The Guardians’ Guards: Catholic Environmentalism in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical Laudato si’ has been hailed as a historic milestone in the greening of the Catholic Church. However, little empirical research has explored the implementation of the pope’s ambitious environmental program. This sociological study examines the progress and limits of Catholic ecological commitment in the Brazilian Amazon. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork conducted in 2023 in the state of Amazonas, the article aims to show how historical, organizational, cultural, and political dimensions complicate achievement of the pope’s “ecological dream” as expressed in his exhortation Querida Amazonia. It also points out differences between notions of ecologically appropriate initiatives typical of the Global North (rubbish collection, solar energy) and the less technical challenges in the Global South, where environmental struggles are embedded in a fundamental economic and power asymmetry and where activists must cope with everyday violence.