There was a briefing held this afternoon, at 1:30pm local time (7:30am) in the Briefing Room at the offices of the Holy See Press Centre. Present at this Press Conference were Doctor Carlos Alfonso Nobre, a scientist, Nobel Prize winner for Peace (2007), a member of the Comissão de Ciȇncias Ambientais do Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico [CNPq] (Brasil); His Excellency, Krwin Kräutler, C.PP.S. Prelate Bishop emeritus of Xingu (Brazil); Doctor Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communications; and Father Giacomo Costa, SJ, Secretary of the Commission for Information. Christiane Murray, Associate Director of the Holy See Press Centre moderated the session.
Alessandro Di Bussolo filed this report:
The cry of alarm was issued today by science, through the mouth of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner Carlos Alfonso Nobre, who recalls that we are very close to a collapse of the Amazon forest, and the cry of the Church, represented by the Bishop emeritus of Altamira Xingu, in Brazil, His Excellency, Erwin Kräutler, who denounces how the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, the third largest in the world, is an aggression to the entire ecosystem. These cries resonated strongly in the Holy See Press Office during the third briefing of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon. Shortly before, summarizing the work of the general congregation held this morning, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, Paolo Ruffini, stressed that some synod fathers spoke about ecocide and ecological sins, to the detriment of creation and the harmony of Creation, which should be recognized and confessed, because they are sins against God, against neighbour and against future generations.
The 80-year-old bishop Krwin Kräutler, a native of Austria, who has lived in the Amazon rainforest since he was 26, and for 30 years under guard because he supports the Indians and defends the Forest, remembers that the Pope, in announcing the Synod, Called for special attention to indigenous peoples, who are at risk. Urged by the proposal of the ordination of married men, Bishop Kräutler underlines that thousands of communities in the Amazon receive the Eucharist once or twice a year and the Eucharist is fundamental for the Christian. We want these brothers not only to have the Word, but also the Eucharist, the bishop continues. There is the risk of placing celibacy above the Eucharist. But the Lord, at the Last Supper, said: 'Do this in memory of me', so for us the Eucharist is an obligation.
And we remember, he adds, that two thirds of these Christian communities without priests are coordinated by women! We talk a lot about the enhancement of women, but we need concrete things. We are thinking of the female diaconate, why not, and this is also a topic of the Synod. Rural emigration has inflated the cities in an unnatural way, says Kräutler answering another question and today the challenge for the Church is to reach all these people. The Pentecostal churches arrived before us, and we are not really present due to the lack of priests, or of religious men and women. It is not enough to visit a community, the Church must always be present, with the celebration of the Eucharist and the administration of the sacraments.
Thus, for the bishop emeritus of Altamita Xingu, there is no other possibility than the priestly ordination of married men, because indigenous peoples do not understand celibacy. The first few times I arrived in a village they asked me: 'Where is your wife?'. I had to say that I didn't have a wife, and they felt an enormous pain for me. For the indigenous peoples, at least those that I know, the white man can perhaps live as a celibate, but for them it is like in the Letter of Saint Paul to Timothy: 'Let man have a woman and take care of the house first '. Then, with this quality, he will be ready to take care of a bigger house that is the community.
Before responding to journalists, in his speech, Monsignor Kräutler had denounced that Amazonia is always seen as a province to plunder, first from wood and minerals, today from energy. Soon we will have 1000 hydroelectric plants, some are already under construction, others will be. But we don't need it anymore. In the Amazon we have the sun from 6 am to 6 pm, we take advantage of solar energy and replace it with hydroelectric power, which is an attack on the ecosystem, even though for the Belo Monte power plant they have always denied it. The Austro-Brazilian prelate is a direct witness: I live there and feel the consequences: the Xingu river is no longer the same, flooded areas, deforested forests, tons of dead fish, inhabitants moved into tiny, prefabricated houses. The local people have never been consulted! Everything was already prepared in Brasilia, we found ourselves faced with a fait accompli. Altamira then is one of the most violent cities in Brazil. Many young people are without prospects, and fall into the trap of drugs. The Church, for Kräutler, must continue to call attention to everything that is happening, giving scientific information. Throughout history, he remembers, we have always defended the indigenous peoples, and in 1988 the Catholic Church succeeded in incorporating their rights into the federal constitution. Today an anti-indigenous campaign of politicians, including the government, is underway because they are seen as an obstacle to progress. We do not look at them as an object of charity, but we put ourselves alongside the natives for the defence of their lives.
Before him, the Brazilian Carlos Alfonso Nobre, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner, climatologist and one of the leading experts on global warming, who has been studying Amazonia for 40 years, summarizes the themes of a document created specifically for the Synod. Remember that the Amazon is the ecological heart of the planet and an immense partner in bio-diversity. But, he denounces, "we are very close to the collapse of the Amazon forest, science says it with absolute rigor. Like Laudato si' says that the collapse of our Common Home is near. If you get to destroy 20-25 percent of the forest - this is Nobre's alarm - shortly after the savannah will cover 60 percent of the area. Today the forest has been destroyed at 15 percent. We are close to the point of no return.
What to do? The scientist is asked. Technologies - he explains - can help find solutions, if they are not used for the indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources. Technology can give more power to populations, thanks to the bio-economy, to a new model of sustainable, decentralized economy, supported by energy from renewable sources, which respects the quality of life of communities. So that the Amazon can continue to be the forest that it has been for 30 million years.
Responding to journalists, the climatologist Nobre underlines that the majority of the world population is not at all in denial, with regard to the environmental risks deriving from global warming, denounced in a compact way by scientists and the only negationists are the proponents and defenders of the economic model that was dominant in the twentieth century and still is today. The Amazon, thanks to its forest, recalls the Nobel Prize winner stores an enormous amount of carbon dioxide. If the Amazon forest were not there, global warming would be even faster and more dramatic. We must change our way of living and drastically reduce the production of carbon dioxide.
Ima Celia Guimarães Vieira, a Brazilian ecologist and member of the National Commission for the Middle Environment conama, who is at the Synod as an expert, and who has been studying the biodiversity of Amazonia for 30 years, also took part in the Press Conference. And she touched on the question of isolated peoples. It is important - she said - to guarantee the territory to these peoples and to respect the type of isolation they have chosen. There are 114 isolated peoples in Brazil already recognized and 28 confirmed. And she thanked the Pope and the synod fathers for putting the theme of integral ecology, which is very dear to us Brazilians at the centre of their work.
In his report about the work of the fifth congregation, held on Wednesday morning, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communications, Paolo Ruffini, first of all underlined how as in the interventions of former days, he returned today to speak, as on Tuesday afternoon, of the need for a profound ecological conversion, and that ecological sins exist, sins of ecocide, referring to the idolatries of the past and present as the hunt for Eldorado and white gold, the god of rubber and the wild capitalism of today. It is necessary to start living not as lords and masters of the earth, but as guests. An ecological ministry has been proposed for the laity. God, it has been said, manifests Himself in those who are deprived of life for economic exploitation. And so Christ is Indian and also seringuero.
In addition to the preferential option for the poor, some are asked to add, for the Church, a preferential option for the young and the defence of Creation. Many have again stressed the lack of priests, with the result that in the Amazon regions larger populations than whole nations have very few priests. Opening up to the viri probati, someone has clarified, does not mean changing the law of ecclesiastical celibacy, but that this law, like all human laws, can have exceptions for concrete situations. For others, however, the ordination of married men may not solve the problem. Why are there no vocations? Other synod fathers asked themselves. This is why missionary formation with an Amazonian peculiarity is needed. And the permanent diaconate among the natives must be increased for the ministry of the word, baptism and the distribution of communion. The rituals must be adapted, not translated. And there are those who have asked to relaunch the role of the base communities.
The report by Doctor Ruffini was joined by that of Father Giacomo Costa, Secretary of the Information Commission, who set up other topics for discussion in four points. The ordained ministries, with the request for creativity, to give rise to more participatory ministries for the laity, which must be persons with good stability and publicly recognized. A second point is the formation for inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue, which must be approached with an attitude of respect and listening, demonstrating an ability to hold on to others, with empathy but without watering down identities. A third point is migration: the different migratory flows that cross Amazonia require different pastoral care. And finally the Synod, which must form a sounding board for all questions of integral ecology emerged with the Laudato sì and this for the whole Church, because it is not a Synod only for a particular region. This is why we need to set out ways to be contemplative: not to live as masters but as guests.
Alessandro Di Bussolo filed this report:
The cry of alarm was issued today by science, through the mouth of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner Carlos Alfonso Nobre, who recalls that we are very close to a collapse of the Amazon forest, and the cry of the Church, represented by the Bishop emeritus of Altamira Xingu, in Brazil, His Excellency, Erwin Kräutler, who denounces how the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, the third largest in the world, is an aggression to the entire ecosystem. These cries resonated strongly in the Holy See Press Office during the third briefing of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon. Shortly before, summarizing the work of the general congregation held this morning, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, Paolo Ruffini, stressed that some synod fathers spoke about ecocide and ecological sins, to the detriment of creation and the harmony of Creation, which should be recognized and confessed, because they are sins against God, against neighbour and against future generations.
The 80-year-old bishop Krwin Kräutler, a native of Austria, who has lived in the Amazon rainforest since he was 26, and for 30 years under guard because he supports the Indians and defends the Forest, remembers that the Pope, in announcing the Synod, Called for special attention to indigenous peoples, who are at risk. Urged by the proposal of the ordination of married men, Bishop Kräutler underlines that thousands of communities in the Amazon receive the Eucharist once or twice a year and the Eucharist is fundamental for the Christian. We want these brothers not only to have the Word, but also the Eucharist, the bishop continues. There is the risk of placing celibacy above the Eucharist. But the Lord, at the Last Supper, said: 'Do this in memory of me', so for us the Eucharist is an obligation.
And we remember, he adds, that two thirds of these Christian communities without priests are coordinated by women! We talk a lot about the enhancement of women, but we need concrete things. We are thinking of the female diaconate, why not, and this is also a topic of the Synod. Rural emigration has inflated the cities in an unnatural way, says Kräutler answering another question and today the challenge for the Church is to reach all these people. The Pentecostal churches arrived before us, and we are not really present due to the lack of priests, or of religious men and women. It is not enough to visit a community, the Church must always be present, with the celebration of the Eucharist and the administration of the sacraments.
Thus, for the bishop emeritus of Altamita Xingu, there is no other possibility than the priestly ordination of married men, because indigenous peoples do not understand celibacy. The first few times I arrived in a village they asked me: 'Where is your wife?'. I had to say that I didn't have a wife, and they felt an enormous pain for me. For the indigenous peoples, at least those that I know, the white man can perhaps live as a celibate, but for them it is like in the Letter of Saint Paul to Timothy: 'Let man have a woman and take care of the house first '. Then, with this quality, he will be ready to take care of a bigger house that is the community.
Before responding to journalists, in his speech, Monsignor Kräutler had denounced that Amazonia is always seen as a province to plunder, first from wood and minerals, today from energy. Soon we will have 1000 hydroelectric plants, some are already under construction, others will be. But we don't need it anymore. In the Amazon we have the sun from 6 am to 6 pm, we take advantage of solar energy and replace it with hydroelectric power, which is an attack on the ecosystem, even though for the Belo Monte power plant they have always denied it. The Austro-Brazilian prelate is a direct witness: I live there and feel the consequences: the Xingu river is no longer the same, flooded areas, deforested forests, tons of dead fish, inhabitants moved into tiny, prefabricated houses. The local people have never been consulted! Everything was already prepared in Brasilia, we found ourselves faced with a fait accompli. Altamira then is one of the most violent cities in Brazil. Many young people are without prospects, and fall into the trap of drugs. The Church, for Kräutler, must continue to call attention to everything that is happening, giving scientific information. Throughout history, he remembers, we have always defended the indigenous peoples, and in 1988 the Catholic Church succeeded in incorporating their rights into the federal constitution. Today an anti-indigenous campaign of politicians, including the government, is underway because they are seen as an obstacle to progress. We do not look at them as an object of charity, but we put ourselves alongside the natives for the defence of their lives.
Before him, the Brazilian Carlos Alfonso Nobre, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner, climatologist and one of the leading experts on global warming, who has been studying Amazonia for 40 years, summarizes the themes of a document created specifically for the Synod. Remember that the Amazon is the ecological heart of the planet and an immense partner in bio-diversity. But, he denounces, "we are very close to the collapse of the Amazon forest, science says it with absolute rigor. Like Laudato si' says that the collapse of our Common Home is near. If you get to destroy 20-25 percent of the forest - this is Nobre's alarm - shortly after the savannah will cover 60 percent of the area. Today the forest has been destroyed at 15 percent. We are close to the point of no return.
What to do? The scientist is asked. Technologies - he explains - can help find solutions, if they are not used for the indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources. Technology can give more power to populations, thanks to the bio-economy, to a new model of sustainable, decentralized economy, supported by energy from renewable sources, which respects the quality of life of communities. So that the Amazon can continue to be the forest that it has been for 30 million years.
Responding to journalists, the climatologist Nobre underlines that the majority of the world population is not at all in denial, with regard to the environmental risks deriving from global warming, denounced in a compact way by scientists and the only negationists are the proponents and defenders of the economic model that was dominant in the twentieth century and still is today. The Amazon, thanks to its forest, recalls the Nobel Prize winner stores an enormous amount of carbon dioxide. If the Amazon forest were not there, global warming would be even faster and more dramatic. We must change our way of living and drastically reduce the production of carbon dioxide.
Ima Celia Guimarães Vieira, a Brazilian ecologist and member of the National Commission for the Middle Environment conama, who is at the Synod as an expert, and who has been studying the biodiversity of Amazonia for 30 years, also took part in the Press Conference. And she touched on the question of isolated peoples. It is important - she said - to guarantee the territory to these peoples and to respect the type of isolation they have chosen. There are 114 isolated peoples in Brazil already recognized and 28 confirmed. And she thanked the Pope and the synod fathers for putting the theme of integral ecology, which is very dear to us Brazilians at the centre of their work.
In his report about the work of the fifth congregation, held on Wednesday morning, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communications, Paolo Ruffini, first of all underlined how as in the interventions of former days, he returned today to speak, as on Tuesday afternoon, of the need for a profound ecological conversion, and that ecological sins exist, sins of ecocide, referring to the idolatries of the past and present as the hunt for Eldorado and white gold, the god of rubber and the wild capitalism of today. It is necessary to start living not as lords and masters of the earth, but as guests. An ecological ministry has been proposed for the laity. God, it has been said, manifests Himself in those who are deprived of life for economic exploitation. And so Christ is Indian and also seringuero.
In addition to the preferential option for the poor, some are asked to add, for the Church, a preferential option for the young and the defence of Creation. Many have again stressed the lack of priests, with the result that in the Amazon regions larger populations than whole nations have very few priests. Opening up to the viri probati, someone has clarified, does not mean changing the law of ecclesiastical celibacy, but that this law, like all human laws, can have exceptions for concrete situations. For others, however, the ordination of married men may not solve the problem. Why are there no vocations? Other synod fathers asked themselves. This is why missionary formation with an Amazonian peculiarity is needed. And the permanent diaconate among the natives must be increased for the ministry of the word, baptism and the distribution of communion. The rituals must be adapted, not translated. And there are those who have asked to relaunch the role of the base communities.
The report by Doctor Ruffini was joined by that of Father Giacomo Costa, Secretary of the Information Commission, who set up other topics for discussion in four points. The ordained ministries, with the request for creativity, to give rise to more participatory ministries for the laity, which must be persons with good stability and publicly recognized. A second point is the formation for inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue, which must be approached with an attitude of respect and listening, demonstrating an ability to hold on to others, with empathy but without watering down identities. A third point is migration: the different migratory flows that cross Amazonia require different pastoral care. And finally the Synod, which must form a sounding board for all questions of integral ecology emerged with the Laudato sì and this for the whole Church, because it is not a Synod only for a particular region. This is why we need to set out ways to be contemplative: not to live as masters but as guests.
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