The Brazilian Amazon has never had a cardinal. Franciscan Leonardo Steiner, 71, Archbishop of Manaus, feels the responsibility of being the first in this mission. He hopes to be able to fulfill Pope Francis’ wishes to overcome the social and environmental problems that threaten the region.
After the Synod on the Amazon, organized by Francis at the Vatican in 2019, the following year the pontiff wrote the apostolic exhortation “Querida Amazonia”. In the document, the Pope says that he would like to see a region with more social justice, where Christianity does not eliminate but enriches local cultures, where ecology is defended and missionaries are not ashamed of Christ.
“I hope I can help implement the four dreams that Pope Francis put in the letter,” Steiner said. According to the newly appointed cardinal, these aspirations are decisive both for the future of the region and for the Church that is present in the Amazon. “It’s the social dream, the ecological dream, the cultural dream and the ecclesial dream,” he emphasized.
“Pope Francis makes a hermeneutic of totality in this letter, and I hope to be able to help our churches that are in the Amazon to fulfill these four dreams. To maintain an increasingly missionary presence, an increasingly consoling, increasingly Samaritan presence, more and more hopeful,” he told RFI.
Faced with the growth of deforestation, fires and the enormous difficulties for indigenous and riverine peoples, the Franciscan religious highlights the role of the Church.
“The Church helps to become aware of the reality in the Amazon. In addition to deforestation and fires, mining has poisoned the waters of our region through mercury. Today, there are indigenous peoples with a high rate of mercury presence in the body. cannot eliminate mercury. These people have no future”, he warned.
Steiner criticizes the government’s inaction in stopping this advance of mining and preventing illegal activity by loggers. “The Church has always denounced the devastation of the Amazon, it has helped to create awareness, to create a responsibility for everyone in relation to the region”, he explains, citing joint actions with other Amazonian countries and around the world. “If we continue to deforest as we are doing, we will not have a future in the Midwest and Southeast”, fears the Brazilian religious.
Steiner is concerned about the fate of small indigenous groups that have not yet had contact with our civilization. “It’s not that they can’t have it; they don’t want to have it because they see the disaster, the danger of having a relationship with a civilization that is destructive,” he says.
“Reincarnate Politics”
Asked about the October elections, the Archbishop of Manaus highlights the position of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil, which supports political education.
“We live in a very difficult situation in Brazil. Politics was heavily attacked. There is a need to ‘reincarnate politics'”, he says, even more so at this moment “when democracy is at stake”. “The Church has manifested itself, and thank God, Brazilian society has also manifested itself”, observes Steiner.
“It is very important that society manifests itself so that they do not think that the Church has taken sides, decided to support a certain candidate. The Church has always been concerned with democracy, and that even before the time of the dictatorship”, he recalls.
Paulo Cezar da Costa, 55, a newly appointed cardinal, also highlights the importance of the Church in politics. For two years he has been Archbishop of BrasÃlia, the nerve center of Brazilian political power.
“I think the role of an archbishop of the city of Brasilia, of a cardinal, is to propose dialogue. Pope Francis has proposed a lot of dialogue for life in society”, he ponders.
Costa recognizes that Brazil is experiencing great polarization, but he does not consider this circumstance to be a bad thing. “If we look at other societies, they are also polarized,” he points out. For Costa, polarization becomes negative “when people become more rigid in their positions.” Thus, the possibility of dialogue is lost, he esteems. The religious sees risks when ideology begins to guide life and not the real difficulties.
“The real problems in the lives of our people are exclusion, poverty, food security, health, education. These problems must be on the agenda”, he concludes.
new cardinals
Twenty new cardinals are sworn in during the consistory held this Saturday at the Vatican. Of these, 16 are voters and will be able to vote in the conclave to elect Francis’ successor, as they are under 80 years old.
In this new list of cardinals, Francis has delved even further into the model that has become characteristic of his nine years of pontificate: little-known names, coming from regions previously considered “peripheral”, such as Paraguay, East Timor, Singapore and Mongolia.
Three nominees already hold positions in the Curia, the “central government of the Church”: Britain’s Arthur Roche, Korea’s Lazzaro You Heung-sik and Spain’s Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, president of the Vatican City State government.
Among the notable nominations is the American Robert McElroy, Archbishop of San Diego, California, considered a progressive for his positions on homosexual Catholics and the right to abortion.
Noteworthy is the absence of archbishops from major European cities, such as Paris and Venice, who were previously almost automatically named cardinals.
