AN UNEXPECTED item popped up on the
agenda of Pope Francis in recent days. Although the meeting did not feature in
his pre-announced weekly schedule, on June 8th it became known that he had
squeezed in some time to confer with six bishops from Venezuela, one of the
most troubled places in the historically Catholic world. The visitors declared
afterwards that they had stressed their absolute loyalty to the pontiff, and
that he in turn had expressed his “full trust” in them. Neither statement is a
platitude. There is massive contention over the role which the church has
played and could play in halting a lurch towards civil war and humanitarian
disaster in Venezuela, which is overwhelmingly Catholic. More…
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