With more than two decades of service supporting a mixture of human rights and environmental justice in her native Brazil, Sister Laura Vicuña Pereira Manso has become the voice of the Canadian Jesuits International’s Women at the Heart of Justice campaign. Her newest fight takes her from the front lines of the Amazon to across Canada to share the journey of female change-makers on a mission for justice, equality, and sustainability.
A Franciscan catechist and a member of Brazil’s Indigenous Kariri people, Sister Manso says that her life’s work begins simply with life in community. Looking at the global south as a vice president of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon, she noticed that measures needed to be taken to protect communities, both physically and spiritually, from extractive industries and other threats.
“We’ve seen that the problems with Indigenous peoples in general are the same, and the ones who cause these issues also have the same root: It is extractivist industries the territories to exploit all of the resources that exist there. The church assumes being an ally in the struggles of these peoples,” she told The Catholic Register.
A land defender at heart, she’s supported various Indigenous communities in places like Rondônia, Brazil, who are the target of illegal logging and land grabbing. Spiritual support, pastoral care, and legal advocacy to these Amazon communities remains vital, with Sr. Manso boldly speaking out against such exploitation as well as the criminalization of Indigenous and women leaders. She has gone as far as taking such issues to the United Nations and other global platforms, calling for stronger protection of human rights and environmental defenders.
CJI’s campaign highlights a reality that she has seen first-hand throughout her life, that while women are often the ones who dynamize life in community in the global south, they are just as often the ones at the forefront in leadership of these struggles.
“Many of these women are seriously threatened for fighting for the land, because as women we understand that, to have peace, we need justice. To have life, we need land, clean water, the forest — Only that way can justice exist,” she said.
“Women are the voice that speaks up against injustice in this world, although there are also many situations in which women are in positions of a lot of vulnerability. Thus, it is very important to amplify the voices of these women, especially those whose very lives are threatened for defending the land.”
The threats are not idle, either. As explained by Manso, the threats and subsequent activity are a direct result of a consistent desire for economic and political power. While the land is the mother of life for the Indigenous peoples, for economic groups, it is a mere commodity that generates money and seldom more.
A worthy, albeit tough battle, but not one she has fought alone. Her faith has played a critical role in allowing her to continue doing the work she believes so strongly in, while also regularly advocating for women’s inclusion and recognition of their contributions in church life.
“If we take care of the land, the land takes care of us, and Saint Francis of Assisi also understood this, and he reaffirmed the tradition of respect towards Mother Earth that we have,” she said. “He did not want to be a priest in a church that lived in opulence; he opted to live amongst the poor. It shows that the church must have a social commitment towards the poor, and this has inspired me a lot.”
Visiting Canada as the keynote speaker for the Canadian Jesuits International’s Women at the Heart of Justice campaign, she has already visited a number of parishes and colleges across Winnipeg, Waterloo and Toronto. On Nov. 13, she spoke at Toronto’s Regis College’s ‘Women Defending the Amazon: For a World of Peace and Ecological Justice’ event, and plans to speak at a fundraiser at Carlton Cinema, on the struggle of the Karipuna people to defend their land in the Amazon. The evening will include an exclusive Canadian screening of The Illusion of Abundance, a film that explores three women’s fight against land exploitation in Latin America.
From Nov. 16 to 18, Sister Manso was in the nation’s capital for CJI’s 4th Youth for Others advocacy symposium, as well as speaking at an event that saw 100 students from Catholic schools in Ontario and Quebec visit Parliament Hill to meet with the Speaker of the House of Commons and various Members of Parliament on the same issues.
Her time in Canada also opens up the possibility of a global solidarity with CJI’s cause, perhaps before it’s too late.
“Above all, this campaign makes visible the many actions in the pursuit of justice, and in this way, it calls the attention of the world towards the Amazon, which is completely devastated. We’re almost at a point of no return, and this endangers the life of all the planet.”
CJI is also a part of the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability, which is calling for a mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence law that would hold Canadian companies accountable for their operations in the global south. Sr. Manso is encouraging those interested to take action at https://cnca-rcrce.ca/take-action/.
While her Canadian tour might not be the exciting, sometimes dangerous front line service she’s grown so accustomed to, Sister Manso attests that her hopes carry on no matter where she goes and no matter the setting. It’s a commitment to grow where she is planted, that her people left with her long ago.
“Our ancestors used to say that we’re not stones, but that we are seeds. If you throw a stone, it stays there, but when you throw a seed, it sprouts. You can kill the body, but you cannot silence the sound of many voices that are fighting for a different world, a more just world for everyone,” she said.
