Violence Against the Church Increasing in Bolivia

The Catholic Church in Bolivia is facing increasing threats from groups close to the government and their supporters, according to information given recently to the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

According to Javier Legorreta, the head of the charity’s Latin America desk, the Catholic Church in Bolivia is starting “to become a persecuted Church, a suffering Church in great need.” Just a few days before, a chapel and other buildings belonging to the Catholic parish in the town of Villa Ingenio in the Diocese of El Alto were forcibly demolished, he reported – and this was not an isolated incident, he added.

Mr. Legorreta said that, apparently, members of a local “neighborhood group” – a so-called “Junta de Vecinos” – had occupied the building in Villa Ingenio and had forced the parish priest, Father Hilarion Perez, to sign a written document authorizing its demolition. Using extreme intimidation, they had threatened to blow up the building using dynamite if he did not sign the document immediately. Fearful for the safety of his parishioners, Father Perez finally signed the document.

Immediately after the document was signed, members of the local communal administration brought in heavy machinery to demolish the chapel, at the same time destroying the adjoining parish buildings, which had been erected between 1986 and 1988 with the help of international donors. The official reason given by the chairman of the commune, Rolando Aruquipa, for demolishing the buildings was in order to build a medical center on the site, even though a medical center already exists not far from the demolished chapel, Mr. Legorreta explained.

Bishop Jesus Juarez of the Diocese of El Alto explained that the Church had nothing against a health center but strongly deplored the demolition of the chapel and the tactics involved in it. This action caused deep suffering in the Catholic community, he added, and he appealed to the local and national authorities to protect the security of the Catholic faithful and the buildings of the Catholic Church, which provide an important social and missionary service. He reminded politicians that the protection and security of churches is part of the right to religious freedom as defined in the Bolivian Constitution.

Speaking of the overall situation in Bolivia, Javier Legorreta of ACN remarked that while the Catholic Church is striving to create a climate of dialogue and peace, the signs of hostility on the part of the government are becoming stronger. In a speech in January at the world social forum in Brazil, the Bolivian president, Evo Morales described the Catholic Church as an “enemy of peace” in Bolivia and demanded for his country “another faith, another religion and another church.” President Morales plainly declared that the Catholic Church was his greatest enemy in the reform of the country and literally stated “We must replace it!”

Such a demand could never lead to peace in a majority Catholic country, said Mr. Legorreta, and he deplored the fact that protection for freedom of religion and conscience is “steadily deteriorating” in Bolivia in a way that is similar to the situation in Venezuela.

According to Mr. Legorreta, one of the highest priorities for ACN is to help the local Church communities to officially register their legal ownership of properties in order to have some defense in law. This is vital, he said, because many properties had formerly been given to the Church “with no more than a handshake” and they are now being threatened with arbitrary expropriation.

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