SAN MIGUEL, Argentina, NOV. 14, 2001 (Zenit.org).- Archbishop Estanislao Karlic of Parana, president of the Argentine episcopal conference, appealed to the country to end moral corruption at all states of life.
He called on his country to “acknowledge its sins, with sincere repentance and a firm determination to change its conduct, to end all moral corruption in the family and society, in the economy and politics.”
The archbishop expressed these ideas during the opening Mass of the three-day plenary assembly of the bishops´ conference, being held in San Miguel. The assembly ends Thursday.
His comments came at the height of a financial crisis in this nation of 37 million.
Although “our evils are profound and prolonged, this has not changed our divine end,” Archbishop Karlic said. “We are always faced with the iniquity of sin and the mystery of the mercy of God. It is the spiritual battle that individuals and peoples must face.”
The president of the episcopal conference reminded his fellow-bishops that they are “servants of God, of his sacraments, signs and instruments of his mercy, so that Argentina will increasingly be a nation of brothers.”
“Our service of the Gospel is to proclaim the truth that the Son of God became man so that man might be a son of God, living in the great family of brothers which is the Church, to transmit the important human and Christian values of fraternity and solidarity to the surrounding society,” Archbishop Karlic said.
He added: “Only a solidarity based on love and the fruit of love will offer hope for a stable foundation in the construction of a just and fraternal society.”
