The bishops of Costa Rica are concerned about the increase in violence and murders in the country.
“We are watching with pain the large number of homicides that have accumulated, many of them involving young people, who are involved in drug trafficking or organized crime”, the bishops wrote in a message to the country, as quoted by an agency SIR, stressing that “the persistence and organizational capacity associated with them is deteriorating”.
According to the bishops, there are “large numbers of cases of violence within the home, in which women, children and the elderly are the main victims”, as well as “violence in schools, in the workplace, on the streets and at home. many other contexts.”
The Bishops’ Conference of Costa Rica (Cecor) assures that it is aware as a Church “of the seriousness of this problem, which has a painful tendency to spread over time and in many directions”, and, therefore, unites “in the search for paths of . unity and peace to face this problem.”
According to the bishops, there are many factors related to violence and “they are not evenly distributed, socially or geographically”, warning, however, that the violence is “particularly concentrated when there is more vulnerability “.
“Do we want to normalize acts of violence, assuming they are inevitable? Do we want to continue to accept that the pain experienced by many brothers and sisters is reduced to mere statistics or media spectacles?”, asked the bishops, appealing “to public officials in all institutions of the Republic not any attempt to take appropriate measures. that solves this pressing problem.”
Finally, Cecor says that there are “great expressions of kindness, race and solidarity that contrast with so much pain” in the communities, noting that “believers and non-believers need social conditions that allow us to live with dignity and freedom, to live. without fear”.