Pope Francis defended Indigenous Peoples and the preservation of the Amazon

By Jadson Lima – From Cenarium

MANAUS (AM) – “The original Amazonian peoples have probably never been so threatened in their territories as they are now.” This statement was made by Pope Francis on 19 January 2018 during a meeting with Indigenous people from Brazil, Peru and Bolivia. The event was held in the city of Puerto Maldonado, Peru. The Pontiff, who died this Monday, the 21st, was the Catholic Church’s most active leader in defending Indigenous Peoples and the Amazon.

The meeting was attended by more than 30 Indigenous peoples, from whom the Pope heard reports of violations in their territories and highlighted the richness, knowledge and Indigenous diversity. On the occasion, he also stated that it was necessary to listen to the traditional population living in the Amazon. “Let it now be you yourselves who self-define and show us your identity. We need to listen to you,” he declared.

At the event, the Pontiff warned about the rise of extractivism in the region and the strong pressure from major economic interests, pointing to “greed for oil, gas, timber, gold, agro-industrial monocultures.” The leader of the Catholic Church also mentioned the “perversion of certain policies that promote conservation of nature without taking the human being into account,” which generates “situations of oppression for Indigenous peoples.”

In October 2020, Pope Francis spoke about the forest fires recorded in the Amazon during the Synod of the Amazon, a meeting of Catholic Church bishops held at the Vatican to discuss the forest. In a statement, the Pontiff said the region needed a “fire of love”, which does not destroy but “warms and gives life.”

“May God preserve us from the greed of new colonialism. The fire set by destructive interests, like the one that recently devastated the Amazon, is not of the Gospel. The fire of God is warmth that attracts and gathers in unity. It is fed by sharing, not by profit […] The devouring fire spreads when one seeks only to impose their own ideas,” he declared at the time.

In another statement, the Pope expressed concern about forest fires in the Amazon region, which he described as a “lung of forest”. On the occasion, he asked the faithful to pray for the region so that the fires could be controlled. “We are concerned about the fires that have developed in the Amazon,” he said.

Francis was the Pope most dedicated to environmental issues. In 2020, the apostolic exhortation “Beloved Amazon” was published, in which the Pontiff expressed his desire for the peoples of the region to fight for the “rights of the poorest, of native peoples, of the last ones, so that their voices may be heard and their dignity promoted.”

Edited by Izaías Godinho
Translated from Portuguese by Gustô Alves