As the ecological crisis in Brazil continues to get worse, the country’s Roman Catholic bishops have become more vocal about its causes, denouncing collaboration between government officials and corporations to carry out destructive mining projects in areas occupied by indigenous peoples.
On May 5, Bishop José Ionilton Lisboa de Oliveira of Itacoatiara in Amazonas state, published an official decree saying that his diocese would not accept “financial support, either in cash or in other goods, from politicians, logging companies, mining companies … that contribute to deforestation and to the expulsion of indigenous peoples, “quilombolas” (descendants of escaped African slaves), riverside communities, and small farmers from their lands.”
Though intended for internal distribution in his diocese, Brazil’s media caught wind of de Oliveira’s decree and it has gained attention across South America.