Archbishop at Amazon synod: Admit sins against nature during confession

ROME - Catholics should admit their crimes against nature in confession, according to one prelate at the Vatican’s ongoing summit for the Amazon region.

“The ecological situation today is a motive for division, but people cannot but take into consideration the importance the environment has for us,” said Archbishop Pedro Brito Guimarães, of Palmas, Brazil, on Friday. “Ecological sins. It’s a new word for us, also for the Church, but people don’t confess the sins we commit against nature.”
Guimarães’s words came during the daily press conference for the Oct. 6-27 Synod of Bishops on the Amazon.

“Everything is interconnected, it’s a chain. For this reason, this synod is important,” the archbishop
said. “The future of humanity also depends on the decisions of this synod.”
The press conference also featured Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, Archbishop of Mexico; Bishop Joaquín Pertíñez Fernández, of Rio Branco, Brazil; and Sister Birgit Weiler, who works in Peru.
The call for an integral ecology and the protection of the environment were the major themes discussed by the four synod participants.

Weiler accused international corporations of exploiting the resources of the Amazon region without upholding the rules they would be forced to follow in their countries of origin.
The nun said that many indigenous peoples in the Amazon count on the Church to help them file civil complaints against foreign companies, and that some progress has been made with companies coming from the United States and Canada, but it’s “harder to fight for human rights” with Chinese companies.--> READ MORE