"SAO PAULO — The bishop sat quietly near the front row, hands folded, listening as Indigenous leaders and church workers spoke about the threats to Peru’s northern forests, a part of the Amazon rain forest. It was 2016, a year after Laudato Si, Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment.

When he was up to speak, the bishop didn’t preach though he was in his city of Chiclayo as host of a regional gathering. Instead, he reflected on things he had seen.

“It’s a very important encyclical,” he said. “It also represents something new in terms of this explicit expression of the church’s concern for all of creation.”

That bishop, Robert Prevost, is now Pope Leo XIV."

Mauricio Savarese and Steven Grattan report for the Associated Press May 10, 2025. [2]