23 August 2019
Bishops in Latin America have called on the governments of the Amazon region, the United Nations and the international community to “take serious measures to save the lung of the world”.
Bishops in Latin America have called on the governments of the Amazon region, the United Nations and the international community to “take serious measures to save the lung of the world” as thousands of fires continue to devastate the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.
In a statement issued yesterday, on 22 August by the Board of CELAM, the coordinating body of the Latin American bishops’ conferences, the bishops emphasise the planetary significance of the Amazon and “the seriousness of this tragedy, whose impact is not merely local, or even regional, but planetary in scale”.
The appeal, titled “We raise our Voice for the Amazon”, is signed by CELAM President Miguel Cabral, Archbishop of Trujillo, Peru, and the two Vice-Presidents, Cardinal Odilo Scherer, Archbishop of São Paulo, Brazil, and Cardinal Leopoldo José Brenes, Archbishop of Managua, Nicaragua.
The bishops remark the importance and transcendence of the fires in the context of next October’s Synod on the Amazon. “The hope by the nearby of the Synod for the Amazon, called by Pope Francis, is turned into deep sorrow because of this tremendous natural tragedy. To our brother indigenous people living in that beloved rainforest, we express our closeness and unite our voices to yours to shout to the world for solidarity and prompt attention to this devastation”.
We share the complete statements here below:
