. “He asked that we should try to connect with each other again so that we can find peace,” said the archbishop.

President Kirchner requested the meeting with Archbishop Arancedo and other members of the hierarchy, after the bishops put out a statement on the crisis calling for “attitudes which compromise peace and security” to be put aside. “We shouldn’t deny that there are problems but take responsibility for them and try to resolve them through sincere and constructive dialogue,” they said.
Archbishop Arancedo told Mrs Kirchner: “The conflict with the police cannot leave a city orphaned. This must not be repeated.”

The president quoted the archbishop on her Twitter feed and suggested that the police had organised the looting to force the hand of local governments in pay negotiations.
Many provincial governments have now agreed to increase the wages of police forces.

For the first time in Argentina, a diocese has publicly asked for forgiveness for abuse committed by a priest, and offered compensation to victims. In a letter read in every church in the Diocese of San Isidro, Bishop Oscar Ojea apologised to victims of Jose Mercau, now serving a 14-year prison sentence for the abuse of at least four children aged 11 to 15 at a children’s home.