In the beautiful tropical forests of northwestern Panama, Sister Edith González and I have walked alongside the Ngäbe inidigenous people embracing the Critical Concerns of the Sisters of Mercy and the call of Pope Francis to care for the earth.
Panama has achieved a historic milestone in its fight against mining, thanks to the unrelenting will of Panamanian people who, every day for a month, took to the streets to protest against a controversial contract signed with First Quantum Minerals a Canadian mining company. This contract would have meant another 20 or even 40 years of exploitation of metals such as copper and gold in the Mesoamerican region, the most biodiverse area of the country.
By Sister Edia Lopez
After two powerful hurricanes, ETA and IOTA, struck Central America in 2020, Sisters of Mercy in Panama moved to support the disaster victims and help with their immediate needs.
However, after experiencing the disaster and the flooding caused by the storms, we wondered what hope there was for Mother Earth.