"The presence of the Church in the forests of the Amazon is frightening. Not to the indigenous communities, but to those who want to invade and exploit this territory to obtain minerals and destroy nature. We are a barrier': Fr Wellington Abreu's words are picked up by the Vatican media just as the world's greats are in Brazil for the Cop30 in Belém, a city that is a gateway to the Amazon region. And they remind us how daily and courageous commitment to the destiny of the world is also and above all played out far from the spotlight, in the concreteness of gestures.
The Salesians' commitment in Amazonia
Fr Wellington is a young Salesian priest, parish priest of St Michael the Archangel in Iauareté, in the diocese of São Gabriel da Cachoeira. Iauareté means ‘head of the jaguar’. It is a crossroads of thirteen ethnic groups and five languages where the river is life, the forest is home, certain trees are sacred. One only has to think of Cabeça da Onça, ‘the tiger's head’, a village located along the Papuri river, inhabited by the Hupda, an indigenous population that lives on hunting, fishing and mandioca cultivation. Last year, the constant presence of the Salesians led to an extraordinary result: 46 natives, 95 per cent of the Hupda community, were baptised after an intensive year of catechism. Yet, the northern area of the Amazon remains a vulnerable point: where there is a border, drug traffickers arrive; where there are minerals, invaders. And here the law is not enough, the telephone signal does not exist, the state is far away. Who stands by these people?
Protecting life and its surroundings
'We, thank God, manage to be there and preserve nature,' Fr Wellington resumes, 'but things are not going so well in the neighbouring region, Roraima, where two years ago the arrival of gold diggers destroyed the river, killed many animals and made the population seriously ill. I believe that our presence frightens these groups that want to invade the environment. And we understand this when the indigenous communities welcome us, happy with our presence, asking us not to leave. I would say that it is the presence of the Church that is prophetic: it goes beyond religion. It protects life and what surrounds us. It is an idea, concrete, of integral ecology'.
Distances and drug trafficking: the main problems
An idea that is far from easy to apply, however. In Amazonia there is first of all the problem of distances. ‘Our province is Manaus,’ the priest says, 'and from Manaus to São Gabriel da Cachoeira is almost two hours by plane or four days by boat. Then, from São Gabriel to my village it takes 12 hours by boat with a 40-horsepower engine, for a maximum of eight people. Another problem: the cost of fuel, which is very high. Sometimes we have to walk four or six hours.’ Then there is the drug trade to consider. ‘We are in a border area,’ Fr Wellington says ‘and last year we had problems with traffickers who came from Colombia: they wanted to invade our space to recover ground. With the help of the military now the situation is calm, but the drug traffic passes across the border and reaches other cities in Brazil, ending up involving the indigenous community and above all, I am sorry to say, the youngest: for them it is easy money.’
Hope in young people
Yet, Fr Wellington concludes, ‘this makes our presence even more important: with our six schools we want to help the more than 300 young people who are with us and help the inhabitants of Amazonia to be aware of life, of its beauty. To be present: not only in the relationship with God, but in making them discover the joy of life.’
Guglielmo Gallone
Source: Vatican News
