_WORLD WATCH______________________________
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Bishops, president still at odds
Change attitude or change leader
A young Catholic priest has quickly become a national celebrity in Venezuela by suggesting a unique show of support for the country’s bishops in their clash with President Hugo Chavez.

Father Edgar Sanchez suggested that churches around Venezuela should ring their bells for ten minutes, in a display of support for Church leaders. He made that suggestion after Chavez compared the Catholic Church with a “tumor” during one of his aggressive public speeches. His idea quickly took hold in the country’s Andean region, and then spread across the country. By February 14, hundreds of churches and temples tolled their bells for 10 minutes at noon, as part of the campanazo the young priest had initiated.

Father Sanchez a priest of the diocese of Los Teques, in the Andean region of the country, had first floated his suggestion in a column that appeared in two Catholic newspapers: the local El Catolico and the national La Religion. “An attack on our bishops is an attack on the whole Church, and we can’t accept this from anybody,” he wrote.

The Venezuelan bishops have pointed out that the bell-tolling campaign is a private initiative, with which they are not involved. But the bishops have also made it clear that they are delighted with the show of support.

As the public disagreements between Chavez and the country’s bishops continued into March, Archbishop Baltazar Porras, the president of the Venezuelan episcopal conference, said that the Catholic Church wants a change of attitude in the government and not necessarily a change of leaders.

During a press conference held after meeting the newly appointed interior minister, Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, Archbishop Porras said that the Venezuelan episcopate has indeed provided its “moral support” to a pact for social reform advanced by labor organizations. But he strongly denied that such agreement was aimed at forcing the resignation of President Chavez. “We don’t want the change of the President, but what we do want is a change in the President’s attitude, and we have been very clear about that,” Porras said.

He also said that he has explained the bishops’ frustration to the new government minister, calling attention to “the consistent lack of signs of change in the President’s disregard for democracy and dialogue.”