Bishops accuse politicians over ‘cancer of corruption’

The Argentinian bishops have said that the country is suffering from the “cancer” of corruption and is “sick with violence”.

In their boldest statement since the election of Pope Francis, the bishops said that corruption was “a social cancer causing death and injustice” and that it permeated private and public life.

“The diversion of funds intended for public projects means basic services such as health, transport and education have become inefficient,” they said, adding that “financial and moral fraud corrodes public confidence in our institutions and lays the foundations for lifestyles characterised by lack of respect for the law”.

The statement, published at the end of the bishops’ plenary assembly last week, also claimed that violence in Argentina was becoming “ever more ferocious and merciless”.

The bishops’ statement was supported by opposition leaders but dismissed by the Government, with President Cristina Kirchner accusing those who claimed that “the Argentina of today is violent” of trying to “revisit old disputes”.

This week the Bishop of Humahuaca, Pedro Olmedo, responded, saying “it’s no good trying to cover the sun with your hand” because “we cannot solve the problems if we don’t recognise what they are”.

The bishops were criticised by Estela de Carlotto, leader of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, the group campaigning for information about people who disappeared during the Argentinian dictatorship of the 1970s. “They didn’t speak out during the dictatorship which kidnapped so many people,” she said, “and now they’re alarmed because there’s violence.” Bishop Olmedo replied saying, “that is not a reason not to speak out now – just the opposite, we must speak out.”