“As long as they remain in their territories, they can be somewhat safe. But their reservations must be closed to non-indigenous persons.”

The accelerated reduction in the size of the Catholic flock in Argentina confirmed an overall Latin American trend: Between 2008 and 2019, the proportion of Catholics in Argentina dropped from 77 percent to 63 percent.

The increasing number of fatal acts of police are among the emerging concerns addressed by the Pastoral of Favelas, an archdiocesan commission created 42 years ago to respond to the needs of Rio’s slum dwellers.

The Chilean bishops’ have urged political leaders to step up to their responsibility to preserve the common good and deplored acts of anarchy and looting, most recently directed against church sites themselves. But is anyone listening to them?

Rainforests are not the only things under threat in the Amazon region. There has also been an uptick in violence against native peoples: land invasions, illegal exploitation of natural resources and damage caused by invaders of indigenous lands went from 96 in 2017 to 109 in 2018.

According to priests and women religious who have worked in the Amazon for decades, the particularities of the Catholic mission in the region—especially the lack of clergy to attend to thousands of geographically isolated communities—has led them to make hard choices.

The church has made a great effort to build a genuinely indigenous Catholic tradition in the Amazon region, reports Eduardo Campos Lima, and indigenous leaders have great hopes for the upcoming synod.

But the Pan-Amazon Synod’s organizers say much of the unhappiness with the its working document simply reflects Eurocentricism. Many critics “have little knowledge of the Amazon and in some cases have no commitment to its people.”

A record number of wildfires and the rapid deforestation of the Amazon are prompting Latin American bishops to plead for international action, writes America’s correspondent in Brazil, Eduardo Campos Lima.

Deadly riots regularly occur in the third-largest prison system in the world, reports Eduardo Campos Lima, and Brazilian authorities are restricting the practice of religion rather than address overcrowding, gang activity and other problems.