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Pope Francis
demanded Friday that governments and other institutions end the exploitation of
the Amazon rainforest and recognize the region's indigenous people as the main
caretakers of what he called "our common home." Speaking to thousands
of people deep inside the Amazon, the Argentine pope said "The native
Amazonian peoples have probably never been so threatened on their own lands as
they are at present."
Francis
condemned the "pressure being exerted by great business interests" seeking
petroleum, gold, lumber and other natural resources and plundering the area
"without concern for its inhabitants." The pope was greeted warmly
Friday in the Peruvian city of Puerto Maldonado by thousands of enthusiastic
supporters who lined the streets before his meeting with the country's
indigenous people.
Francis arrived
in Puerto Maldonado, considered the gateway to the Amazon rainforest, after
flying Thursday from Chile to the Peruvian capital of Lima. The pope met in the
city's coliseum with several thousand indigenous people representing more than
20 indigenous groups, who had hoped he would deliver a strong message urging
the government to recognize their land rights and clean up rivers that have been
contaminated by illegal mining.
Francis had
previously spoken about the need to protect the Amazon, whose lush forests are
being transformed into barren and contaminated wasteland due to an expansion
illegal gold mining, farming and new road and dam construction. He hopes to use
the trip to build interest in a large church meeting next year on the Amazon
and the natives who live there. There are about 350 indigenous groups in the
region, located in southeastern Peru, some of which continue to live in voluntary
isolation.
The pope's warm
welcome to Puerto Maldonado was in sharp contrast to his visit earlier this
week to Chile, which drew smaller crowds and whose presence sparked protests. "His
desire to be with us signals a historic reconciliation with the Amazon's
indigenous communities,'' said Edwin Vasquez, an indigenous leader who traveled
to Puerto Maldonado to hear the pope. "We consider it a good step
forward."
Before departing
Chile Thursday, the Argentine pope accused abused victims of a pedophile
Chilean priest of slandering a bishop who they say protected the perpetrator. Speaking
to reporters before leaving, Francis said until he sees proof that Bishop Juan
Barros was complicit in covering up the sex crimes of the Rev. Fernando
Karadima, such accusations against him are “all calumny.”
"The day
they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, then I will speak," the pope
said in response to a reporter's question about Barros prior to celebrating an
open-air mass in the northern Chilean city of Iquique. The pope's remarks are
seen as having undermined his efforts to rehabilitate the Catholic Church’s
reputation while visiting South America and shocked Chileans and drew immediate
rebuke from victims and their advocates.
They noted the
accusers were deemed credible enough by the Vatican that it sentenced Karadima
to a lifetime of"penance and prayer" for his crimes in 2011. A
Chilean judge also found the victims to be credible, saying that while she had
to drop criminal charges against Karadima because too much time had passed,
proof of his crimes was not lacking.
Many Chileans
are still angry about the pope's 2015 decision to appoint Barros, a Karadima
protege, as bishop of the southern city of Osorno. Barros' controversial
appointment has divided the diocese, as he has denied being aware of Karadima's
abuse, and local Catholic groups in his southern diocese of Osorno are
demanding that Francis remove him.
But the anger
did not stop the pope from offering his unwavering support of the 61-year-old
bishop. One of Karadima's victims, Juan Carlos Cruz, said Barros "is a
liar, a delinquent, who has amnesia after covering up for Karadima. He has
covered-up abuses and should be in jail or at least dismissed."
Barros, who was
attending the mass with hundreds of other bishops and clergy, has had a
conspicuous presence at both of the pope's previous open-air masses and his
meeting with clergy at the Santiago cathedral.
The pope also
met in Santiago Tuesday with survivors of clerical sex abuse. The pope wept
with them and asked forgiveness for the "irreparable damage" they
suffered as children when they were sexually abused by priests - a scandal that
has damaged the Catholic Church's integrity and cast a pall over the pope's
first visit to the country.
The U.S.-based
non-governmental organization Bishop Accountability reported last week that
nearly 80 Catholic clergy members had been accused of sexually abusing Chilean
children since 2000. A recent Latinobarometro survey said the crisis triggered
a sharp drop in the number of Chileans who consider themselves Catholic, as
well as a decline in confidence in the church as an institution. The distrust
extends to Pope Francis in Chile, a country that gives him the lowest approval
rating among the 18 Latin American countries in the survey.