Pope says Amazon suffers with blind and destructive mentality

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According to the pontiff, "man cannot remain an indifferent spectator in the face of this destruction, nor should the Church remain silent"

Leer en español: El Papa dice que el Amazonas sufre con la mentalidad ciega y destructiva

Pope Francis said on Saturday that the Amazonian Forest suffers from a blind and destructive mentality that favors profit and that "man cannot remain an indifferent spectator in the face of this destruction, nor should the Church be silent."

"The Amazon situation is a sad paradigm of what is happening in many parts of the world: a blind and destructive mentality that favors profit to justice; points to the predatory conduct with which man relates to nature. Please do not forget that social justice and ecology are deeply intertwined," Francis told participants at the 2nd Laudato Communities Forum in Amatrice, Lazio, Italy.

The subject came up when the pope recalled the theme of the forum last year: "the plastic that suffocates the planet." According to the news agency Vatican News, Francis said that the situation in the Amazon will have repercussions "at a planetary level."

Also read: Stop soil erosion now or face starvation soon, scientists warn

In addition to preserving the forest for environmental reasons, Francis also spoke about the consequence of the withdrawal of indigenous peoples from their native lands. "He prostrated thousands of men and women stolen from their territory, who became strangers to their own land, withdrawn from their own culture and from their own traditions, breaking the millenarian balance that united those peoples to their land. Man cannot remain an indifferent spectator in the face of this destruction, nor should the Church be silent: the cry of the poor must resonate from their mouths, "said the Pontiff.

LatinAmerican Post Staff