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Cardinal: Walls Aren't Solution for Immigration
Submitted by jcussen on Thu, 06/26/2008 - 11:45am.
Story summary:
The Honduran cardinal who is president of Caritas Internationalis says walls are not the solution for immigration issues, and that the real answer lies in helping poor countries. Later, the cardinal spoke with Vatican Radio about the challenges facing Latin America, including emigration. He affirmed that "the solution does not lie in building walls, but instead in helping poor countries." The cardinal addressed other "thorny problems and issues" in Latin America and, in particular, Honduras, "such as the increase in the number of poor, due, above all, to the increase of the price of petrol and of basic goods." Some 70% of Honduras' 7 million inhabitants live below the poverty line.
Cardinal: Walls Aren't Solution for Immigration
Caritas President Says Development Is Real Answer.
Zenit
6-26-08
The Honduran cardinal who is president of Caritas Internationalis says walls are not the solution for immigration issues, and that the real answer lies in helping poor countries.
Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga and other Honduran bishops visited Benedict XVI on Tuesday for their five-yearly visit.
Later, the cardinal spoke with Vatican Radio about the challenges facing Latin America, including emigration. He affirmed that "the solution does not lie in building walls, but instead in helping poor countries."
"No one emigrates for pleasure, but out of necessity," he explained. "When young people can't find work, they must necessarily look for it in other places, if they are not to enter the drug circuit.
"We are convinced that the international community must recognize that development cannot exclude anyone, and solidarity and justice must prevail. Without solidarity and social justice, in fact, it is difficult to have peace."
The cardinal addressed other "thorny problems and issues" in Latin America and, in particular, Honduras, "such as the increase in the number of poor, due, above all, to the increase of the price of petrol and of basic goods."
Some 70% of Honduras' 7 million inhabitants live below the poverty line.
"The cancellation of the foreign debt has not created the conditions for the country's re-launching, in part, because money is used to buy fuel, indispensable for the production of energy," Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga lamented.
Along with these challenges, the cardinal said he believes that in Honduras, the difficulties faced by families are the Church's priority.
In this context, the archbishop of Tegucigalpa said that "an evangelization effort is needed so that the social doctrine of the Church can reach everywhere, including the political-institutional realm."
"When positions of power are attained, it seems that the common good is forgotten," he lamented. "Moreover, where there is poverty there is the temptation of easy money and the penetration of drug trafficking."