The Church in Brazil has condemned the priorities of the Brazilian authorities in their hosting of the World Cup by publishing pamphlets shaped like referees’ red cards.
In the pamphlets, which have been distributed in dioceses around the country, the bishops urged the Government to allow peaceful protests against the tournament. There have been widespread demonstrations against the competition’s £6.5 billion budget and accusations that the police have responded with excessive force.
The bishops also called on the Government to prevent sexual exploitation of its citizens during the month-long tournament.
Austro-Brazilian Bishop Erwin Kräutler of Xingu in the Brazilian Rain Forest said the demonstrators are “laying bare Brazil’s real face”, and demanded “FIFA-standards” for hospitals, schools, universities and public transport.
He said that millions of Brazilians regard the billions of dollars that have been spent on hosting the World Cup as “catastrophic stupidity”.
“The deafening cheers after possibly winning another world championship will be followed by the blues when we find ourselves back in our cruel and unjust real world,” he he told the Austrian daily Kleine Zeitung on a visit to Austria.
He went on: “As long as patients in hospitals have to lie in the corridor, people waiting in the long queues at the local health facilities fall over dead, workers have to travel to work in buses that are crammed full like sardine tins, and there aren’t even proper desks for schoolchildren, it’s simply scandalous to waste billions on football stadiums.”
It was easily foreseeable that many of the stadiums would turn out to be “white elephants” after the championship was over because there would not be enough spectators to fill them, he said.
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