Brazilian Conference of National Bishops Archives

New report on Amazon mafias draws on church-collected data on rural violence

Amazon synod
Sep 18, 2019

A new Human Rights Watch report, titled “Rainforest Mafias,” draws on data collected by the Pastoral Land Commission, a non-profit group founded by progressive sectors of the Brazilian Catholic Church which has issued an annual report on human rights violations in rural sectors of the country since 1985.

Brazil’s right wing government says it’s ‘monitoring’ – not spying on – Amazon synod

Church in the Americas
Sep 14, 2019

Brazil’s government has confirmed it is “keeping track of” the preparatory works of the Amazon Synod but is not monitoring members of the Church.

Women play outsized role in missionary activity in Amazon

Church in the Americas
Sep 9, 2019

The suggestion of a need to identify the “type of official ministry that can be conferred on women” included in the working document of the upcoming Synod for the Pan-Amazon region has been controversial, but Bishop Adriano Ciocca Vasino of the Territorial Prelature of São Félix in Brazil thinks the document is “timid” about the role of the women in the region, which he says “in many communities is already diaconal.”

Evangelical missions a major threat to Amazon culture, Catholic leaders say

Church in the Americas
Sep 3, 2019

As the Synod for the Amazon approaches, Church leaders in the region want to speak about the growing influence of Evangelical and Pentecostal denominations among indigenous peoples.

Brazilian archbishop forces cancellation of ‘disrespectful’ theater production

Church in the Americas
Jul 30, 2019

A theatrical performance called “The Coronation of Our Lady of the Transvestites” was canceled on July 19 in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte after the local archdiocese released a statement defining it as “a prejudiced and criminal action of disrespect of the Catholic Christian faith.”

Archbishop denounces human rights violations in Brazilian prisons

Church in the Americas
Jul 8, 2019

A little more than a month after prison riots took the lives of 55 people in Manaus, one of the biggest cities in the Brazilian Amazon, Manaus Archbishop Sergio Castriani denounced the conditions in the region’s prison system.