March 19, 2023 16:39
Ventura says that God has a mission for him Photo José Fernandes
The leader of Chega “contradicts” the Pope, says Pedro Vaz Patto, president of the Justice and Peace Commission, in the second episode of the podcast “Entre Deus e o Diabo”
March 19, 2023 16:39
It has been rare for voices in the Portuguese Catholic Church to comment on André Ventura’s speech on immigration or on the use of the name of God for political purposes. But Pedro Vaz Patto, an authoritative voice — president of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (CNJP), a lay body of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference whose purpose is to promote and defend justice and peace in the light of the Social Doctrine of the Church — criticized the leader of Chega in these two aspects, in statements to Expresso for the podcast “Entre Deus e o Diabo”.
Judge at the Porto Court of Appeal, Pedro Vaz Patto considers the use of the “name of God” for political purposes to be “serious”, adopting a position similar to that of Vatican and Italian Church officials regarding the use of religious symbols by Matteo Salvini, the leader of Liga Norte and one of André Ventura’s European counterparts. “We have to see the context”, says Vaz Patto in the interview that you can listen to in the second episode of the podcast about the life story of the leader of Chega, which focuses on Ventura’s religious conversion and the invocation of God in political discourse (QR code for access to the episode at the end of this text). “I am not going to say that a politician cannot invoke the name of God. What the Commandments say is that one should not invoke the name of God in vain. I don’t make judgments of intent, I don’t know if you’re sincere or if you’re not sincere in making those statements, but I think it could be really serious.”
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