The citizens of Chile will participate this Sunday, June 29 of the presidential primary elections, towards the general day of November. Within that framework, the archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Fernando Chomali, held an encounter with the presidency candidates and handed them an open letter.
The meeting was attended by the candidates Marco Enriquez-Oominami, Johannes Kaiser, Jeanette Jara, Jaime Mulet, Evelyn Matthei, Ximena Rincón, Carolina Tohá and Gonzalo Winter; And it had the objective of promoting, among them and for the population of Chile, respect, dialogue and commitment to the common good.
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In addition to the candidates and candidates, presidents and representatives of the political parties participating in the election process also attended the meeting.
There, Cardinal Chomali gave each one a open letter in which he values his vocation of public service and encourages them to lead with principles, country vision and sense of responsibility against future generations.
In his letter, the Cardinal relies on the idea that “Chile can have an election process of great height in the political, the human and the intellectual.” From there, it offers the contribution and reflection of the Church, aimed at making the educational dimension of all political activity.
Also, and in Pope Francis’s words, he asks “about the world that we are going to leave future generations”, asking that “we do not steal that a better world among all can build it.”
Going to the candidates, in the first place, the cardinal congratulated you for participating in politics, since in a society marked by individualism and indifference, “you with decision and courage are in the public sphere to opt for the seat of the next president of the Republic.”
He also highlighted their courage, “since the most discredited activity in Chile and the one that enjoys less confidence in citizenship is the political sphere,” reality that are called to reverse.
What is at stake, he said, is the common good, “that is, those social, economic and spiritual conditions that allow people to develop as such and reach their maximum realization,” and warned that the actions of political instances “largely hits the solidity of democracy and the rule of law.”
For this reason, he considered vital to strengthen political parties, in an environment “very complex, extremely crucible and sometimes violent, all in a very painful social fragmentation process.”
The purple added another motivation to his letter: to encourage them to be referents for young people, in a scenario in which education in the country “has been impoverished”, where violence has grown in educational establishments, and society is marked by consumption and easy and instant success; added to the family “is increasingly disintegrated.”
Given all this, the Cardinal called politicians to “make the elections of June and the November elections a master class of respect for the dignity of the human being, of civic education, of love of the homeland.”
“Young people can’t wait!” He exclaimed, encouraging them to be “worthy of imitating” for respect for the ideas of others and dialogue.
“The elections are called to become for the candidates in a great space to make the best of the human being such as the use of adequate language, unrestricted respect for the political adversary, the attentive listening of the position of the other, the debate with ideas and not disqualifications, avoid the ironies that humiliate the adversary,” he insisted.
“I encourage these elections to be a master class for humanity and civility. Making it possible to aspire as a country to a superior culture,” he said.
“They are not the protagonists and less the activists of an disrespectful contest, full of hatred and huses. Ask them if with this word they are contributing to generate a climate of respect or not; if they are contributing to the citizenship making a serene discernment to choose their candidate, or are promoting the odious divisions that in Chile have ended very badly,” he advised.
“Let’s never forget that before being of this or that party, of this or that coalition, of thinking in this or that way, we are human beings whose dignity cannot be injured under any pretext,” he recalled.
“How well it would do the country if, in addition, we introduce fraternity as a central element in political and public life,” the Archbishop yearned, highlighting that “the values of the human being who seeks, by virtue of its nature, aspire to truth and justice, to the common good and peace must encourage every candidacy.”
Finally, the candidates who declare themselves Catholics, especially encouraged them to “clearly and unambiguously”, show that the values of the Gospel and the teachings of the social doctrine of the Church are the foundation of their actions.
Julieta Villar
I am a journalist, a graduate in Communication from the National University of La Matanza in Argentina. I have work experience in non -governmental organizations. Since 2016 I dedicate myself to Catholic journalism, first in the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA) and, since 2022, as a correspondent for ACI Press for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia.