Pope Francis visited Chile this week. His visit released a great wave of negative reactions, which in many cases turned to rage and anger. In Chile the Catholic Church has been falling into disgrace for some time and rightfully so. There are growing accounts of sexual abuses done by the clergy, which have not been dealt with properly or rather not dealt at all. The 3-day-visit of Pope Francis costs 4 Billion Chilean Pesos (roughly 5,3 Million Euros) while great part of the Chilean populace lives in poverty. Apart from that, there are 1 Million Mapuche living in Chile, who have been actively oppressed by the church and the state for centuries. And to top it off, Pope Francis himself was acting as Jesuit superior and cardinal of the Catholic Church in Argentina during the brutal fascist regime of Jorge Rafael Videla, responsible for 35 000 "desaparecidos" (people, who have been taken away by the government and are presumed to be neither dead nor alive).
For these reasons, a couple of days before the Pope's visit, churches started to be set in flames and when he finally arrived even more churches where set ablaze. Between the ashes and remains of the churches flyers with anti-clerical messages could be found:
"We will never submit to the rule they want to impose on
our bodies, ideas and actions, for we were born free to
decide the path we want to take.
Against any preachers and members of the clergy.
Free, impure and wild bodies.
We attack with the fire of battle and set their disgusting
morale ablaze.
FREEDOM TO ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS WORLDWIDE!
FREE WALLMAPU! AUTONOMY AND RESISTANCE
POPE FRANCIS THE NEXT BOMBS WILL BE IN YOUR BASEMENT!"
The Pope's visit is an obvious attempt by the church to gain believers in the poorest sectors of Chilean society. This sad joke of an attempt, which will not only fail will see 4 Billion Chilean Pesos evaporate into thin air in just 3 days. This hypocritical visit by the "Pope of the poor" is a big and hard slap across every poor Chilean's face, especially since the minimum salary was recently increased by just 31 Pesos (0.05 USD/0,04 EUR)!
As if it were not enough dear reader (yes, there is even more), the Pope visited Temuco, the city with the greatest concentration of Mapuche people, to celebrate a great mass. This is beyond hypocrisy. The Mapuche people have been fighting for centuries for their territory. They fought off the Spaniard invasion effectively, which had terrorized the region, brutally murdering, raping, pillaging and enslaving the Mapuches. This invasion had FULL BACKING from the Vatican. The oppression of the Mapuches didn't stop there though, it went on with the coming governments and to this day they are still being oppressed by multinationals, clergy and state. The Pope, in an attempt to polish his image, sided with the Mapuches against the multinational companies, but he has done effectively nothing more than say hollow and empty words. The truth is the church's interests remain in oppressing the Mapuche people. If the Pope were serious, there is one thing he could certainly do: Accept the Vatican's responsibility for the genocide and pay the reparation damages for all the pain and suffering caused.
We stand behind all the forces, suffering under the Vatican's thumb in Chile! The clergy's days are counted. The Chilean and Mapuche population have had enough of the lies, rape and robbery committed by the church and the state. Their rule is based on oppression, but when the tortured stand up and break their chains, this rule will crumble and fall. The people will not take this any longer! Marichiweu!