Less than a week before the U.S.-sponsored Leaders Summit on Climate, environmental and religious leaders said they are worried about talks on how to preserve the region and are asking government officials from the U.S. and the Amazon to look at kindly at the rainforest and its peoples.
As the coronavirus spreads through South America, Catholic Church leaders are calling urgently for governments to protect indigenous people.
Addressing participants of a two-day conference at the Vatican May 3, the pope said that like all economic activities, mining “should be at the service of the entire human community,” especially indigenous people who are often pressured “to abandon their homelands to make room for mining projects which are undertaken without regard for the degradation of nature and culture.”
The president of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend announced that in consultation with other school officials, he has decided to cover 19th-century murals in a prominent campus building that depict the life and exploration of Christopher Columbus.
Peruvian bishops met with Pope Francis for two and a half hours May 15 during the “ad limina” visit and shared concerns of the indigenous people of the Amazon region.
