With the slogan "Weaving futures, protecting lives," the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), together with the Platform for Peace, Democracy and Human Rights, and the Latin American Protection Community, are launching the campaign. 

Life hangs in the balance – Campaign for human rights and land defenders.. 

The campaign, which will run throughout the Holy Year 2025, will raise awareness of the situation of human rights and environmental defenders in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Participants:

Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development

Cardinal Jaime Spengler, President of CELAM

Cardinal Fernando Chomalí, Archbishop of Santiago de Chile

Cardinal Carlos Gustavo Castillo, Archbishop of Lima

Dr Emilce Cuda, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America

Press Conference (videoconference)

Press conference from the Holy See on the campaign "Life hangs by a thread" (in spanish)

Media coverage

VATICAN NEWS Presidente del CELAM: La fe nos llama a reconstruir el tejido social

Organized by the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), and the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), coordinated by the Pontifical Commission for Latin America (PCAL).
Holy See Press Office.

Participants:

• Cardinal Jaime Spengler, President of CELAM and President of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB)

• Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, President of the FABC

• Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, President of SECAM

• Dr. Emilce Cuda, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America

Press Conference (videoconference)

Conferenza stampa, 1° luglio 2025

Official Bulletin

Avviso di Conferenza Stampa

Media Coverage

• Press Conference presenting the document “A Call for Climate Justice and Our Common Home: Ecological Conversion, Transformation, and Resistance to False Solutions”

Within the framework of COP30, cardinals from the Global South presented a net —a symbol of the Amazon Synod— to the recently inaugurated Museum of the Amazonias.

Pope Leo XIV was present through a video message addressed to the cardinals in attendance, urging them to renew their efforts to reach agreements that improve living conditions worldwide. “We are guardians of creation, not rivals for its goods,” the Pope affirms in his message.

Within the framework of the panel “The Prophetic Voice of the Global South for the Care of Our Common Home,” held in the Blue Zone of COP30 in Belém do Pará, Brazil, the Cardinals of Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia presented a document to the Executive Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The document calls for ecological conversion, transformation, and resistance to false solutions.

Document “The Prophetic Voice of the Global South for the Care of Our Common Home”

VIDEO 

The Prophetic Voice of the Global South for the Care of Our Common Home from COP30

MEDIA COVERAGE

•  Vatican News COP30: cardeais do sul global apresentam documento com propostas da Igreja Católica
•  Vatican News  Encuentro de los Obispos del Sur Global en la COP30: los pobres y el clamor de la tierra
•  Religión Digital Obispos del Sur Global: “Queremos llevar a la mesa del poder de este mundo los gritos de los pobres y el clamor de la tierra”