In Secular Uruguay, A Populist Cardinal Rallies the Faithful and Kicks Off a Feud

[yankeesouth]

In secular Uruguay, a populist cardinal rallies the faithful and kicks off a feud

Montevideo’s cardinal, a charismatic and smiley friend of the Pope, is on a mission to not only make people in Latin America’s most secular country proud to be openly Catholic, but also to make them into a political force

www.theglobeandmail.com

But recently, it has become clear that Cardinal Sturla has another goal: to turn Uruguayan Catholics into a political force of the kind they are in other neighbouring countries where far more people identify themselves as religious. This effort has brought the cardinal into conflict with the country’s strong women’s movement, which he has criticized for advancing what he calls “gender ideology,” and reignited a conversation about what kind of a say, if any, the church should have on social and political issues.

 

[abucs]

The leaders of the independence era admired radical French-style democracy. They stripped crucifixes from hospitals and gave all the holidays secular names. (Christmas is officially Family Day, while what’s known in other countries as Holy Week, at Easter, is called Tourism Week here.

Interesting.

“Sturla wants the church to break with the traditional model where religion was private and related to issues of faith,” Prof. Caetano said. “He wants a much bigger role in public life.”

Amen.

 

[BartholomewB]

According to El Observador, a Uruguayan daily newspaper, the names of the public holidays there are the same Catholic names in use in other Spanish-speaking countries: Día de Reyes (Epiphany), Jueves Santo (Holy Thursday or in some countries Maundy Thursday), Viernes Santo (Good Friday), Difuntos (All Souls’ Day,) Navidad (Christmas), and others.

In the comments thread, however, there are people quarreling about the names and wanting to use the ones mentioned in the Globe and Mail report.

Estos son los feriados y los fines de semana largos del 2018

Los feriados no laborables que restan son entre semana y en sábado

www.elobservador.com.uy