River Missionaries, Deforestation, and COVID-19

Rodrigo Pedroso is a Brazilian journalist who reports for CNN. As part of the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Journalism Fund, his project “River Missionaries: The Catholic Counteroffensive in the Amazon” explores the dynamics and work of Catholic missionaries in an area where evangelical Christians and the theology of prosperity are booming alongside deforestation.

In this conversation, Pedroso will share the stories of parishes struggling to survive and missionaries who serve hard-to-reach villages in the Amazon region. He will be joined by Niyanta Spelman, founder and CEO of Rainforest Partnership, and the two will discuss the role of religious communities in combatting deforestation, as well as how Catholic, Indigenous, and local communities in the Amazon have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The dialogue will be moderated by Rev. Fletcher Harper, executive director of GreenFaith.

This event is part of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

This event will be recorded and a captioned video will be posted to the event page after the event date. Please RSVP to receive an email notification once it is posted.