Photo: Leo Ramirez/AFP/Getty Images

Because nothing is sacred, Venezuelan socialist party delegate Maria Estrella Uribe bastardized the Lord’s Prayer Monday at the party’s convention, instead leading with “Our Chávez.” As in Hugo Chávez, instead of God.

The prayer went on to ask Chávez to make sure the delegates don’t succumb to the “temptation of capitalism” and deliver them from evil and oligarchy.

Needless to say, the alterations didn’t go over well with the Catholic Church. Monsignor Roberto Lückert León, an Archbishop in the Catholic Church, told CNN Español that it was “an offense, not only to Catholics, but to all Christians in the country.”

And yet the country’s new leader, Nicolas Maduro, has come out in defense of the alterations. Calling those who have spoken out against it “the inquisition,” Maduro demanded an end to “the persecution against Chávez.” Of course, his dismal popularity ratings mean he needs to cling to Chávez’s divinity, real or imagined, as much as he possibly can.