On June 6, 2010, after declaring the State take-over of 80 private investment banks and brokerage firms in Venezuela, president Hugo Chavez visited the state-run dairy company Lacteos Los Andes, which he nationalized in 2008.

There he gave a televised interview justifying his policy and threatening to nationalize other private institutions of Venezuela that still remain under private ownership, warning that they will also come under State control shortly.

On that occasion, a Catholic priest, Fr. Alfonso Rojas, was present to bless the plant. He also blessed Chavez, above, and publicly stated:

"Your work dignifies the human being; doing this you become an active subject of the Revolution, not a passive object. May God enlighten you, and [know that] we will follow revolutionary men with sincere hearts even to death."

Later, commenting on these warm words of support for his Marxist agenda made by a representative of the Catholic Church, Chavez declared that "Christianity and Socialism can walk hand-in-hand together on the road of History."

Data from La Voz; photos from Noticias 24.