Catholic bishops to rebuild Brazilian society with justice and peace

Catholic bishops in Brazil have promised to rebuild the country polarized by a far-right president and a society slammed by extreme inequality, debt, inflation and the coronavirus. 

"It is time to rebuild Brazil, it is time to rebuild society in justice and peace," said Archbishop Walmor Oliveira de Azevedo of Belo Horizonte, president of the Bishops' Conference of Brazil (CNBB) in a video message for the start of the new year. 

"Selfish attitudes, unlimited consumption, disregard for the common home and indifference towards the poorest have caused many diseases", he said, Fides reported.  

"Christians are challenged to show the way to be exemplary in following Jesus Christ. It is about sowing more brotherhood and social friendship through gestures of solidarity and the protection of rights and justice," said Archbishop Oliveira de Azeved. 

The CNBB president said that "when the disciples of Jesus look at a person, they recognize that it is a brother, a sister, they feel compassion and do not allow themselves to be dominated by indifference and hatred". 

The aim for the new year 2022 is therefore to consolidate the bonds of brotherhood and social friendship "on the pillars of solidarity and the teachings of Jesus Christ our Lord", he said.

The Church of Brazil is presently celebrating its Jubilee Year from October 14, 2021 to October 14, 2022, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Bishops' Conference of Brazil. 

This anniversary, notes Archbishop Oliveira de Azeved, is a good time to look at the challenges and overcoming them by stepping up "the commitment to help Brazil to be more just, supportive and fraternal". 

Looking at the challenges: the Bolsonaro factor 

Brazil has entered the new year amid widespread poverty, an enduring financial crisis, inequality and social injustice. 

The problem is exacerbated by the political polarization ever since President Jair Bolsonaro took office in January 2019.

The opposition says Bolsonaro mismanaged the COVID-19 crisis, including not imposing social distancing, face masks, improper vaccine roll outs and other measures to combat the pandemic, and failed to guarantee economic recovery, intensifying poverty. 

His supporters prefer to ignore the health crisis and escalation of the South American nation’s financial problems or to blame the opposition for the catastrophe.

As a result, Brazil has the second highest number of deaths due to Covid with around 620,000 since the pandemic began. 

Bolsonaro is a noted anti-vaxx leader who has downplayed COVID-19, launched an attack on vaccines, not vaccinated himself and said he will not immunize his 11-year-old daughter. 

A former army captain openly nostalgic for Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship, Bolsonaro is often racist, sexist and homophobic, endearing him to supporters who like him for his brash, polarizing style, anti-establishment message, divisive vitriol and disdain for political correctness.

General elections are scheduled in Brazil in October this year to elect the President, Vice President, and the National Congress. The favorite opposition candidate is leftist ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva (2003-2010), who drastically changed the living conditions of a great part of Brazilians.

Overcoming economic challenges 

The country presently boasts the title of the most unequal in Latin America, with the World Bank’s Gini coefficient measuring inequality reaching its highest number on record, 0.674, in the first quarter of 2021.

Earnings for the poorest 40% shrunk by a third in 2020 but the top 10% of earners lost just 3% of their income. 

Unemployment under Bolsonaro’s governance saw a record high of 14.7%, and nearly 20 million Brazilians can’t find work or have given up looking. 

Unemployment has fallen from that high of early last year to 12.1 percent, but more than 40 percent of Brazilian workers have jobs in the informal sector.

The percentage of young Brazilians neither working nor studying jumped from 20% at the start of the decade to 29% during the pandemic. 

Brazilians are also reeling again from inflation, currently at 10.47 percent per year.

Price increases are much higher than that for a wide range of products, including fuel (up 50 percent from January to November 2021) and poultry (up 22.9 percent). 

In terms of GDP Brazil’s economy is back to where it was in 2016 and Brazil’s share of the global economy has fallen from 4.3% in 1980 to only to 2.4% today.