The traditional “Seven Words” sermon on Good Friday was used by the Catholic Church to issue a call to the government to eliminate corruption, indifference, immunity and fraud within the ruling party’s administration. These were strong words, and Servio Tulio Castaños Guzman, the executive vice-president of the Institutionalism and Justice Foundation (FINJUS) expressed his wholehearted approval of the message. He stated: “The content of the sermon represents, without a doubt, a strong warning aimed at all those responsible institutions of the state, as well as those who lead society from their respective obligations or jobs, in order to become aware of the urgency and importance of facing up to each one of the problems that were enunciated by the Catholic priests.”
Castaños Guzmán said anyone could see the institutional deficiencies that have become worse over the past few weeks. He went on to say: “In reality, the priests who gave the Sermon of the 7 Words did not leave out any of the most important controversies of the present time: the dangers of a constitutional reform to re-edit the possibility of a presidential re-election; the worsening of public safety; the lack of attention to the serious problems associated with the services that the state should offer to its citizens; the increase in poverty; gender crimes do not cease; the impossibility to organize traffic in the streets and highways of the country; the drama of thousands of adolescents abandoned and on their own after irresponsible pregnancies, to mention just a few.”
Finjus also expressed its worries regarding Dominican democracy due to the lack of capacity within the legislative bodies. “The call to take up and be worried about the lack of a state of law, and especially the effort to stimulate the Justice Department that appears to be stuck and unable to punish the huge corruption, should not fall on deaf ears. We are at a decisive moment to advance the consolidation of our democracy…” he went on to say.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
El Caribe
El Dia
22 April 2019