«The Chavista Archbishop of Caracas.»
The Archdiocese of Caracas is at the center of a serious controversy and categorically denies the extortion accusations against Mariana González de Tudares, the daughter of president-elect Edmundo González Urrutia. González de Tudares publicly denounced having been the victim of three episodes of extortion in diocesan offices, where she was directly told that she must “force” her father to resign from his position so that her husband could be released. Her husband, Rafael Tudares, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for terrorism and conspiracy, and she was able to visit her husband for the first time last week, after more than a year of detention. Archbishop Raúl Biord responded through a statement on January 20, stating: «At no time has any ‘extortion’ or pressure been carried out in the archdiocese on family members of detainees or anyone else».«We have attended to numerous family members of political prisoners whom we have pastorally accompanied, with no interest other than to seek their well-being»
But Monsignor Biord’s own appointment a year and a half ago has been wrapped in controversy. Vatican sources assured The Pillar Catholic that his appointment was a strategic concession due to the veto power that the concordat grants to the Venezuelan government over episcopal appointments. The contrast with his predecessor, Cardinal Baltazar Porras—one of the main episcopal voices against the regime—is dramatic. Biord took away Porras’s financial support and his right to live in a residence for the emeritus archbishop, so Cardinal Porras lives in a parish in Caracas. The archbishop always appears smiling in a meeting with Nicolás Maduro in August 2024 and recently celebrated a mass where a prayer was said for the liberation of President Maduro. A Vatican official assured The Pillar that «Biord was appointed in Caracas because he was a young bishop in a diocese that had long lacked a long-term project and because he would not be vetoed by the Venezuelan Government».
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