Caetano Veloso delivers the letter to Pope Francis: ‘Turn your gaze to our country’

Singer Caetano Veloso was blessed by Pope francesco on the morning of this Thursday 28. He took advantage of his time in Europe, where he will present the album tour My coconutto go to the Vatican with his wife and producer Paula Lavigne.

Caetano gave the pontiff a letter asking him to pray for the “worsening situation of violence” in Brazil. “The so-called ‘war on drugs’ has so far not reduced drug trade or use,” the letter reads. Contact with the Vatican had been made with an invitation in June, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Vatican Museum of Contemporary Art, created in 1973. But, due to a cold, the singer was unable to be present.

See Caetano’s full letter to the Pope

Your Holiness, Pope Francis

It is with particular joy that I arrive here, at the Holy See, for this meeting. I am from the city of Santo Amaro da Purificação. And since I was a boy I enchanted my mother, Dona Canô, with her gestures of simplicity, affection and wisdom.

She fought in defense of the cleanup of the Subaé river and campaigned for the restoration of the church of Nossa Senhora da Purificação, of which she was always an ardent devotee.

In 2007, on the occasion of the celebration of her centenary, family, friends and the city of Santo Amaro promoted a series of tributes to Dona Canô throughout the year. And what aroused the greatest emotion was the Church of Purification which received the pilgrim image of Our Lady of Aparecida.

It is with these teachings of peace that I arrive here, before Your Holiness.

In these 10 years of pontificate of the first Pope in Latin America, a Jesuit named Francis, I have followed his positions by denouncing injustices, raising awareness of the situation of migrants and being the author of the first environmental encyclical: Laudato si – On the care of our common home . The text is a necessary warning about human responsibilities in climate change.

In Santo Padre, where I live, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, violence has reached rates equal to those of major wars in the world. And the worst: victimizing more and more children. The list of boys and girls killed by guns in the Rio metropolitan region is disturbing. This year alone, 10 children have died this way.

Recently, the 5-year-old girl Eloah da Silva dos Santos, who was shot while she was at home in Morro do Dendê, a community on the Ilha do Governador, north of Rio, entered this statistic.

The victims have in common that they died suddenly while going about their daily lives. Ages between 9 and 13 years. The so-called “war on drugs” has not reduced drug trade or consumption to date. But the number of young people, especially blacks, killed by gunfire continues to grow.

This tragic fate also cost the lives of: Juan Davi de Souza Faria, 11 years old; Rafaelly da Rocha Vieira, 10 years old; Maria Eduarda Carvalho Martins, 9 years old; Ester de Assis Oliveira, 9 years old; Jhenyfer Luz Silva de Souza, 12; Lohan Samuel Nunes Dutra, 11; Yan Gabriel Marques, 12 years old; Dijalma de Azevedo, 11 years old; Thiago Menezes Flausino, 13 years old.

Violence has also taken hold of Bahia, the state where I was born 81 years ago. It scares me to see that – in these first 24 days of September alone – at least 46 deaths have already been recorded in police clashes across the state. The proportion is almost two deaths per day this month. These deaths occurred mainly in the peripheral neighborhoods of Salvador, such as Alto das Pombas, Calabar, Valéria and Águas Claras.

Faced with this situation of worsening violence in Brazil, I ask Your Holiness to turn your gaze and your prayers to our country. I am sure that your message of peace will be heard in the country whose patroness is Our Lady of Aparecida.

Source: Terra