“The gathering was extraordinary and resilient, mainly because of the strength and because we have chosen to give continuity to the struggles of the Church and its causes through this Brotherhood of the Martyrs.”
On July 13 and 14, the Second Meeting of the Brotherhood of the Martyrs was held at the Prelature of São Félix do Araguaia in Mato Grosso (Brazil), with the theme “In the causes of life, the causes of the Kingdom” and the motto “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his justice (Mt 6:33)”.
Claudelice Santos, who directs a foundation that remembers the people killed in Brazil for defending the environment, the Zé Cláudio e Maria Institute, summed up this second meeting as an environment for the transmission of strength and hope: “It was extraordinary and resilient, mainly because of the strength and because we have chosen to give continuity to the struggles of the Church and its causes through this Brotherhood of the Martyrs.”
Among the participants was Josefina Casagrande, an Augustinian Recollect Missionary Sister, whose fundamental role was to propose, remember, promote, and highlight the example of Cleusa Carolina Rodhy Coelho, a member of her Congregation and the Augustinian-Recollect Family murdered in Lábrea (Amazonas, Brazil) for her defense of the rights of native peoples.
A total of 120 people gathered in the town of Ribeirão Cascalheira, in Mato Grosso, representatives of orders and congregations, foundations and unions, institutions and private individuals who fight for the preservation of the Amazon and its peoples, for human rights and integral ecology. Although most of those present were Brazilians, there were also guests from Guatemala and Germany.
These organizations denounce the abusive and predatory use of the resources of the Amazon rainforest with the aim of profit as the only criterion; the injustices and illegalities that occur with massive logging, the greedy and polluting search for minerals, and the public and evident contempt for the lands of native peoples, who need that vital space to survive with their way of life and culture.
In Ribeirão Cascalheira is the Shrine of the Martyrs of the Way, a spiritual center of the first order in the ecclesial struggle for the rights of the peoples of the Amazon and the defense of integral ecology.
Within the program of activities, there was a presentation of those who have given their lives and, with their martyrdom, have reminded all those present of the need to continue the defense of the indigenous and their lands: the Church also has martyrs of the environment, martyrs of the Indigenous cause, martyrs of the riverside cause, martyrs of the black cause (quilombos)
Bishop Pedro Casaldáliga founded this Shrine of the Martyrs in 1976, in the same place where the police murdered the Jesuit João Bosco Penido Burnier for denouncing and trying to stop the torture that two peasant women were suffering.
On the twentieth anniversary of that assassination in 1996, the shrine was restored and expanded. It contains the photos and captions of all the martyrs of the Amazon, including Sister Cleusa.
The Brotherhood of the Martyrs aims to maintain the memory of those who have given their lives for the defense of the most vulnerable in the Amazon, to take up their causes to strengthen and implement them, to stimulate the celebration of each martyrdom, to share information about the celebrations (pilgrimages, vigils, demonstrations), to produce and distribute biographical and awareness-raising material and to keep the testimony alive, example and causes of the martyrs.
Vidas pela Vida,
vidas pelo Reino,
vidas pelo Reino.
Todas as nossas vidas,
como a suas Vidas,
como a Vida d’Ele,
o Mártir Jesus.