Pope Leo denounces the killing of 37 leaders of Amazonian peoples and said, “The blood of these brothers cries out to God and demands justice!”
From Cuzco, Pope Leo took the plane to Pucallpa—the second-largest city in the Peruvian Amazon, whose name means “red earth”—where on Nov. 15 he denounced “the dominant technocratic paradigm, which tends to exploit nature and cultures for the sake of immediate economic gain for the benefit of a few.” He said that “we must oppose this model with perseverance and broad vision…rooted in the Gospel and respectful of the wisdom of peoples.”
On a hot and very humid afternoon, Pope Leo met with missionaries and some 5,000 indigenous people and those supporting them at an open-air meeting at the Malecón Puerto Callao. They chanted “León, León” when he arrived in this area on the banks of the Ucayali River in the Amazonian rainforest of eastern Peru, where poverty is striking and the original peoples of this land feel discarded.
Following in the footsteps of Pope Francis, who visited the Amazonian city Puerto Maldonado in 2018, Pope Leo told them, “I come as a shepherd to listen to your stories and to walk alongside you.” They shouted approval when he added: “I wish to strengthen you in faith and hope, supporting you in your search for the justice and peace that this land so greatly needs. The inequalities that wound humanity and disfigure creation have a serious impact on your communities.”
He spoke after first listening to the bishop who organized the event, which included several traditional dances for the pope, and who thanked Leo for coming to support them. The dances were followed by two powerful testimonies from the original peoples of this land.
One of them, a young woman, Susi Diaz, told him that they had many concerns when Francis came in 2018, but the situation has deteriorated seriously since then. “The discrimination has increased,” she said, “our territories are being invaded,” and titles to their lands are challenged. “They threaten our lives and our security,” she said, pointing to oil spills, illegal and indiscriminate logging and extractive mining, and drug trafficking. “All this pollutes our rivers and our lakes, our sources of life,” Ms. Diaz said. Moreover, she said, “to defend our homes can cost our lives,” and told him that 37 indigenous leaders have been killed and many more threatened since Pope Francis’ visit.
The second speaker, Gonzalez, said that nobody listens to their calls for dignity and justice and asked Pope Leo to be their voice and speak on their behalf. He also spoke about the lack of education and health care for so many of the children in Amazonia and how so many young women suffer violence.
In his speech, Pope Leo said, “I thank God and all of you, for I can feel the embrace of your diverse community.”
The Augustinian pope told them: “The years I spent as a missionary and as a bishop in this beloved land of Peru taught me what it means for the church to walk alongside humanity in order to serve the Lord faithfully. This is essential if we are to become like Jesus Christ and follow him here and now, as we await his return.” Looking at the colorful gathering in front of him, he said he was reminded of what Pope Francis wrote in “Querida Amazonia”: “I dream of an Amazon region that fights for the rights of the poor, the original peoples and the least of our brothers and sisters, where their voices can be heard and their dignity advanced.”
“Sadly,” Leo said, “the voice that rises today from these places speaks to us of wounds that remain unhealed and have, in some cases, grown worse. The cry of the earth and the cry of the poor are inseparable, exposing patterns of exploitation and economic activity that threaten the balance of creation.”
Echoing what Pope Francis said in “Laudato Si’,” Pope Leo said, “Protecting the Amazon rainforest cannot be separated from concern for the people who live there: Indeed, integral ecology, social justice and the spiritual life go hand in hand.”
Clearly disturbed by what Ms. Diaz said about how defending one’s home can cost one’s life, Pope Leo denounced this in a strong voice, saying, “In recent years, many Indigenous leaders have been murdered for defending their territories. The blood of these brothers cries out to God and demands justice!” The crowd roared its approval.
Pope Leo also recalled the second testimony about lack of education and health care and said, “It is unacceptable that in many communities the right to health care and education is denied due to geographical isolation or institutional neglect.”
He added: “We are deeply concerned for the vulnerability of so many women, girls and adolescents, and by the suffering of those who experience violence and sexual abuse. Such abuse leaves deep wounds, often compounded by complicity and impunity.”
Faced with this situation, the pope said, “The Gospel calls us all the more urgently to personal and communal conversion, offering renewed hope for healing, consolation and reparation.”
He noted that Pucallpa is a young city, “full of energy and hope, yet in urgent need of moral and educational renewal.” He told them, “We must work tirelessly to ensure quality education that includes your languages and that values your ancestral knowledge, while also preparing the younger generations to face the major challenges of our time.”
In another strong statement based also on what he had learned during his 20 years here, the Chicago-born pope said, “Faced with the tendency to regard this vast region as a source of resources to be exploited, we are called to develop a different model, one inspired by Jesus Christ and his Gospel.” He recalled that Pope Francis, in “Laudato Si’,” “warned of the harmful consequences of the dominant technocratic paradigm, which tends to exploit nature and cultures for the sake of immediate economic gain for the benefit of a few.” Today, Leo told his activist audience, “We must oppose this model with perseverance and broad vision, looking instead to integral ecology as an expression of the civilization of love: an alternative vision, rooted in the Gospel and respectful of the wisdom of peoples, who recognize, in different languages, that everything in the world is deeply interconnected.”
More specifically, he said, “You know well the damage caused by indiscriminate deforestation and the pollution of rivers and other waters through illegal mining and oil spills.” Leo said, “These are not isolated accidents, but the consequences of the irresponsible exploitation of natural resources, which undermines the very existence of communities.” Added to this, he said, “is the scourge of drug trafficking, which preys on the poverty of young people, luring them with false promises of profit and uprooting them from their own culture.”
Pope Leo assured these people that “the church admires the resilience and capacity for new beginnings of the Amazonian peoples.” He told them, “You are witnesses of our Lord Jesus Christ, who rather than coming down from the cross, gives his life for his people. Christ never abandons us. Christ is with you. The church is with you, and you are her members. We are the body of Christ.”
He praised the efforts of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon and the Pan-Amazonia Ecclesial Network, which involves the church in the nine countries of the Amazon region, and said they seek increasingly “to shape a church with Amazonian traits.” The pope acknowledged that the laborers in the Amazonian vineyard “seem few” and noted, “your Vicariate, as large as entire countries, has only twenty-five priests.” It would seem that the preist shortage in the region is an issue that is deep in his heart. This is perhaps not surprising since he is a member of the Augustinian order, which responded to Pope John XXIII’s appeal to send priests to Latin America, and it was one of the most discussed topics at that Synod on the Amazon.
He expressed his “heartfelt gratitude to the men and women religious and the pastoral leaders of the communities, men and women laity, who with heroic fidelity safeguard the faith in the most remote places.” He said, “We must support and recognize their ministerial service.”
Pope Leo concluded his talk by telling them: “You are not alone on your journey. May Mary Most Holy, Mother of the Amazon, always watch over you, your families and your communities, and bless your dreams. Keep moving forward with courage and hope! May God bless the Amazon.”
Immediately afterward, he made history by being the first pope ever to celebrate Mass in the Amazonian region, for a crowd of around 100,000. He did so to the sound of drums, music and song of this region, accompanied by the priests working in this mission.
After Mass, he took the plane back to Lima, where he will spend the last night of this successful marathon journey, which assured the world that he has indeed recovered extraordinarily well from the operation on his lung a month ago. What he did today, traveling across the country from Chiclayo to Cusco and from there to Pucallpa and then to Lima, should remove any doubt about this.
Tomorrow morning, Monday, Nov. 16, he will visit a home that cares for abandoned elderly people and, afterward, he will celebrate his last Mass in Peru at an air base, before making the almost 15-hour flight back to Rome, during which he is expected to hold a press conference.
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