Santo Domingo.- A parish priest of the sprawling barrio Cristo Rey on Sunday slammed the “squandering” of other people’s money by Government officials which flaunt millions while Dominicans in slums and farm communities starve.
In his homily St. Paul Apostle church priest Manuel Bodenlle criticized a Government economic area official who allegedly spent millions in his daughter’s wedding, calling them “a traitor to the poor, the country and their ideology.”
The prelate rebuked the fact that while thousands of people don’t have enough money to eat and live overcrowded slums, a small group fills its pockets, squanders taxpayers’ money and keeps money in foreign banks.
Bodenlle, quoted by news source hoy.com.do, urged the parishioners to work together to transform Dominican Republic’s historical, political and social reality, from what he called its exclusion and inequality.
He said just as the politicians and the powerful join to “induce us into sleep,” the excluded sectors must do the same to win the battle, without fear and by casting the easy life aside.
He said the time has come for the poor to be aware of their value, not only during elections, but for the true social plans of education, dignified jobs and health, from which Bodenlle said they are totally excluded.
Church criticism
The priest also criticized his church colleagues for speaking only in the masses, “in the air, but don’t get down to the reality of the Gospel, which contradicts the predicament of Jesus.”