Br. João Gutemberg is the new Executive Secretary of REPAM
At a press conference held on September 14, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, president of the Pan-Amazon Church Network, presented Brother João Gutemberg, of the Province of Brazil Sul-Amazon, as the new executive director of the Network founded by Catholic organizations in September 2014, at the service of life in the Amazon, in defence of our Common Home. Br. João replaces Mauricio López.
REPAM, like the Rivers of the Amazon, is formed by the convergence of the nine countries that form the Amazon territory, a region of 7.8 million square kilometres where 33 million inhabitants live, including 1.5 million indigenous people from 385 villages. It is an organisation that is committed to the participation of the Amazonian peoples in the defence and care of the common home through a service of interconnection and articulation of actions. It seeks to listen, accompany, support, encourage, train, serve, stimulate, communicate and join forces to respond to the great socio-environmental challenges.
An evaluation of the role of the Pan-Amazon Network over the last 6 years. The Vice President, Cardinal Pedro Barreto, presented the Network’s path of discernment and the horizons for the coming years. Watch the video of the press conference here.
At the press conference, together with the presentation of Br. João Gutemberg, Cardinal Cláudio Hummes took stock of the role of the Network for Pan-Amazon in the last 6 years. The vice-president, Cardinal Pedro Barreto, presented the path of discernment of the Network that is being carried out and the horizons for the coming years.
More information:
- Inteview Religión Digital – 18 September 2020
- Marist presence in the Amazon
- Brother João’s expectations of the Synod
- SED interview with Br. João
- Marists in the Amazon (Interview 2003)
João Gutemberg Mariano Coelho Sampaio
He was born in Cruzeiro de Sul, in the state of Acre, in the Amazonian interior, the border region between Brazil, Peru and Bolivia. He studied there and was accompanied in his vocation and formation by the Marist missionaries who arrived in the area in 1968 and by other local congregations. He continued his studies in southern Brazil and Europe. In his apostolic mission, he has worked almost always in the Amazon context: education, youth ministry and formation.
At present he is a member of and contributes to the Ecclesial Network Panamazónica – REPAM, in the coordination of the bureau of Formation and methods of pastoral accompaniment in the perspective of Integral Ecology, which connects the 9 Amazonian countries. He is also a member of the Committee on Consecrated Life for the Amazon of the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious, CLAR.
Br. Joao Gutemberg was one of 55 observers invited to participate in the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, which took place in the Vatican, from October 6 to 27 2019.