Comissão Pastoral da Terra

The Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT) is a Brazilian NGO affiliated with the Catholic church. It was born in June 1975 during the Encontro de Bispos e Prelados da Amazônia, convened by the Conferência Nacional de Bispos do Brasil (CNBB) in Goiânia (GO), founded under the military dictatorship in response to the grave situation of rural workers, posseiros and peões, especially in the Amazon. It maintains links with the CNBB and is organized with a national coordination, a directorate, a national assembly and regional bodies, with work across the whole national territory.

The Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT) was born in June 1975 during the Encontro de Bispos e Prelados da Amazônia, convened by the Conferência Nacional de Bispos do Brasil (CNBB) in Goiânia (GO). It was founded under the military dictatorship as a response to the grave situation of rural workers, posseiros and peões, especially in the Amazon, who were exploited in their work, subjected to conditions analogous to slave labor and expelled from the lands they occupied. The link with the CNBB helped the CPT carry out its work and sustain itself during a period when repression targeted pastoral agents and popular leaders. The Pastoral soon acquired an ecumenical character, both in the sense of the workers it supported and in the incorporation of agents from other Christian churches, notably the Igreja Evangélica de Confissão Luterana no Brasil (IECLB). Created as a service to the cause of rural workers, the CPT believes in the autonomy of peoples. The so-called posseiros of the Amazon were the first to receive the CPT's attention, but its action quickly extended throughout Brazil. In each region the CPT's work took on a different tone according to the challenges of reality, leading it to pay more attention to diversity and to walk alongside indigenous peoples, traditional peoples, settlers, riverine communities, encamped people, landless people, those affected by mining and dams, migrants, small farmers, peasant youth, women's collectives and many others. For its work, the CPT is an entity defending human rights.

Pastoral service in defense of rural workers and human rights, with an ecumenical character.

1. 1Comissão Pastoral da Terra - CPTcptnacional.org.br
2. 2Quem somos - Comissão Pastoral da Terra - CPTcptnacional.org.br
3. 3Organização - Comissão Pastoral da Terra - CPTcptnacional.org.br
4. 4Comissão Pastoral da Terrawikidata.org