Brazilian bishop who cherishes Church's defence of the poor

Bishop Lazzaris

Just days before the beatification of Archbishop Oscar Romero I had the privilege to speak with a Brazilian bishop who is very proud of the Latin American Catholic Church's defence of the poor.

Dom Enemesio Angelo Lazzaris, Bishop of Balsas in northeast Brazil and President of the Brazilian Bishops' Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), joined a workshop I led on 'Conflict and Climate Change' at Pax Christi's recent International Assembly in Bethlehem. He was attending the Assembly because the CPT is a member of Pax Christi. I spoke with him afterwards, through a translator from the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns.

"Pope Francis is a great gift to the Church and he lives what he says" said an animated and smiling Bishop Enemesio who recently met the Pope in Rome. "He is one of the great Latin American Church leaders - and others include Archbishop Oscar Romero and the great Bishops of Brazil in the 1980s such as Dom Helder Camara". He had given Pope Francis a letter from the CPT and invited him to attend a CPT congress in Brazil - "I asked him to write a message if he could not come".

He reflected that the CPT is connected with Pax Christi "because both organisations are concerned with restorative justice and see the links between ecological devastation, water problems and rising tensions". The CPT traditionally works with labourers and indigenous peoples who live close to the land and a recent concern has been the trafficking of labourers to work on farms in remote areas. He reported that the CPT has worked for four decades to conscientise people to look into the causes of poverty and injustice and to take action for change. He knew personally Sr Dorothy Stang who was murdered ten years ago in Amazonia while working for the CPT and felt that "environmental martyrs" like her should be recognised by the Church. Sr Dorothy's particular interest was in teaching sustainable farming methods to poor settlers, most of whom were unfamiliar with Amazon soils, but that brought her into conflict with local ranch owners.

In his recent Lenten message Bishop Enemesio was critical that land is still concentrated in the hands of a few in Brazil, while thousands of families struggle to have even a small piece of land to make their living, and others are being evicted from land they have traditionally lived on for years. He criticised multinational corporations for monopolising the trade of seeds and setting up large monocultures such as soybean, cotton, and sugar cane which use pesticides intensively and have replaced the production of healthy and diverse foods. "This reality provokes outrage in those of us who witness it" he said. Bishop Enemésio regularly denounces the "ineffectiveness" of Brazilian courts in relation to the number of prosecutions and convictions of perpetrators and instigators of violence. Climate Change is another concern in his region which includes semi-desert and parts of Amazonia.

Did he enjoy the Pax Christi International Assembly in Bethlehem? Bishop Enemesio answered: "In my seven years being a bishop this is the most significant event in my formation - a lot of lay leadership, group work where everybody is regarded as equal, and plenty of opportunity to meet communities outside the conference hall. I love seeing connections being made between justice, peace and environment issues and being part of the Church in action."