Taking the Catholic Pulse
Latest
Brazil to establish national pastoral ministry for country’s slums
  • John Allen Jr.
    • John Allen Jr.
    • Charles Collins
    • Elise Ann Allen
    • John Lavenburg
    • Fr. Jeff Kirby
    • Nirmala Carvalho
    • Charles Camosy
    • Eduardo Campos Lima
    • Paulina Guzik
    • Claire Page
    • Vatican
    • U.S.
    • UK and Ireland
    • Middle East
    • Americas
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Oceania
    • Interviews
    • Videos
    • Podcast
    • Last Week in the Church
  • Support Us
  • About Us
    • Contact Details
    • Advertising
    • Email Updates

  

    

       

    

Crux
© 2023 Crux Catholic Media, Inc.
Privacy and Cookie Policy
CruxTaking the Catholic Pulse
  • About Crux
  • Contact Us
  • Advertising
  • Videos
  • Support Us
Podcast:
  • Apple Podcasts
  • Spotify
  • Stitcher
  • Amazon Music
  • Google Podcasts
  • TuneIn
  • Quick Links

  • Currents News
  • The Tablet
  • DeSales Media Group in the Diocese of Brooklyn
  • Angelus News
  • The Catholic Channel on Sirius XM
  • Catholic Standard
  • Catholic TV

Paraguay bishops push for indigenous land rights

By Inés San Martín
Dec 1, 2021
|Crux
Share
Paraguay bishops push for indigenous land rights

In this file photo, pilgrims attend Mass Dec. 8, 2017 outside the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Miracles in Caacupe, Paraguay. (Credit: Santi Carneri/CNS.)

ROME – Paraguay’s bishops have called on the South American nation’s civil authorities to respect the rights of indigenous peoples, carry out an agrarian reform, and promote the common good in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We address you to express our deep concern at the forced evictions and threats of expulsion of indigenous and peasant communities in various areas of the country,” they wrote in a pastoral letter. “The recent episodes cause us indignation and we urge the national authorities to protect the rights of the native peoples in our country and the right to land of our compatriots.”

In a text dated Nov. 29, the bishops also called for an agrarian reform, the promotion of family farming and initiatives to ensure the protection of the ecology in a healthy, sustainable and solidarity-based economy.

Though the country’s economy has grown in recent years, supported by the export of soybeans and cattle, small-scale farmers are losing their jobs due to the actions of big agricultural companies: Almost 90 percent of the land belongs to five percent of landowners. Large-scale agriculture is steadily monopolizing the market in Paraguay, to the detriment of the country’s population: Only six percent of the agricultural land is available for domestic food production, while 94 percent is used for export crops. This means that citizens are facing hunger and malnutrition.

According to the Food Security Index, before the pandemic began, around 10 percent of children under the age of 5 suffered from stunting, nearly 27 percent of pregnant women were underweight, while 30 percent were overweight.

“It is time to put an end to misery, extreme poverty and practices that harm social cohesion, the common good and health in our common home,” the bishops said.

The bishops also urge legislators to repeal a recent modification to the Penal Code that sanctions with up to ten years in prison to those who invade private lands, a measure approved at the request of the big farming companies that in the past two decades began exploiting lands previously owned by indigenous populations.

“Before criminalizing, [legislators] must demand and ensure access to resources and opportunities in accordance with the dignity of all citizens,” the bishops wrote.

The controversial legislation was approved last September by President Mario Abdo, and small farmers and indigenous populations have already announced a mobilization to the capital, Asuncion, for March of next year, when Congress begins working again after the summer break.

The Paraguayan bishops also exhorted the powers of the State to “be sensitized to the many needs we are going through in the pandemic conditions, and to take the opportune decisions to take care of all Paraguayans.”

Over 16,400 people have died of COVID-19 since March of 2020, and less than 40 percent of the population has received two doses of the vaccine.

In the letter, the prelates also stress “the urgency of strengthening, defending and promoting the common good as the foundation of social peace.”

The bishops also consider that it is necessary to raise their voice to remember “that the law binds the legislator as well as all those who are under its jurisdiction,” and any act that harms “the sense and application of the precepts of the National Constitution and the validity of the body of law discredits the faith deposited in the laws and their authorities.”

Therefore, they express their demand that the authorities respect the rights of indigenous peoples, in order to “ensure equality and non-discrimination, autonomy, access to justice with respect to indigenous customary law, protection of their territories and natural resources for their livelihood.”

On Sunday, as the Novena in honor of the Virgin of Caacupé, the country’s patroness, the homily of the main Mass celebrated in the shrine included several criticisms against those in power.

Father Miguel Fritz, dean of the shrine, denounced the inequality and injustices in the access and distribution of land in this Latin American country, saying that “it is not surprising that the drama of evictions worsens because the hunger for land by the agribusinessmen is insatiable.”

“It is sad and shameful that year after year we have to denounce the cruel eviction of indigenous communities, it is a shocking reality,” said Fritz, recalling the expressions of Pope Francis who said that “private property is not an absolute right as is human dignity.”

Close to 40 percent of the indigenous population lives in rural areas, though they’re increasingly moving towards the urban regions after being forced to sell their lands.

“We need justice for all of us who form this great family of Paraguay because we all have the same dignity and we should have the same rights, also those who today suffer evictions,” said Fritz. “God is not pleased with those who use violence, those who criminalize those who fight for their legitimate rights, those who practice corruption and those who denigrate those who are different.”

Follow Inés San Martín on Twitter: @inesanma

Share

Latest Stories

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related Stories

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most Popular

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Last Week in the Church
Last Week in the Church
Keep Crux Independent
Keep Crux Independent

For the cost of a cup of coffee at Starbucks, you can help keep the lights on at Crux.

Support Us
Crux
Last Week in the Church with John Allen Jr.

Tuesdays on

Tuesdays on YouTube
Tuesdays on YouTube
  • Apple PodcastsApple Podcasts
  • Spotify
  • StitcherStitcher
  • Amazon MusicAmazon Music
  • Google PodcastsGoogle Podcasts
  • TuneIn

Crux. Anytime. Anywhere.

Today’s top stories delivered straight into your inbox.

Brazil to establish national pastoral ministry for country’s slums

  • Mar 23
  • Eduardo Campos Lima

Survey shows Brazilian priests struggling with stress, loneliness

  • Mar 21
  • Eduardo Campos Lima

Brazilian bishops accused by traditionalists of politicizing Lenten campaign

  • Mar 16
  • Eduardo Campos Lima

Nicaragua proposes suspending Vatican ties after comments

  • Mar 13
  • Gabriela Selser, 
    Frances D'Emilio

Vatican vignettes: Married priests, papal trains, Vatican scams and angry anarchists

  • Mar 22
  • John L. Allen Jr.

Gänswein rumors would mark a return to form for ex-papal secretaries

  • Mar 23
  • John L. Allen Jr.

Pope Francis’s Vatican doesn’t share Western alarm over Xi-Putin summit

  • Mar 21
  • John L. Allen Jr.

Santa Fe archbishop ‘ashamed’ of abuse by Catholic clergy

  • Mar 22
  • John Lavenburg

Brazil to establish national pastoral ministry for country’s slums

  • Mar 23
  • Eduardo Campos Lima

Gänswein rumors would mark a return to form for ex-papal secretaries

  • Mar 23
  • John L. Allen Jr.

African faith leaders ask U.S. to help solve security, humanitarian crisis in Sahel region

  • Mar 23
  • John Lavenburg

Vatican vignettes: Married priests, papal trains, Vatican scams and angry anarchists

  • Mar 22
  • John L. Allen Jr.