Catholic bishops slam ‘impunity of so many public criminals’

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic’s Catholic bishops on Wed. urged Dominican society to “recognize and confront” violence, poverty, corruption and inequality, calling them part of the “structures of sin.”

In its Jan. 21 pastoral letter “The Eucharist, Source of Communion and Impulse” to mark Virgin of La Altagracia Day, the prelates also   urged to fight femicides, which last year claimed the lives of over 90 women.

The bishops also spoke out against exclusion, lack of solidarity and “all other systematic degradation of life or human dignity.”

“The permanence of the lack of employment in such a high index, the rapprochement to power for power’s sake, thievery of the national treasury at the expense of the nation, the unscrupulous appropriation of savings from others for their own benefit, and the marginalization of our peasant population,” were some of the problems identified in its 2005 letter which are still unchanged.

The bishops also condemned tax evasion, robberies, drug trafficking, growing violence and “the impunity of so many public criminals.”