The bishop of the dioceses of Higuey, La Altagracia, Ramon Benito de la Rosa y Carpio urged government officials not to let themselves be corrupted and asked that those who had been corrupted, recognize what they had done and, in atonement, return in some fashion the goods that had been taken through corruption. In his sermon celebrating the day of the patron saint of the Dominican Republic, Nuestra Se?ora de la Altagracia (Lady of High Grace), Bishop de la Rosa y Carpio compared official corruption to AIDS, saying that it destroys everything and affects everything. ?Only with the complicity of some authority is corruption possible,?said the bishop, as he asked the thousands gathered at the Basilica to cure the social-economical and political ills of the country.
