Respect for Indigenous cultures and respect for the earth are tied together, says Cardinal who helped organize Amazon synod

Pope Francis celebrated the closing Mass of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, in St. Peter's Basilica, Oct. 27, 2019. (Photo by Daniel Ibáñez - Catholic News Agency)

By Brian Dryden, Canadian Catholic News

[Ottawa – CNN] – Respect for the earth, and respect for different cultures and Indigenous communities go hand-in-hand as the Catholic Church moves forward after an historic synod that focused on the Amazon region, said one of the key participants in the synod.

Speaking at Saint Paul University in Ottawa Nov. 12, Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno of Peru said Pope Francis, in calling the Amazon synod, “is inviting us to a new stage, a new chapter of walking together for our common home.”

Cardinal Barreto, who was one of three prelates chosen by Pope Francis to oversee the organization of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region that was held in Rome from Oct. 6 to 27, said humanity faces an ecological crisis, and there is much that can be learned from Indigenous communities and their interaction with the environment as “we listen to the cries of the earth.”
He said the synod was an opportunity for the church and those who participated to “listen, discern and act.”

“Science is showing us our common home is sick. Science is not wrong, two plus two is four in any part of the world,” Cardinal Barreto said, adding that climate change is being driven by human activities. “Science is important, but conscience is also very important. I am awake, therefore I am not indifferent.”

“We as the Catholic Church are not going to solve all the problems of the world,” he said, but by walking together with Indigenous communities and Jesus, the church can find a new path to respond to social and ecological crises.

“Pope Francis says we are turning the earth into another waste bin,” Cardinal Barreto said. “We cannot adequately fight this ecological degradation if we don’t pay attention to the causes that are directly related to this degradation which are human and social – a lack of an ethical compass which is a real problem for humanity today, a lack of principles and values.”

Media coverage of the Amazon synod has focused on internal Church infighting between between more conservative factions in the Church and Pope Francis’ push to engage with Indigenous communities to address climate change and a recommendation to allow for married priests to be ordained in the Amazon region.

Cardinal Barreto, who received an honorary doctorate from Saint Paul University at a ceremony earlier in the day, and who also met briefly met with Canada’s Environment Minster Catherine McKenna while in Ottawa, focused most of his comments at Saint Paul University on respecting Indigenous communities and the need to change the way we live to protect the environment.

“The synod is a listening experience, listening to others and listening to God,” Cardinal Barreto said. “From the diversity of cultures, of different experiences, we must work together and act together.”

After meeting with Cardinal Barreto, McKenna said it was an “inspiring and touching meeting.”
“We need to be working and caring for our common home, its beautiful biodiversity, and the Amazon together. We need to take care of this planet — because we only have the one.”

Justice demanded for Amazon martyrs

By Brian Dryden, Canadian Catholic News

[Ottawa – CNN] – A Catholic university professor says the Catholic Church needs to speak out directly about the abuse of power in the Amazon region.

Rather than calling those killed while protecting the environment martyrs who are writing “a glorious chapter” in the struggle to preserve the Amazon , the Catholic Church must demand real justice for those killed and that those responsible be held those accountable for their crimes, said Saint Paul University professor and author Heather Eaton.

Eaton said she is heartened by the “the shift from dogma to ethics” and “the shift to taking seriously liberation theology, which has not been embraced by the institutional church,” that the recent Amazon synod signals. But she said the exploitation of the Amazon rainforest is done by mining companies, lumber companies and agri-business, and the Church must not only denounce abuses of power, but must confront that power directly as well.

“What does the synod say about this?” Eaton said. “What is the Catholic Church’s role in confronting these abuses of power?”

Eaton made her comments Nov. 12, during a panel discussion at Saint Paul University, a Catholic university in Ottawa, in the aftermath of the Amazon synod held in Rome in October.

At the start of the event, which also featured a speech by Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno of Peru who was one of the key organizers of the Amazon synod, a moment of silence was held for one of those recently killed: Paulo Paulino Guajajara of the Guajajara indigenous group living in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. According to the Reuters news service, he was murdered on Nov. 1 by a group of loggers working illegally in the area. Guajajara was a member of a group called Guardians of the Forest.

The panel discussion about the Amazon synod focused on Canada and Latin America working together after synod that has drawn praise in some liberal quarters of the Church but also blistering criticism from some more conservative Catholics.

When Pope Francis announced plans for the synod in 2017, he said that the Indigenous people of the Amazon region are “often forgotten.”

During her remarks. Eaton listed a number of activists who have been killed in the Amazon, especially since the election of President Jair Bolsonaro in 2018 and said it is insulting to praise the martyrdom of those killed without doing more to champion their cause on a political level. “I expect the institutional Church to do more then denounce, but to confront and challenge abuse of power,” Eaton said.

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