Bishop Fernando Lugo had a crucial choice to make on December 17. Representatives from different social groups showed up before him, carrying thick files with 100,000 properly registered signatures and a request: "Father, give Paraguay a hand".
In 2006, Paraguayans had taken to the streets en masse, belying the apparent apathy left by the repression and silence imposed many years before by General Alfredo Stroessner's 1954-89 tyranny.
Some 45,000 people marched on March 29 this year on behalf of many social and political sectors to protest against what they deemed the violation of a constitutional statute banning the President Nicanor Duarte Frutos from running in his Colorado Party's internal elections.
Lugo was chosen to read the speech they had all written. It was a "civic and political meeting", he says. The wide-ranging coalition named Resistance of the Citizens was the kernel of the new, oncoming milestone — the Social and Popular Bloc.
The Catholic Church warned Lugo to stay away. He was still a bishop and the principal of a Catholic school, but it was too late for him to say no. "I had made a pledge I could not relinquish".
Accumulated for 18 years, the demands of what he has considered "a transition in a controlled democracy" were catalysing like in a chemical reaction, so the natives and peasants founded the popular movement Tekojojá, which means "equal terms".
Such was the background of the unforeseen request going round and round in Lugo's mind on December 17, a long sleepless night that his sister tried to assuage: "If you have devoted 30 years to the Church, why not devote another five or 10 to your country?"
Five days later, he resigned his ministry and, on Christmas Day, put himself at the citizenry's disposal. From then on the country would be his cathedral: "Tell me what good I can do the nation".
Rested and relaxed, with that familiar, comforting tone deserving of his parishioners, Lugo bears with my indiscreet attempts to delve into the feelings that led him to say yes. "There are decisions you think about for a long time, and then you are compelled by reality and the push of everyday occurrences to make a choice like that one."
Paraguayan social, rural, native and political organisations have dared him to run for president as a continuation of his missionary work, a challenge he has somehow accepted.
"I think there's no contradiction between this step and the mission I have so far fulfilled. I want to vindicate what's healthy and holy about politics, it's just that some politicians destroy it, mess it up and take away its essential values. As I see it, politics aims basically to achieve common good, and so does Christian charity, especially for the vast majorities."
Adding to claims that he must run are the people's mistrust of the old political parties and their disappointment with a country where almost half the population of 8 million suffer from the same poverty that convinced Lugo back when he was 17 and working as a teacher to bring them relief from the Church.
Still, he's aware of the problems he may come up against in Paraguay's present political context.
"There are many difficulties and misinterpretations… Change in Paraguay can come through politics, but most of the country's political class is opposed to any change, as contradictory as it may sound. To some of them, politics became the fastest way to make a fortune, an easygoing profession.
"There are two kinds: those who live on politics and put their influence to good use and those who live for politics to achieve common good for the majority's sake", he assures with a touch that betrays a frequent use of Guarani, the language of his country's native cultures that he probably learned during Stroessner's tyranny, when growing a beard was forbidden and meeting at a street corner meant you were looking for trouble.
A young man then, Lugo and his comrades would hide in garages to read about the liberation theology that he later taught in the university and became an inspiration for his daily pastoral work in the south-eastern city of San Pedro and, mainly, in the grassroots Christian communities. "We were very happy to organise thousands of Christian communities in San Pedro, and therefore I think that at least there we can say 'mission accomplished'. That's an active, conscious church, committed above all else to change and a desire to have equality and justice, as values of the kingdom of God."
Was the Church reluctant when you let them know you would no longer be a bishop?, I asked. "Some 'conservative' movements of the Church — perhaps it's not a good way to put it — wondered how a bishop could turn into a politician, knowing only too well what politics in Paraguay is like. How could such a valuable thing be swapped for something so contemptible.
"However, maybe that was a superficial interpretation. No-one can get inside your head and judge you for a personal decision you make with your own free will and in all conscience, and I believe that sort of resistance and even criticism coming my way from the Church is perhaps a partial interpretation of what really happened in my process of discernment and decision-making."
What's the connection between the three mass movements registered in Paraguay in 2006? "A common denominator — a great desire to make changes, fuelled by the untenable situation caused by a hegemonic ruling party which, at least in principle, seems to be a very good one, but whose practices are responsible for the poverty endured by our peasants and most of our population. It's neither a sound nor a hopeful choice nowadays."
Which one would nominate you to run? "I never put myself forward as a candidate, they did it. There have been two great moments: first, those signatures they brought me, which I replied to. Second, several movements make up the Social and Popular Bloc with its different political parties, progressives and social organisations openly supporting my candidacy.
"And there are also other institutional parties like the Febrerista (which is socialist), Democracia Cristiana and a number of sectors from other political groups. On the other hand, there's Concertacion Nacional, still to name a candidate, which has invited me to take part in a meeting with the chairpersons of all political parties as the representative, as it were, of those social and political movements behind my candidacy."
Would your candidacy require a broad coalition of all these forces? "I usually say that I believe and trust that we all made it together. That's one thing, what happens in reality remains to be seen… Then the programs of a future government must be combined, and that's something we're discussing now, though I don't expect much difference, because we're all asking for a change at the top of our voice, a change of the state structure and the constitution and the productive mechanisms of our economy, in other words, a real change.
"We usually say that such a process of change takes time and, if at least we make it to the government in 2008, we will set in motion, together with our citizens and people, the true, authentic and genuine process of changes this country needs so much."
It is said that your candidacy might be contested. "All candidates will be registered in January, and that's when the ruling party will use its artillery to impugn my record by claiming that I'm still a bishop, a theological argument with no legal force whatsoever. From the theological viewpoint, and since the sacrament is character-building, I'm a priest for life. But I've given up full-time priesthood, in keeping with my rights and my conscience, and that's a legally valid point to justify my ability to run.
"Nevertheless, they will use every trick in the book to challenge my status, because they know that only with traps or disqualifying manoeuvres will Lugo be stopped."
Over and over again you have talked about popular wisdom and your faith in it. "I believe in the Paraguayan people and their long-suffering and their history, so full of sacrifice. I think it has been solidarity, endurance, hard work and its ability to rise after two wars that subjugated its geographical and human sovereignty that allowed Paraguay to get over many difficult situations.
"I believe in simple, humble people and in their wisdom, their capacity to build, provide and contribute to the creation of something new and different. I believe in those people to whom I devoted my whole life: the simplest and poorest, those from whom a real, true change can come. Changes don't come from above and outside, but from below and inside."
[Abridged from Juventud Rebelde, newspaper of the Cuban Union of Young Communists. Translation by the CubaNews website.]