On a super hot January day in 2018, Pope Francis talked to 100,000 of his followers in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, not far from where gold mining had messed up a huge part of the Amazon rainforest—like the size of Colorado. He was all like, “The native Amazonian peoples are in big trouble on their own lands right now.” He called out extractive industries and conservation efforts that pretend to protect the forest but end up causing problems for the Native peoples.
The Pope slammed consumerism for driving the destruction of the Amazon, supported Indigenous peoples’ rights to their territories, and asked everyone to defend isolated tribes. He was like, “Hey, we can learn a lot from these folks and their wisdom.” Julio Cusurichi Palacios, an Indigenous leader who was at the event, thought the Pope’s words were super important. He was glad that Pope Francis spoke out about the historical violations of Indigenous peoples’ rights, and he’s crossing his fingers that the next Pope will keep up the good work.
Pope Francis was all about protecting the planet during his 12 years as the head of the Catholic Church. He was the first pope to clearly link climate change, social justice, and faith together. He even got almost 200 countries to sign the Paris Agreement in 2015! But now, with the rise of far-right politics and the new Pope Leo XIV taking over, people are wondering if the faith-based climate justice movement will keep going strong. Leo XIV is from the United States, and his views on climate change are still a big question mark. Maybe he’ll follow in Francis’ footsteps, or maybe not. Time will tell.
