Cardinal Lopez Rodriguez defends right of Church to speak out in Ecuador

16-08-2008

Guayaquil, Aug 16, 2008 / 03:00 pm (CNA).-
The Archbishop of Santo Domingo, Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Rodriguez,
defended the right of the Church to speak out on issues that affect
society, in a reference to the imminent referendum on the new
Constitution for Ecuador.

During a press conference before his talk on "The laity in public
life" at the American Missionary Congress in Quito, the cardinal said,
"The Church has always had the right to speak her opinion," as "no
issue related to citizenship is foreign to her.  She has done so even
in more adverse circumstances in Ecuador and that is nothing new," he
said.

He went on by explaining that it is "an unjust simplification" to
say that there the "left-wing priests are with the people and the
right-wing ones are with the elites."

"We must remember that our people have a faith foundation that
cannot be distorted or reinterpreted.  Theology has its own field and
you cannot have theology with Marxist categories," he explained.