Amazon Synod Briefing:
Education and the rights of Nature
 |
| A view of the Synod Hall (Vatican Media) |
Synod participants continue their discussions in small
working groups on Thursday morning, and a panel of experts share their
experiences during a briefing at the Holy See Press Office.
By Vatican News
Those experiences all came directly from the Amazon Region
thanks to the four guests on the panel: they included an indigenous educator
from Guyana, an expert in indigenous spirituality, and a specialist in
indigenous rights, both from Brazil.
Ms Leah Rose Casimero
Ms Leah Rose Casimero coordinates a bilingual education
programme for Wapichan children in Guyana. In her presentation, she spoke of
how education systems have been “imposed” on her people “along with everything
else”. The time has come, she said, “to take our future into our own hands”.
This implies “creating something better for our children” in
terms of culture, traditional knowledge, and language, she said. In her
educational model, language is not taught as a subject, but as the medium
itself.
Ms Casimero is herself Wapichan and said indigenous people
are not often listened to. This is not the case in the Synod, however, where
she feels people respect one another, speaking and listening “as
partners”.
Ms Patricia Gualinga
Ms Patricia Gualinga is an indigenous leader of the Kichwa
community in Sarayaku, Ecuador. In her intervention she called for an
“institutional commitment” to save the Amazon. Confirming it is one of the most
important biomes on the planet, she said this kind of commitment would be “for
the benefit of all humanity”.
The Church is present in the Amazon Region, said Ms
Gualinga, but needs to be even closer to the indigenous people “who are in the
forefront” and who risk being “persecuted and killed”. Nature, she concluded,
is our common home.
Dr Felicio de Araujo Pontes Junior
Dr Felicio de Araujo Pontes Junior is a specialist in
indigenous rights who works in Brazil. He described how he provides legal
protection to indigenous people living in the forests, and along the rivers of
the Amazon, when they come into conflict with “development models that are
imposed on the region”.
Fr Justino Sarmento Rezende, S.D.B.
Fr Justino Sarmento Rezende has been a Salesian priest for
25 years, and is an expert in indigenous and inculturated pastoral spirituality
in Brazil. His presentation focused on creating an Amazonian Church with “a new
face”. He spoke of “giving value to tradition and cultures”, and said he dreams
of developing “new ways of evangelizing”. Fr Rezende concluded by inviting
journalists present in the Vatican Press Office to “Come to the Amazon and see
for yourselves!”.
Archbishop Roque Paloschi
Archbishop Roque Paloschi of Porto Velho in Brazil said his
intervention at the Synod had dealt with the issue of “indigenous people living
in voluntary isolation”. He quoted Pope Francis’ Encyclical, Laudato sì,
when it addresses the dangers of allowing cultures to disappear, and repeated
the need to “protect our vulnerable brothers and sisters” in the Amazon Region.
A question about a Church with an Amazonian face
In response to a question, Fr Justino Sarmento Rezende
expanded on the idea of a Church with an Amazonian face: “A face is an
expression of what is in our hearts”, he said. In this sense, it doesn’t
necessarily mean doing things the way the original missionaries did, he added.
We need to “evangelize in our own language”, we need to “know and understand
the lives of indigenous people”. This means being “present”, said Fr Rezende.
A question about intercultural education
Answering a question directed at her personally, Ms Leah Rose
Casimero described something of her experience in the field of intercultural
education with Wapichan children in Guyana. That experience is just a year old,
she said, as the bilingual model was only implemented in September 2018. Which
is why “training teachers is a priority”, she said.
Ms Casimero explained how this is the first experiment at
“incorporating indigenous language, knowledge, traditions, and ways of life”,
with national educational standards. In fact, the Ministry of Education in
Guyana is starting to revise the education system in the country and is
following her programme “with interest”, she said, to see if it can be applied
among other indigenous people.
A question about inculturation
Archbishop Roque Paloschi responded to a journalist who
asked whether inculturation was seen as “an end in itself”. He explained that
the Church is committed to inculturation which means respecting “both sides”,
not eliminating the culture of the other, but preserving that which is already
present. He quoted Benedict XVI as saying the Church does not evangelize by
proselytizing, but by witnessing.
A question about development models
Dr Felicio de Araujo Pontes Junior responded to a question
concerning development models, and considering Nature as a legal issue. He
distinguished between what he called “predatory models”, like logging and
mining, and “socio-environmental models” that engage with institutions and
governments.
Research shows that “a new species is discovered in the
Amazon every 15 days”, he said. The Amazon forest is an “asset”, he added.
Allowing it to thrive “makes economic sense”, and the indigenous people are
“the guardians” of these assets. “Nature has rights”, concluded Dr de Araujo
Pontes. “Humanity cannot destroy ecosystems in the name of progress”, he said.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét