Brazilians gather in cities to demand land reform, political reform

Published: 2005-09-09

SAO PAULO, Brazil (CNS) -- More than a hundred thousand Brazilians gathered in the country's main cities to participate in this year's Cry of the Excluded, a movement created in 1994 by the Brazilian bishops' conference and the Landless Peasant Movement. In Aparecida Sept. 7, approximately 90,000 pilgrims who gathered outside one of the country's most famous basilicas, Our Lady of Aparecida, demanded that the government keep its promise to give land to the poor and to punish those charged with corruption. After the protest, Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis of Aparecida celebrated Mass and asked people to sign a document asking for political reforms. The Brazilian bishops will present the document to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The document, written by the bishops during their annual assembly in August, points to the need for political reform that "will face the ambiguities which favor corruption."

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