The Archbishop of São Paulo, Cardinal D. Odilo Pedro Scherer, highlighted that d. Cláudio Hummes “left a very large legacy of services to the Church, but also of initiatives that aimed to benefit the people”, in a press conference, this Monday, 4th. He also said that the cardinal was worried about “directions that posed obstacles to the recognition of constitutional rights” in the country.
Strong name in the Catholic Church, d. Claudio Hummes, who was very close to Pope Francis, died at the age of 87 on Monday morning. The body of the Archbishop Emeritus of São Paulo will be veiled in the Cathedral Metropolitana da Sé, from 7 pm this Monday until 10 am on Wednesday, 6.
“I have always admired d. Cláudio for his vision of things, broad vision, and the firmness with which he made his proposals”, said Scherer. He was ordained a bishop by Hummes and has followed him closely in recent days. D. Cláudio was facing lung cancer and, between March and February, he left his duties to take care of his health.
Scherer said that, because of the condition he was in, Hummes was no longer able to follow up and talk about issues he held dear, such as environmental and indigenous rights. “But he was concerned, yes, with certain directions that put obstacles to the recognition of constitutional rights of indigenous peoples, for the development of the realities of the peoples of the Amazon, for the protection of the environment and for poverty.”
In his resignation speech to the presidency of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (Ceama), at the end of March, d. Cláudio said that the covid-19 pandemic showed the best and the worst in man. “From anti-vaccine denial to the strongest possible expressions of solidarity.” And he highlighted that the crisis has disproportionately affected the Amazon. “The impact has been much greater, revealing the other pandemics of exclusion, inequality and racism present in this territory.”
After returning from Rome in 2011, where he served alongside Pope Benedict XVI as prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, d. Cláudio dedicated himself to strengthening the presence of the Church in the Amazon region. According to Scherer, the cardinal revealed that, since his youth, he dreamed of being a missionary in the Amazon.
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