Roman Catholic Bishop Fernando Lugo of Paraguay has been temporarily suspended from clerical duties, but the Vatican hasn’t formally accepted his resignation, even though the bishop is campaigning to be the next president of Paraguay and is leading in the polls.

The Paraguayan constitution prohibits church officials of any denomination from being elected president, and the presidential election is being held this Sunday.

Bishop Lugo, who is an ardent admirer of Che Guevara, has been accused of dirty campaigning and trying to import militant leftist agitators from Venezuela, Ecuador and other countries to destabilize Paraguay if he loses the election.

According to the New York Times, “many analysts believe that if elected, My. Lugo would be another in a line of dressed-down South American populists with socialist tendencies.”

Bishop Lugo disagrees with the assessment; the NY Times quotes him as saying, “(Hugo) Chavez (Venezuelan president) is a soldier, I am holy man.”

The bishop faces-off against Blanca Ovelar de Duarte, Colorado’s party candidate. If Mrs. Ovelar de Duarte is elected, she would become the first female president of Paraguay.

To read the entire article from the New York Times, link here:

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it