Methodist sees hope in new Uruguay ruler
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Photo courtesy of Oscar Bolioli The Rev. Oscar Bolioli (left) is president of the Methodist Church in Uruguay.
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The
Rev. Oscar Bolioli (left) is president of the Methodist Church in
Uruguay. With a newly elected leftist government in power, many people
are feeling a mixture of fear and hope for change, he says. A UMNS photo
courtesy of Oscar Bolioli. Photo # . Accompanies UMNS story #008,
1/6/05. |
Jan. 5, 2005By Manuel Quintero* QUITO,
Uruguay (ENI) — The year 2004 was notable for the emerging of left-wing
governments in Latin America, and a Protestant leader believes that in
Uruguay, this could lead to a change in the privileged position the
dominant Roman Catholic Church has held. In
Uruguay, voters participating in October elections — the first since a
severe economic crisis two years earlier — chose the country’s first
leftist president, Tabare Vazquez, who will take over leadership of the
country in March. "One
thing is for sure: Uruguay will not change drastically," said the Rev.
Oscar Bolioli, president of the Methodist Church in Uruguay, commenting
on the left-wing victory. But
the election result represented a key step forward for a historically
fragmented left, as it "acted together," he acknowledged. "Most
people in the country live a feeling of relief mixed up with hope. Hope
that hunger will end; that children will go back to school rather than
working to earn their living at the traffic lights; that our youth won’t
need to emigrate; that parents don’t have to search in other people’s
garbage to find crumbs of food," noted Bolioli, who worked for many
years with the U.S. National Council of Churches. The
new leftist government could also bring about changes in the situation
of the churches, starting with the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic
Church has had a privileged relationship with the ruling parties for
more than 200 years in the country of some 3.4 million people, of whom about 66 percent are Catholics and fewer than 5 percent Protestants. The
Catholic Bishops Conference had requested a dialogue with the new
left-wing coalition government, Bolioli said. But the government was
slow to respond to the requests, "despite the fact that most leaders in
the elected government are Roman Catholics." Protestant
churches were historically close to the left-wing forces when it came
to defending human rights, said the Uruguayan Methodist leader. The key
issue now, he said, was "to deepen a relationship which is not
politically opportunist" but one that can "help the country to move forward, and heal the deep wounds that still exist in the social fabric." But
Bolioli asserted that evangelical churches — which, he said, had
remained silent during the military dictatorship that ended in 1985 —
had started using old arguments about the "dangers of a leftist regime."
"We
have already seen some of these arguments that were used in the 1960s,
at the time of the Cuban Revolution, saying that the government will
‘close churches’ and Christians will have serious difficulties to preach
the Gospel," Bolioli said. "Of
course, nobody expects a miracle," the Methodist leader noted. "But as a
friend told me, if this government doesn’t steal, or practice nepotism,
we shall see the difference." *Quintero is a writer for Ecumenical News International. News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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