Cardinal Jorge Urosa: Courageous Champion of Human Rights for the Venezuelan People
National Catholic Register, 1 October 2021
The 79-year-old archbishop emeritus of Caracas died Sept. 23 due to complications from COVID-19.
The death of Cardinal Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino, archbishop emeritus of Caracas, brought a premature end to the life of a courageous pastor, who battled the depredations of Venezuela’s regime and who stood forthrightly for Catholic doctrine.
Cardinal Urosa, 79, served as archbishop of Caracas from 2005 to 2018, having previously been archbishop of Valencia since 1990. He was admitted to hospital in August with COVID-19 and the disease proceeded aggressively. He died on Sept. 23. His funeral was held in a largely empty cathedral on Sept. 25 due to pandemic measures.
Upon his death, the Venezuelan bishops released a letter which Cardinal Urosa wrote from hospital, knowing that his life was in danger.
Expressing his love for the Venezuelan people, Cardinal Urosa wrote of his “absolute dedication to their freedom, to their institutions, to the defense of the rights of the people in the face of the abuses committed by the national authorities.”
Cardinal Urosa wrote that his ministry was animated always by “an immense patriotic love” for all Venezuelans “in line with the national constitution which establishes inalienable rights that cannot be violated by any government.”
“In that regard, I have always acted, not out of hatred, not out of resentment, but in defense of freedom, justice and the rights of the Venezuelan people,” the cardinal wrote. “I hope that Venezuela will come out of this negative situation.”
That “negative situation” marked the entirety of Cardinal Urosa’s service in Caracas, under the regime of Hugo Chavez and then, after the Venezuelan president’s death in 2013, that of Nicolas Maduro. The petro-communism of the Chavez-Maduro regime, one of the most wicked on the planet, has impoverished a country that should be oil-rich. Millions of Venezuelans have sought refuge in neighboring Colombia and farther afield. Those left behind are deprived of necessary food and basic goods, and some have resorted to scavenging to survive.
During the Maduro years, it fell to Cardinal Urosa to lead the Venezuela bishops in solidarity with the people against the human rights abuses of the regime. Preserving their unity, the cardinal had to walk a fine line, complicated by the general unwillingness of Pope Francis to criticize leftist regimes.
Indeed, Maduro would blast Cardinal Urosa and his brother bishops for being too critical, telling them that they should follow the more compliant line taken by the Holy Father and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, secretary of state and former nuncio in Venezuela.
Cardinal Parolin would speak of Vatican policy regarding Venezuela as “positive neutrality.” Cardinal Urosa was not neutral about the pauperizing of his country and the assault on human rights. He bluntly called for Maduro to resign and his regime to be dismantled.
Cardinal Urosa’s private frustration with the “positive neutrality” of Pope Francis boiled over in public in June 2017 when he led a delegation of Venezuelan bishops to Rome, arriving unannounced, uninvited and unimpressed. They demanded to be heard.
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