FaithWorld

It sure seems fitting that Fernando Lugo, a former Roman Catholic bishop, was sworn in as president of Paraguay on August 15, date of the Catholic feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which celebrates the mother of Christ being taken bodily to heaven after her death.

    His assumption as president coincides with hers.
    Also, it all took place in the capital of Paraguay, Asuncion, which is Spanish for assumption, and was founded on August 15, 1537 — hence its name.
    Read more on Paraguay’s new president here.

    Lugo’s campaign was not overtly religious, but he did use slogans such as “Faith in the Future.” The first two letters of his first name, fe, are the Spanish word for faith, which he also played on his Web site .
    On Wednesday, Lugo spent the night at the Community of the Congregation of the Divine Word Missionaries, the Asuncion center of his former order, presumably to pray and meditate before taking office.
    Since he was ordained as a priest in 1977 and obviously never married, Lugo’s sister Mercedes will be his first lady.
    Many Paraguayans say they would like to see him get married now that Pope Benedict granted him an unprecedented waiver and downgraded him to layman’s status. But his sister says she believes he will return to the priesthood after serving as president.
    It’s not clear what view the Vatican would take on that, since it suspended him from priestly duties when he said he was running for president, and only reluctantly allowed him to return to lay status. The reluctance was because the Roman Catholic Church has frowned on priests getting involved with politics.
    The Vatican’s diplomatic emissary in Asuncion has said that Lugo, 57, could only become a priest again with a special papal authorization.
    For more than 10 years Lugo served as bishop in the impoverished region of San Pedro, but the bearded and bespectacled clergyman shed his cassock in late 2006 to launch his political career despite church opposition.
    Mercedes Lugo told Argentina’s Clarin newspaper in an interview that “in his spirit he’s not going far from the religious life. He only changed his cathedral, now it’s the whole country. I’m almost convinced that when he ends his mandate he’ll return to the religious life.”
    To read the whole Mercedes Lugo interview in Spanish, click here.

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado, Aug 15, 2008, PARAGUAY