Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Goiania (Agenzia Fides) - On April 5 the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) elected its new National Coordination for the next three years: Mgr. André de Witte, Bishop of Ruy Barbosa, who was vice president in the last three years is the new President, and Mgr. José Ionilton Lisboa de Oliveira, Bishop of Itacoatiara, is the Vice-President. Four executive coordinators will work with them.
The CPT has always played a leading role since it was founded more than forty years ago within the pastoral bodies of the National Conference of the Bishops of Brazil (CNBB).
The new President, Mgr. André de Witte, explains to Agenzia Fides that "the Church is called to walk on two legs". On the one hand there is "the evangelizing mission of the Church, of the disciples of the Good Shepherd, which is to take care of and form the People of God", continues the Bishop.
"This refers to our identity and includes all the ‘internal work’ of the Church: the liturgy, the Bible, catechesis, etc.". Together with this dimension, from the moment that "by option and mission we are together with vulnerable and threatened persons and categories", we are called to follow a path that "is equally essential, and although it undoubtedly touches the social, it is as ecclesial as the first dimension: participate in building a just and supportive society, at the service of life and hope, in the direction of the Definitive Kingdom".
For his part, Mgr José Ionilton Lisboa de Oliveira, tells Fides that he accepted this appointment "to help in the service that this Pastoral Care carries out in support of the struggle for the defense of land, water and the forest". A mission brought forward by the Church of Brazil which, according to the Bishop of Itacoatiara, "is important, necessary and demanding" in the Brazilian Amazon.
Many CPT operators are persecuted and even killed in Brazil, because of their attitude in defense of the weakest, because, as the President of the Commission recognizes, when someone "affects and lowers the conditions of life that the sons and daughters of God deserve, it is clear that the Church must denounce it with firmness and clarity".
The CPT was born on 22 June 1975 in difficult circumstances. Brazil was immersed in the military dictatorship and in that context, during a meeting of Bishops of the Amazon, held in Goiania (Brazil), this instrument of struggle took shape and wanted to be a prophetic voice that denounced the serious situation experienced by rural workers, especially in the Amazon region, exploited and subjected to work many times in slavery, after having been previously expelled from their lands. In Brazil between 25,000 and 30,000 people currently work in conditions similar to slavery. (LMM/LG) (Agenzia Fides, 9/4/2018)
