Full collaboration to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic together: this is what the president of the Argentine Bishops’ Conference, Mgr. Óscar Vicente Ojea Quintana, bishop of the diocese of San Isidro and Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Mario Poli said during their visit to President Alberto Fernández yesterday, March 20. The Prelates expressed the closeness of the Church and offered their willingness to collaborate in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
The Church stressed the need to strengthen spiritual assistance and made all its infrastructure available to the government in the face of a health emergency. The initiative, according to information sent to Agenzia Fides, was expressed through the dialogue channel opened by Mgr. Ojea and the secretary of worship, Guillermo Oliveri, who was present at the meeting.
Argentina, like other South American countries, has the problem of managing the huge suburban area around the capital Buenos Aires.
“Many of the preventive measures recommended by the government’s health authorities regarding dengue (the urgency not to accumulate water) or coronavirus are impossible or very difficult to comply with, in neighborhoods where there is a strong deficit of drinking water, or where many people live on the margins, in precarious conditions, without access to basic services”, commented the Commission on Human Rights and the inclusion of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. According to the Commission, “there is a community responsibility and also that of the Church”. However, “the responsibility of the State cannot be exempted for the work of many who dedicate themselves body and soul to those who suffer most in the cities and neighborhoods of the suburbs”, concludes a note from the Commission.
