Churches question impeachment process

Brazil’s Christian Churches have united in concern at attempts to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, writes Francis McDonagh. The bishops’ conference’s National Justice and Peace Commission expressed “immense apprehension”, while the National Council of Christian Churches spoke of its “great concern”.

Criticism is concentrated on the role of the speaker of the lower house of the Brazilian Congress, Eduardo Cunha, in allowing the impeachment bill to proceed when he is accused of being a ­beneficiary of the long-running “car-wash” corruption scandal associated with the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras. Rousseff is accused of irregularities in ­campaign funding and of mis­representing public accounts, but not illicit personal enrichment.