Chile: The star of hope will continue to be ours

There are only a few hours left for us to vote on whether we approve or reject the text of a new Constitution for Chile. The proposal was elaborated for more than a year by an assembly made up of 154 people elected by the people.

I do not resort to a common place when I assure that we are facing a historical fact that will mark the future of a town. With this consultation, two ways of understanding life and social relations are disputed and, more fundamentally, we will be deciding if we want the legacy of the civic-military dictatorship to disappear definitively or if, on the contrary, we are going to allow him to continue his criminal metamorphosis.

The proposal constitutional part with clear and exciting words. After decades of political repression and social exclusion by the elites, it is proclaimed that: “We, the people of Chile, made up of various nations, grant ourselves this Constitution, agreed upon in a participatory, equal and democratic process.” .

Some say this proposal is wrong because there were few jurists and “experts” among the conventional ones who drafted it. Others point that divides Chileans because it is regionalist and had too many representatives of the native peoples. The big ones businessmen complain because they are convinced that the new regulations will slow down economic growth since nature is now protected as the holder of rights and it is a very ecologist and cooperative constitution. The most conservative and traditional religious sectors see a serious danger by the feminist approach, the protection of dissidence and moral relativism because a single family model is not imposed, diversity, pleasure and freedom to choose are valued. Finally, for minority but highly influential groups, it was not necessary that the new Constitution enshrine so many fundamental rights Because how is the country going to be able to finance all that spending?

logically in these months the fears and hopes were condensing of the people until configuring, on the one hand, the trend of rejection heavily financed and supported by the big media and, on the other, that of approval sustained above all in the popular sectors since the leftist political parties have more and more less credibility among the social base. This imbalance of royal power and media influence was installing the feeling that the option of rejection is going to be the undisputed winner of the Plebiscite.

As a Christian I wonder which of the two positions has more of a gospel flavor and better represents the Dream of Jesus of Nazareth.. In order to adequately respond to this challenge, I had to approach once again the testimony of the praying and militant communities that, as the people of God so many times crucified, build coexistence and dignity in the midst of the poor. And in those sisters and companions I found some answers. In this proposal for a new Constitution, the small and the discarded are present, they told me. That God’s favorites are recognized and made visible and are provided with the care guaranteed by public services and that the Common Good and Good Living will be impossible if they do not have them.

There are many Christians who distrust and they even condemn many of the proposals that appear in the text. They say, encouraged by the bishops, who cannot accept a Constitution that allows abortion but at the same timedo not hesitate to ask for a strong hand for young delinquents and welcome the constitutional restoration of the death penalty.

I do not find coherence in these positions nor do I share those fears and convictions because I have read and shared the text with popular reading groups, with groups of older adults and in different city councils and precisely from faith I value a proposal that places spirituality as a fundamental element to cultivate new interpersonal, community and social relationships where we allow dignity to become a habit.

When tomorrow I am with the blue pencil marking the ballot, I will remember Diego’s testimony, a 16-year-old with cerebral palsy who participated in the Campaign for Approval by handing out information and copies of the new Constitution going door-to-door every day. he told us who was moved when reading article number 28 dedicated to disability and said that for the most bedridden, this was like a dream. At the end, Diego told us: “I am deeply in love with the new Constitution and will vote I approve so that we can leave behind the last legacy of the tyrant” and so the star of hope will continue to be ours.

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