Catholic Church and Pope Francis to Take Stand Against Bolsonaro on Amazon

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro’s government (PSL) is expected to prepare for another diplomatic crisis in the coming months.

Following the clashes with French President Emmanuel Macron, the destruction of the Amazon will be on the agenda at a summit meeting of the Roman Catholic Church, to be attended by researchers and indigenous leaders. Brazil is the largest Catholic country in the world.

The Amazon Synod, which will take place in Rome in October, will place the Church on a definitive collision course with the Bolsonaro project.

According to a UOL report based on documents obtained exclusively from the website, the report prepared by bishops and dioceses as a basis for discussions at the Amazon Synod, scheduled for October in Rome, includes proposals that will exert greater pressure on the government, which has been criticizing the staging of the event.

“In the official documents circulating among the religious to feed the debate, it is clear that the Holy See is calling into question the current reality of economic exploitation of the forest, presenting it as a threat to the planet. But it is, above all, the new role that the Church intends to play in the region that is causing apprehension in circles of power,” writes the UOL report.

The text was formulated based on information from dioceses in the Amazon and will provide support for the Church and its leader, Pope Francis, to draw the organization’s line of action. Among the proposals is that priests and bishops scattered throughout the region embrace social, land reform and environmental causes, distancing themselves from political power.

The holding of the Synod has led to concern among members of Brazil’s government. The foreign office even made it clear that it viewed with discomfort some of the issues on the agenda, as well as the form in which they were presented.

“During these months of hearings throughout Amazonia to prepare the Synod’s working documents and agenda, the Holy See concluded that “the communities surveyed expect the Church to commit itself to the care of our Common House and its inhabitants, to defend the territories and to help Indigenous peoples in denouncing what is causing death and threatening the territories,” the report writes.

The Church is further expected to “fearlessly embrace the application of a preferential option for the poor in the struggle of indigenous peoples, traditional communities, migrants and young people to shape the physiognomy of the Amazonian Church” and “reject the covenant with the dominant culture and political and economic power, to promote both the cultures and the rights of the indigenous, the poor and the territory”.

(Source: UOL)