Brazil’s Lula Going to Pope’s Funeral as a Worker

In a statement to the press, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that he will “certainly” go to Rome to pay his last respects to John Paul II. “It is the least one worker can do for another worker,” the President declared, in a reference to Karol Wojtyla’s youth in Poland, where he worked as a miner and chemist.

Lula recalled his two encounters with Pope John Paul II, to whom, he said, he owed a “debt of gratitude.” The first meeting, the President recounted, occurred during the Pope’s visit to Brazil in 1980, after a gathering of workers with the Pope in the Morumbi stadium, in São Paulo.


At the time, President Lula was one of the directors of the ABC Metalworkers’ Union, which had been closed by the military regime. To speak to the Pope “was not an easy task,” the President recalled, because the Armed Forces were in charge of security at the event. The two met once again in 1989, according to Lula.


The President recalled that the Pope urged social reforms, such as “non-violent agrarian reform,” every time a Brazilian bishop paid him a visit.


“I believe that humanity has lost not just a Pope but more than a Pope. It has lost a symbol of peace, because I think that nobody in the last century was as dedicated, traveled as much around the world, and preached peace as much as Pope John Paul II,” he said.


The people of Brazil, “the world’s largest Catholic country” are deeply saddened by the death of John Paul II, affirms a presidential message issued soon after the official announcement of the Pope’s death on Saturday, April 2. Lula decreed an official seven-day period of mourning in the country.


ABr

Tags:

You May Also Like

Brazil’s Development Bank Funds Petrobras’s Platforms

Brazil’s National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES) is going to finance the ...

Brazil Intent on Reaching 10% of Global Organic Market

The global consumption of organic products is growing 30% a year and has a ...

You Wont Know Brazil Before You Learn to Say Picanha

So, you think a cook out, an open-air barbecue is the tops? I seem ...

EU Doubts It Will Reach Agreement with Brazil and Mercosur

The European Union does not believe a free trade agreement with Mercosur can be ...

For the First Time Brazil’s Exports Reach US$ 10 Billion in a Month

Brazil achieved a record US$ 4.03 billion trade surplus in June, bringing its total ...

While Building an Ethanol Stockpile Brazil Considers Getting Product from US

In Brazil, the hand-to-mouth ethanol supply system has finally run its course. There are ...

Brazilians Cheered by 4.8% Boost to Industrial Output

In Brazil and Latin American in general shares moved broadly higher today, July 6, ...

A Strange Silence

In a list of 150 countries classified by the he Gini index—an indicator used ...

Alchemy, a Brazilian Jewel Maker with International Ambitions

Alchemy, jewel and semi jewel manufacturer, based in the Brazilian city of Limeira, in ...