SÃO PAULO (CNS): Bishops from the Amazon region called on leaders from around the world at United Nations Climate Change Conference [COP26] in Glasgow, Scotland, to commit to protecting vulnerable communities and the Amazon ecosystem.
The video message, produced by the Pan-Amazonian Church Network, or REPAM, was released on November 5.
“I urge COP26 participants to listen to the cries of the peoples, waters and forests of the Amazon and to pressure the Brazilian government to effectively commit itself to the defense of the original peoples, forests and waters of the Amazon,” Bishop Erwin Krautler, president of REPAM-Brazil and retired bishop of Xingu, Para, Brazil, said in the video.
Pleas came from Brazilian and foreign bishops who live in the Amazon region and want its preservation, like French Bishop Jesús María López Mauleón of Alto Xingu-Tucumã; Italian Bishop Adriano Ciocca Vasino of São Felix; Irish Bishop Derek John Christopher Byrne of Primavera do Leste-Paranatinga; German Bishop Norbert Hans Christoph Foerster of Ji- Paraná; and Polish Bishop Bishop Marek Marian Piatek of Coari.
“Along with Pope Francis, we ask for urgent and courageous commitments from COP26 to combat climate change and protect our beloved Amazon,” Bishop Vasino said.
