OPINION: Panama’s crisis of values

Pope Francisco has arrived in Panama. When the Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the successor of [Pope]Paul, hopeful winds of transparency, accountability and renewed commitments to the Catholic Church arrived. Pope Francis has faced scandals of sexual abuse and other issues by the clergy. All this has been done without neglecting the updating of the doctrine of the Church on major contemporary challenges, especially in the environmental issue. Pope Francis has become the great moral reference of our time. On March 5, 1983, Pope John Paul II visited our country and his presence served as a catalyst for the activism of civil society and the ethical demand of the population at that time against the military dictatorship. Today, when Panama faces a crisis of values, the lack of justice, the widespread perception that great corruption is unpunished, and the immorality of the organs of the State is manifest, the visit of Francisco must be a balm for the good soul of Panamanians.- LA PRENSA Jan.24