MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolsonaro not welcome at Catholic celebration

Brazil's northern communities would rather have Lula win later this month

Catholic authorities in the Brazilian city of Belém condemned the political use of the Cirio festivities, arguably the largest worship celebration in Latin America, ahead of the presidential runoff scheduled for Oct. 30.

The Brazilian Catholic Church repudiated President Jair Bolsonaro's participation in a Navy boat for the pilgrimage gathering 2.5 million people in Belém, the capital of the Amazonian state of Pará.

In an unscheduled move, Bolsonaro boarded a Brazilian Navy boat to participate alongside other typical boats full of pilgrims carrying flowers along the Amazonian rivers at Belém. “We do not allow any use of a political or partisan character of the Cirio activities,” the Bishopric of Belém said in a statement.

Bolsonaro arrived in Pará Friday evening to campaign in a state where former President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva obtained more votes in the Oct. 2 first round. The incumbent leader's camp also launched accusations of “Satanism” last week against Lula, who had to deny them and insist on his being a Catholic.

“No politician can claim the Cirio, which is the property of the people of Pará and of the believers of the world,” said Governor Helder Barbalho, of the Brazilian Democracy Movement (MDB), who was reelected last Sunday and is known to support Lula.

Bolsonaro is said to be the favorite among evangelists while Lula prevails among Catholics.

Although the Catholic Church stressed there had been no invitation to authorities to avoid the political use of the festivity, Lula admitted he had been invited by Barbalho, but declined.

Meanwhile, Amazon Indigenous leader José Gregorio Díaz Mirabal of the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), called all Amazonians and Brazilians through the avaaz.org platform to prevent Bolsonaro from further deforesting the region. He called the incumbent President “the head of an army of deforesters and miners who are plundering nature with their bare hands” and warned that “if urgent action is not taken, the rainforest could die.”

“Since Bolsonaro came to power, nearly 4 million hectares of Amazon rainforest have been lost - that's an area larger than Belgium! Now Bolsonaro could be headed for re-election - another four years of his disastrous policies could bring the Amazon to an irreversible tipping point that would turn areas of lush trees into barren savannah, alter weather patterns and accelerate climate change,” the leader of the Wakuenai Kurripaco indigenous people went on.