Brazilian bishops' "holy indignation" over violence against Indigenous people
The Catholic Church’s closeness and solidarity with Indigenous people in Brazil means that the pains of each Indigenous person are also those of the Church, say the prelates
Christians should be aroused with “holy indignation” against any disrespect of Indigenous people, say Catholic bishops in Brazil while also calling on authorities to safeguard their communities and ensure that their rights are protected.
"The original peoples, integrated with nature, have been obstinately despised by greed, by the predatory exploitation of the environment, which spreads death in the name of money," the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil said in their recent statement about the Indigenous Missionary Council annual report that highlighted the lack of respect for the rights of indigenous peoples and how the situation had worsened in recent years.
The Catholic bishops said this situation should arouse "holy indignation" in the hearts of every person, especially Christians. "Life must be effectively defended, not only at a specific stage, but throughout its entire course. And the defense of human life is inseparable from caring for the environment."
The bishops pointed to the Catholic Church’s closeness and solidarity with Indigenous people. "The pains of each indigenous person are also those of the Church, which according to her doctrine, the teaching of Pope Francis, teaches the importance of native peoples in the conservation of the planet," they wrote.
The Yanomami people
They make reference to the approximately 30,000 Yanomami people, the largest relatively isolated tribe in South America who live in the rainforests and mountains of northern Brazil and southern Venezuela. The Church "will continue working, increasingly intensifying its actions, in union with many realities of society and public power, so that hope prevails, confident that each Yanomami will be respected in his dignity as son and daughter of God."
Last year, the then far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's government presented a bill to National Congress to legalize the exploitation of mining resources in Yanomami territory to make up for the lack of raw materials, due to the drop in imports since the beginning of the war in Ukraine and the embargo on Russian products.
The bishops called on authorities, now under leftist leader Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva who in January was sworn in for his third non-consecutive term as Brazil's president for "adequate treatment dedicated to the Yanomami people and to all indigenous communities” in Brazil. “Given the seriousness of what is happening in the north of the country, the deaths, especially of children and the elderly, those responsible must be identified so that justice prevails. The genocide of the Yanomami is a chapter that will never be forgotten in the history of Brazil, that a similar crime against the lives of our brothers and sisters should not be repeated", they said.
The defense of indigenous peoples
Cardinal Leonardo Steiner of Manaus, Vice President of the Bishops' Conference of the Amazon, traveled February 1 to Boa Vista, capital of the State of Roraima, to express on behalf of Pope Francis and the bishops’ conference, his solidarity with the Yanomami people. He chose also to meet with Indigenous leaders to evaluate an even greater presence of the Catholic Church.
"The emergency experienced by the Yanomami people, who have gained great visibility in recent days, is a consequence of the invasion of their territory by thousands of searchers who carry out illegal activities associated with criminal groups," said Father Lucius Nicoletto, administrator of the Diocese of Roraima, according to Fides. Such exploitation of Yanomami territory has led to a health and humanitarian crisis, forcing the federal government to declare a public health emergency within Yanomami territory.
The defense of indigenous peoples and their rights to their lands has been the subject of recurrent appeals by the Brazilian bishops, especially since the Synod of Bishops' special assembly on the Pan-Amazon Region in October 2019.In his post-synodal apostolic exhortation, Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis denounced the "injustice and crime" of "businesses... which harm the Amazon and fail to respect the right of the original peoples to the land and its boundaries". The pope also criticized "mining or oil projects, and other businesses that raze the forests and pollute the environment... and become an instrument of death".