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The destruction, violence and looting we see today are directly linked to the process by which this society of political betrayals and executions developed. We can\u2019t deny history, and it is painful to see culturally significant churches burn in Chilo\u00e9, or to witness the vandalism of parishes in major cities across Chile. But they must be seen as offenses against the most obvious representations of the Christian faith and the communities who are its followers. The images are painful, even for those of us who do not practice any given religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chile is a country with a very old disease: a spiritual sickness; a moral sickness; an ethical sickness; one that infects all of us and expresses itself in the violent acts of this crossroads of which we are all eyewitnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But we also need to look through the eyes of the souls of those who have lost their ability to see the light due to the violence unleashed by the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All this is much more than a political crisis; it is a crisis of the contents of the soul and the heart of the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nothing surprises us anymore, and this is a symbol of the infection we suffer: what is being burned are irreplaceable values, history, soul: that is the greatest damage caused by what is lost when a church in Chilo\u00e9 is set ablaze. The flames that consume it and reduce it to ashes don\u2019t illumine anything anymore. They just bring more darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We hope that the political and economic elites who control everyone\u2019s common territory understand that the fire cannot be quenched with violence and that the practically unpunished crime at the gates of the National Stadium after a sports event \u2013 and the brutal injury of a young fan by a police vehicle \u2013 can\u2019t remain without consequence, whoever may have fired the institutional weapon of execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both the burning churches and the murder of that young fan are acts of extreme violence that testify to an immense discontent. Of great size and of great age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The soul of the nation will heal when a common meeting place is found where all of us can participate in the process of giving birth to a solution to the issues of inequity and social justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only then can it come to pass that the burning of a church, the blinding of innocent citizens, or the murder of national sports fans \u2013 fans of the club most representative of the country\u2014do not remain unpunished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps only then might we become sensitized and, we may hope, rediscover the poetry of a new constitution. One that shelters all of us, guarantees our peaceful coexistence, and returns us to the heart and soul of this nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Burning churches; soccer fans murdered as they leave National Stadium, once Chile\u2019s largest concentration camp and site of unpunished massacres. Everything has been seen because of social media. Without it, these acts, too, would have remained unpunished. To understand the moral, ethical and spiritual damage being done to the country as illustrated by recent events, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":42917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3551,4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[18474],"class_list":["post-42916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters","category-voices","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n