Oxygen and food for all: a missionary’s dream in the Amazon Rainforest
By Cecilia Seppia
Father Gianni is a madman. But his is a madness that comes directly from God. Describing Giovanni Mometti in this way was Pope Francis himself during the homily of a Jan. 7, 2019 Mass at Santa Marta, in which the Salesian concelebrated alongside the Pontiff. "The Spirit sometimes pushes us to the great madness of God, as happened to the man who is among you today, and who for more than 60 years left Italy to go among the lepers," the Pope had said. A native of Brescia, a missionary in the Amazon since 1956, Father Gianni graduated in philosophy and theology in São Paulo, Brazil, where he was ordained a priest ten years later. Right away, although destined by his superiors to the Gregorian University in Rome, he felt he had to heed the voice that was tearing at his heart and ears: to go to that suffering world of poverty, hunger and disease to bring the proclamation of the Gospel, not just in words. At the age of 85, Father Joao, as his people call him, goes barefoot, like most of the ribeirinhos (the people who live along the Amazon River), with hands empty but eager to help. Today, he lives and works in Igarapè-Açù, in the state of Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon, and tells Vatican News he is reintroducing the "New Moses" project as one of its first supporters.
Origins and characteristics of the project
"It is not a name chosen at random," Father Gianni tells me in a video call at 11 p.m. Italian time, "because it takes its name from a biblical fact, and just as Moses by God's will was saved from the waters of the Nile, so we want our river to be able to save, with the richness and abundance of its waters, all the people who live along its course. The project, which has been active since 1989 in the Bragantina and Salgado regions of the Brazilian state of Pará, already feeds about 3,000 families. At its heart is the "Vibra Joao XXIII" module, which entrusts to each household a concession from the state of 5 hectares. One is turned into an artificial pond, in which a plain is created for growing rice, with an average of three harvests per year. Around the plain, a canal is made for raising about ten thousand fish that weigh up to 6 kilograms, and on the banks of the pond, a pigsty is built for pigs, which do not pollute the pond water but feed the fish with plankton. On the other four hectares, the family grows food for themselves, and for the maintenance of the pigs. "These ponds," Father Gianni continues, "solve the problem of deforestation that is destroying the Amazon. And the more ponds that are created, the more people will not need to cut down trees to cultivate the land. So, my dream is just that: to make the lands watered by the Amazon and its tributaries, which are the most fertile in the world, the 'breadbasket of the poor,' to feed those who live in the region but not only. And this, without cutting down a single plant in the forest that gives us a third of all the oxygen we breathe."
'The Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish'
The Salesian missionary repeatedly quotes Francis, the Encyclical Laudato si', and the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia and warns, "the greatest sin we can commit is not making the best use of the gifts God has given us! And God has given us everything. This is not a project just for us; we could replicate it in Africa, in Asia, wherever there is water. We are willing to train young people, host them and teach them how not to starve. Here, we truly experience the Gospel passage of 'The Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes.' In Laudato si', the Pope says it too: without the Amazon, the world dies; the Amazon is life for all, not only for the natives. At the center of the encyclical are the fragile, the poor, the last, and we certainly do not take care of them or the environment by destroying hectares and hectares of forest to raise cattle. We have to produce what the water gives us, so we only operate where there are no plants, and that way we also ensure the maintenance of biodiversity. There would be 300 million hectares of land available to implement all the aspects of our project. But everything is at a standstill because there is a lack of money: when I was Amazon Councillor, we also thought of a kind of tax, a 'vital debt' that we would all have to pay to guarantee that 30 to 40 percent of the oxygen that the Amazon gives us every day."
A virtuous circle
When he talks about his people, Father Gianni's voice "lights up." "We have direct contact with everyone, but ours is not charity; it is a mission, to organize them, guide them, because everyone can contribute. On the street, everyone asks me, 'Father Gianni come to us too and teach us how to build ponds.' People understand the importance and scope of this initiative that offers a future for them and their families. The biggest difficulty is just that: not being able to give them what they ask for. They also need funds to buy feed, equipment. They have nothing and they dig with their hands and what do we do? Do we stand by and watch? The New Moses project can save the indigenous and the poor of the Amazon by using their own strengths, their own capabilities, their own culture, not by teaching them anything new, just guiding them." In practice, the New Moses is simply creating an ecological cycle of completely organic food production, an alternative to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest (more than 40 million plants already destroyed), because, as Father Gianni explains, "each head of cattle needs one hectare of land for grazing, which today is taken away from the forest. One animal gives you 300 kilos of meat in a year. Without cutting down a single tree, with one hectare of land, our project gives us 40 to 60 tons of food. In addition, no chemical fertilizers are used to produce the rice, because the pig droppings, in addition to becoming plankton for the fish, also fertilize the rice plain; finally, the water contained in the ponds can be poured into nearby fields, fertilizing them and thus improving the agricultural production of the small farmers." Thus, a more than virtuous circle that realizes that integral ecology Pope Francis speaks of in his Laudato si', especially since it involves man not as an executioner of the environment but as its custodian.
The appeal
"The Italian Bishops' Conference," the missionary from Brescia recalls, "gave us 200 million of the old Italian lire in 1989, and with that, we started the project. I went completely into debt carrying it out. The land is state-owned: the government gives parcels in concession for 99 years and then another 99: but if we are not careful, those who have money can get there before us and do things that destroy Creation and man. Today I want to renew our appeal for financial support from Christians around the world, but also from international institutions, and all people of goodwill because we all owe a debt to the Amazon. The Amazon can truly save the world: maintaining our oxygen and feeding everyone."
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