My take on Bishop Cappio's hunger strike

Bishop Luiz Flávio Cappio of the diocese Barra, Brazil is on a hunger strike (stating that it will be to the death) regarding a planned rerouting of a river with huge implications for the poor of the country, both positive and negative. He has protested this river project before, several years ago, also via hunger strike. Apparently he is continuing with the hunger strike even though there is another court review or something like that.

I'm not thrilled to the core of my being with Bishop Cappio's actions. But I'm also not going to call him names as some faithful have done in blogs.

First of all there is a cultural component. Dramatic proclamations and contentious tactics are much more of a cultural norm than people realize and bishops are not separate from their cultural contexts. He has a history of alliance and contention with political forces in his country that outsiders cannot really understand unless they are in a similar political situation. So I understand his intemperate and dramatic approach.

However this is a distraction from his primary job (which I would imagine keeps him very busy, as it does all the overworked religious in the Catholic Church where vocations are so stretched). That job is to shepherd his diocese and ensure the proper formation of the faithful within.

This is why I have opposed so called "liberation theology" because being a social worker becomes the bishop's "first job" and "reporting to Christ" becomes his secondary concern.

I would like to see some maturation of the drama king approach. But sometimes bishops, like every other man and woman, have to learn like children through their own experience what "works" and what "does not." I would prefer to see him eat food and then use his calories to help broker changes to the plans to ensure water supplies for both locations of the river's waters.

As always, God bless the faithful, poor and well to do, in Brazil.