Government of Venezuela prevents Cardinal Baltazar Porras from celebrating Mass

Cardinal Baltazar Porras, Archbishop Emeritus of Caracas, denounced this Saturday a series of irregularities that prevented him from traveling to the town of Isnotú — birthplace of San José Gregorio Hernández — to celebrate a Mass of thanksgiving for the canonizations of the first saints of Venezuela.

“Last night, first of all, we received a call that the vice minister of cults had made to the Episcopal Conference saying that it was inconvenient for me to be present in Isnotú, because they had news of disturbances or things that were going to take place there,” said the cardinal in a complaint. posted on his Instagram account.

The cardinal reported that on Friday night he had received the news that his flight, on the state airline Conviasa, had been suspended. However, he assured, that same flight “departed and arrived correctly” but without him. For this reason, he said that he decided to take a private flight from Caracas to Valera, located 20 minutes from Isnotú.

“When we are in the air, the pilots are informed that we have to make a stopover in Barquisimeto, because there are very strong winds at the Valera airport and that it is closed until the afternoon. Which we did, but we began to realize that something strange was happening,” said the archbishop emeritus.

“We managed to have direct information that the Valera airport was not closed and that different flights continued to arrive. But the militarization that was taking place at the Barquisimeto airport itself is striking. We were surrounded by a number of soldiers armed to the teeth and there were five of us simply waiting for how to continue,” he added.

Cardinal Porras, also Archbishop Emeritus of Mérida, pointed out that given the military’s refusal to let him fly to Valera, he decided to continue the trip by road, although the authorities did not allow him to do so either.

Being “practically confined,” the cardinal and his team requested authorization to return to Caracas, where he left at 10:00 in the morning and where he could not arrive until after 5:00 in the afternoon, the cardinal stated.

“It is striking that this type of thing happens, that there is no freedom for one as a citizen to move from one place to another. And with a military deployment that makes it seem like we are plotting who knows what,” said the cardinal.

This week, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused on national television to Cardinal Porras of “conspiring” to prevent the canonization of Saint José Gregorio Hernández.

Maduro’s statements came after last week, at an event held at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, Cardinal Porras asked for the release of all political prisoners in Venezuela, which to date number more than 800, according to the organization. Criminal Forum.

Furthermore, this Saturday’s complaint is part of a history of abuses and threats by Chavismo against the Catholic Church in Venezuelaa situation that it seemed worsen on the occasion of the canonization of the country’s first two saints.

“It is clear, from the little we were able to hear, that they are orders from above,” said the cardinal. “I think it is good that public opinion knows what this means and what does not allow one as a citizen to move, what is the crime that has been committed so that one cannot go to fulfill a duty, and with a religious duty?”, he questioned.

“Well, I think that this is not the way to celebrate the example that José Gregorio leaves us and that it serves as a reflection for absolutely everyone and that this simply means an violation of a fundamental right that one as a person has,” he added.