The Venezuelan meeting with the pope began with smiles and even jokes.
'You're very hunched over.' ;
'Ah, yes.'
However the bishops and the pope knew that the issues to be dealt with were difficult and delicate, because the future of Venezuela is at stake. The bishops presented Pope Francis with two disturbing reports.
'In the end there is also a report prepared by Caritas on the situation in Venezuela. Most importantly is the nutritional part that is being used by international agencies to watch the situation in Venezuela. This is also a dossier where we present -well, up until the day we came, and surely there are more-, the latest deaths from the Venezuelan protests in recent days.'
Six bishops visited the pope, among them were two cardinals. They are the members of the Presiding Council of the Episcopal Conference representing all Venezuelan bishops.
They gifted Pope Francis a modern icon of the Virgin made by a Venezuelan craftsman.
The meeting with Pope Francis was a request from the Venezuelan bishops after the course of the events in the country. Now the protests against the regime of Nicholas Maduro have been settled, for the moment, with more than 60 dead.
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