Catholics who work in the Amazon say members of small, isolated villages believe the church could be more present in their lives if it allowed the ordination of married men.
Less than two weeks before the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon was scheduled to begin at the Vatican, the Brazilian bishops' Indigenous Missionary Council reported that the number of indigenous land invasions and indigenous murdered in Brazil in 2018 soared.
Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, a Catholic who campaigned to rid the nation of corruption, will take office Jan. 1 with a conservative moral agenda.
"This team is the victory scream of all refugees. People believe that we don't belong anywhere, but we do ... we belong to the world and the world belongs to all."
"We hope that the center will encourage harmony and unity among different countries and among different religions," Father Tavares told Catholic News Service.