Bolivia only has one cardinal: the Archbishop of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Julio Terrazas Sandoval. On 7 March he turned 75, and submitted his obligatory resignation.
Just last September, Benedict XVI had appointed an auxiliary bishop with the right of succession.
The cardinal’s exit is already underway, but before leaving he wanted to register some tough criticisms of President Evo Morales, advising him that his self-image as “savior of the indigenous population” could make him “cross the line into the ridiculous.”
He was born in 1936 in Vallegrande, and ordained in 1962. A member of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the “Redemptorists”), in 1978 he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of La Paz. Elected president of the Bolivian Conference of Bishops several times, he has been Archbishop of Santa Cruz since 1991.
In a country like Bolivia, where 77% of the population publicly declare themselves to be Catholic, relations between the government and the Church have not been good, at least in the past few years. In January 2006, for the first time in the history of the nation, an indigenous president - Evo Morales - came to power. Not long after the arrival of the director of the Socialist Movement (MAS), the problems began.
From the intent to abolish Catholic holidays from the civil calendar to the debate on Catholic education in the public schools or the reform of the National Constitution, many incidents have set ecclesiastical authorities and political powers against each other.
Cardinal Terrazas was one of the government’s targets: among other things, he was criticized for voting in a referendum on the autonomy of the country’s regions and for giving a sermon which denied the existence of slavery in Bolivia.
The relationship has been marked by tension and upset from worrying episodes like the explosion of a bomb in the residence of the Archbishop of Santa Cruz de la Sierra on 16 April 2009, an act in which the government denied any involvement.
A man who has always been reluctant to appear before the media, Cardinal Terrazas already has a successor: the Italian Sergio Alfredo Gualberti Calandrina, from the diocese of Bergamo. In his auxiliary vestments, he has the right of succession, but has not yet taken up the position. He will do so when the Pope formally accepts the Archbishop’s resignation.
To mark his departure, the cardinal decided to speak. He did so with the journalist-priest Ariel Beramendi in the book Conversations with Cardinal Julio Terrazas, published several months ago by the Kipus Publishing Group.
The book was an opportunity to address President Morales, whose “many qualities” the cardinal highlights, such as his ability to speak to the people, telling what they want to hear. He acknowledged Morales’ “honest desire” to change the country but also felt at times that his “ways betray him.”
However, there is also room for criticism: “I think the President is playing the part he’s been told to play: the savior of the indigenous world. He presents himself as someone who will save the indigenous people from the rest of the world and claims to have a personality that is almost on the level of religious leaders. All these insinuations show up very clearly in some of his attitudes,” the Cardinal stated.
“They say,” he added, “that the biggest and most beautiful things are always just one step away from the ridiculous, and he could cross that line if he continues to try and change things that aren’t for him to change. He could be a model for Latin America if he were able to respect differences, benefiting from all cultural values without mixing in external ideologies.”
The cardinal also believes that Morales has lost the humility he had at the beginning of his mandate, despite his acknowledgement that the most difficult thing to do is to “stop up the ears” to block out an excess of elegies, praises, and applause.
Between the lines of the 80-page book, Terrazas not only speaks of his youth, his religious vocation, his spiritual experience, and his dreams as “Prince of the Church,” but also deals with uncomfortable topics.
He speaks of the principal challenges that Catholicism faces, especially in Latin America. Inevitably, he touches on Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela and instigator of controversy in the region.
According to the Cardinal, Chavez’s influence “has contaminated” the discourse of the Bolivian President with the intent to internally divide the Church between “those in highly-placed posts working alongside the rich, and priests who work among the poor” or between “bishops who work and those who don’t.”
“In Venezuela, despite the government’s talk of noble ideals, in its relationship with the Catholic Church, with the bishops, I have witnessed a frontal attack with so many completely over-the-top statements, and so many responses that are displeasing to the government,” he said.
“All in all, there are still certain differences - if dialogue is complicated in Venezuela, here in Bolivia with a little goodwill we can have a fruitful dialogue rather than having our views fall on deaf ears, a dialogue that arises from the service of a Church that seeks only respect for human dignity and for its faith,” he said.