Vatican diplomacy grappling with Chavismo

IN AN ARTICLE IN THE OSSERVATORE ROMANO dedicated to the concordat policy of the Holy See since the Second Vatican Council, Enrico Galavotti states that the influence exercised by the episcopal conferences is an unwritten legacy of the conciliar texts, primarily as regards development and execution of the papal agreements between autonomy and freedom of the Church
The agreement between the Vatican and Venezuela was signed in the midst of the conciliar turbulence, when the discussions relating to Dignitatis humanae, which raised the question of religious freedom, and to Gaudium et spes on the pastoral role of the Church in the changes of social order. The modus vivendi agreed between Caracas and the Holy See in 1964 represented an advance in the complex relationship between Church and State.
The Caribbean country was configuring its own democratic architecture in the wake of the fall of the dictatorship in 1958. For its part, the Church was also equipping itself with its own structure of pastoral representation in Venezuela. In 1974 the first assembly of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference (CEV), founded as a collegiate body two years earlier, was held.