(ANS - Tegucigalpa)- During his homily at Mass on 19 September, the Salesian Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, spoke about the recent incidents of violence in the country. "The world has no future without God and without the values ​​of the Gospel ...  Honduras is sick, sick with hatred. We cannot go on like this, hatred only produces more violence and hatred."

According to a note sent to Fides by local sources, the Cardinal referred to the murder last week of a Honduran lawyer who had led the defence of a deputy and three of his family members involved in an alleged fraud against the state. In recent years Honduras, with 8.2 million inhabitants, has experienced a wave of violence which, according to human rights organizations and local media, caused an average of twenty deaths per day.

Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga continued: "Honduras belongs to all its people, and there is no place for an ideology that allows only one way of thinking. We all think differently but this does not make us enemies to be eliminated. Life is sacred, only God is the master of life."  He also said that an economic system that looks only for maximum profit leads to injustice and suffering for many human beings.  The economic crisis in Honduras is made worse by the plight of poor immigrants.

In this century, the world opens its arms to immigrants but, on the contrary, "builds walls everywhere," emulating the Middle Ages, when they built "the city surrounded by walls to allow no one to enter.” He also complained about the economic crisis that affects young Honduran migrants, forcing them to leave the country. "If in Honduras there is a will to change, to fight corruption and seek justice, this can be done, but it must be done without violence or hatred" warned the Cardinal.

Published 22/09/2015