Eduardo Campos Lima

A second wave of COVID-19 infections has swept Brazil, and as the crisis grows, Catholic Church leaders face great challenges in helping those in need and in fighting pandemic denialism.

Some 1.7 million Venezuelans have come to neighboring Colombia to flee their country's economic and political turmoil, despite the border closure. The pandemic is making it difficult for them to earn a living or avoid exploitation.

Argentina's legalization of abortion has been seen as a significant defeat for the influence of the Catholic Church. Worsening that feeling was the role Catholic women played in the campaign for the new abortion law.

As El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's administration faces more and more international criticism for alleged authoritarianism, a movement is seeking inspiration from St. Óscar Romero in denouncing injustice.

Amid severe economic consequences of COVID-19, Catholics in Latin America — often inspired by Pope Francis' teachings against unregulated capitalism — have raised their voices against neoliberal policies.

Now that Luis Arce's landslide victory in Bolivia's election has been confirmed, the socialist economist — and the Catholic Church — has the mission of reuniting an incredibly polarized society.

Pope Francis' response to a letter about racism in the church, sent to him by a group of Brazilian priests and bishops, has been received with hope by Black Catholic activists across the country.

On Aug. 19, Pope Francis called Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa of Pemba, Mozambique, to express concern about his diocese, and to support Lisboa during a defamation campaign launched by Mozambique's president.

A letter signed by 152 Brazilian Catholic bishops harshly criticizing President Jair Bolsonaro's unsuccessful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred controversy among the country's Catholics.

When the first COVID-19 cases hit Brazil in March, the government agency in charge of protecting the country's Indigenous peoples, the National Indigenous Foundation, ordered all civilians to leave the Indigenous reservations. Only essential workers, such as health care personnel and those involved in food distribution, could remain.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, Catholic organizations have warned that protective measures should be taken to keep the virus away from the country's Indigenous population.

President Jair Bolsonaro's administration has never imposed a nationwide quarantine, and coronavirus cases have continued to grow. But for Brazil's churchgoers, Catholic bishops are keeping precautionary measures in place.

The COVID-19 outbreak in the Brazilian Amazon led the Catholic Church to launch several initiatives of assistance. The episcopate has also denounced underlying structural problems within the region.

As many countries in Latin America enforce social distancing measures in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus, people are deprived of basic subsistence. Catholic institutions are working to support the most disadvantaged social segments during the pandemic.

Several processions and festivities in honor of Catholic saints in Brazil had to be cancelled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, an unprecedented interruption of centuries-old traditions that impacted thousands of participants.

Commentary: Organizers of the campaign for the recognition of Sepé Tiaraju's sainthood believe it will certainly reposition him as a true Catholic martyr and a symbol in the struggle for justice and sovereignty.

The Brazilian bishops' conference has established a commission to assist dioceses and prelatures in areas where mining operations are harming communities and the environment.

In 20th-century Brazil, with the world's largest Catholic population, "the Catholic Church lost about 1% of its followers per decade," notes one expert. "From the 1990s on, it started to shrink about 1% per year."

Living in remote areas, the descendants of Africans brought to Brazil as slaves are largely Catholic but have infrequent contact with the formal church. They face political and cultural discrimination.

At the end of October, members of Brazil's Catholic black lay associations gathered in the northern port city of Salvador to discuss their centuries-long history and the challenges facing the new network they have formed.