Pope urges religious leaders to denounce 'blasphemy' of violence in God's name
- Mar 6, 2021
Inside, there was nothing massive about the Mass: Just 1,000 people were spaced carefully across the pews of a vast basilica that normally holds 35,000 as the Catholic Church tried to protect parishioners from the COVID-19 pandemic.
A report on the violence against indigenous peoples in Brazil in 2019, published by the Bishops’ Conference’ Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI), showed that the number of intrusions of indigenous reservations more than doubled last year.
With a severe draught in many parts of the country, Brazil is now seeing a record number of wildfires, especially in the Amazon rainforest and the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland.
On Monday, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro partially vetoed a bill to forgive churches’ tax debts with the government. The measure would force the Brazilian government to give up an amount of at least $165 million, mostly benefiting Evangelical churches.
The fight against poverty and social inequalities, as well as harsh criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic dictated this year’s Cry of the Excluded protests.
A court order allowing a 10-year-old to get an abortion in Brazil was “a heinous crime,” according to the president of the country’s bishops’ conference.
Ignoring early warnings and pleas from bishops’ commissions for prison ministry, countries across Latin America are seeing rising COVID-19 infection rates and deaths among inmates in their generally overcrowded prisons.