MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Pope will underline the plight of indigenous peoples during his coming visit to Chile and Peru
In Chile, the pope will meet with residents of the Mapuche indigenous community in the Araucania region. During his visit to Chile and Peru, Pope Francis will honor the country’s religious roots and underline the plight of indigenous men and women. The Vatican said the pope will be in Chile Jan. 15-18, visiting the cities of Santiago, Temuco and Iquique. He then will fly to Peru and, from Jan. 18-21, he will visit Lima, Puerto Maldonado and Trujillo.
In Chile, the pope will meet with residents of the Mapuche indigenous community in the Araucania region. Members of the Mapuche have called for the government to return lands confiscated prior to the country’s return to democracy in the late 1980s.
He will also meet with the indigenous people of the Amazon during his visit to Puerto Maldonado. The Amazon rainforest includes territory belonging to nine countries in South America and has experienced significant deforestation, negatively impacting the indigenous populations in the area and leading to a loss of biodiversity.
A special gathering of the Synod of Bishops to focus on the Amazon region will take place in Rome in October 2019.
The synod, he said, would seek to identify new paths of evangelization, especially for indigenous people who are “often forgotten and left without the prospect of a peaceful future, including because of the crisis of the Amazon forest,” which plays a vital role in the environmental health of the entire planet.
The Peru-Chile trip will be the pontiff’s fourth to South America. In July 2013, he visited Brazil for World Youth Day. In July 2015, he traveled to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay. His trip to Colombia in September was his third visit to the continent as pope.
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Read all commentsHe loves people. How about the Falkland Islanders?
Nov 16th, 2017 - 10:03 am 0Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, said in 2012 when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires that Britain had “usurped” the disputed islands from Argentina. In 2011, he said the islands were “ours,” a view most Argentinians share.
Argentine politicians attempt to circumnavigate UN resolutions and the international law on self-determination by declaring that the Falkland Islanders are not ‘a people.’ ''The Falkland Islanders do not exist. What exists is British citizens who live in the Islas Malvinas'' Argentinian Foreign Minister Timerman quoted by D. Telegraph London 6 Feb 2013).
Falkland Islanders – A People
https://www.academia.edu/34442484/Falkland_Islanders_-A_People
Few Catholics on the Falkland Islands, and, he's an Argie. The Mapuche are the descendents of an indiginous Indian population who are the real inhabitants of Patagonia. Deprived of their lands they have mostly been wiped out. Those that havent have been abused and locked into poverty by the transplanted European interlopers.
Nov 16th, 2017 - 01:41 pm 0Looking for Torturer's Tango Duo, Gauchito Drink and Kamerad/Komrade Rique to weigh in, since neither live anywhere near the area in question...
Nov 16th, 2017 - 02:05 pm 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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