“People used to live there,” said Joana Gomes da Silva, pointing to the cluster of skeletal trunks and branches. “It was a very pretty house. It’s underwater now.”
Barbara Fraser - Catholic News Service
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Development in the Amazon threatens way of life for Afro-Brazilian communities
Although slavery as an institution no longer exists, forms of forced labor persist in the country.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
When miners, loggers and developers invade indigenous lands, isolated people die
With the miners came violence and diseases like malaria, to which the relatively isolated Indians had no resistance. In one village, no one survived. In others, as many as one-third of the villagers succumbed, some to disease and others to malnutrition.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Venezuela’s indigenous migrants face some of the greatest hardships
According to Catholic relief agencies, indigenous families, such as the Warao, have been forced to flee to Venezuala from Brazil, because of environmental and economic hardships.
Posted inFaith, News
Colombian Catholic Church plays key role in keeping peace
A year after Pope Francis urged Colombians to build unity and a nation for all after more than half a century of conflict, the country’s Catholic Church continues to play a key role in the quest for reconciliation.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Borders pose challenge for Catholic Church in Amazon basin
On a Sunday night in early July, four men — two of them indigenous — were brutally murdered in Assis, a tiny Brazilian town on the border with Peru.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
After Peruvian president resigns, bishops urge moral, ethical recovery
Peruvian president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned amid accusations of corruption.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
In Chile and Peru, Pope Francis will see Latin America’s migrant crisis
Spiraling inflation, a shortage of necessities such as food and medicine, and high crime rates have driven hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans to seek better opportunities in other countries.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Church leaders condemn possible massacre of indigenous in Amazon
Catholic leaders respond forcefully to reports that an indigenous group was massacred to make way for illegal gold mining in the Amazon, casting blame on the Brazilian government.
Posted inNews
Peruvian-based Catholic movement pledges inquiry after claims of abuse
Allegations of abuse were described in a new book, “Mitad Monjes, Mitad Soldados” (“Half Monks, Half Priests”), by Pedro Salinas, a former member of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, who interviewed about 30 other former members.