Pope Speaks to Brazil’s Poor
July 25, 2013
Pope Francis visited today one of Rio de Janeiro’s notorious shantytown slums–Varginha–and hugged and kissed the people who crowded around him. Francis, who has declared that he will make the Roman Catholic Church the “church of the poor,” specifically asked that a stop in one of the city’s slums be included in his schedule. Brazil is the first foreign trip of Francis’s papacy, and he appears intent upon showcasing the plight of its poor. An estimated 20 percent of Cariocas–that is, the residents of Rio de Janeiro–live in what are known as favela, shantytown slums built on steep hillsides. Heavy rains regularly trigger landslides that bury people alive.
In June, hundreds of thousands of Brazilians joined nationwide demonstrations triggered by an increase in public transportation fares. Residents of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, and Rio de Janeiro spend a much larger share of their salaries to ride the bus than do New Yorkers or Parisians. However, the true wellspring of the protests came from what many Brazilians consider woefully underfunded health care, education, and internal security, all the while the government is spending billions building venues for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. Protesters pointed to police brutality, inequality, widespread public corruption, and extremely high and unfair taxes.
Brazilians pay at least 30 percent in sales taxes on hundreds of products and services. An iPhone 5, for example, costs $1,339 in Sao Paulo. Various taxes account for more than 63 percent of that price. Economists attribute much of the blame for such stunningly high prices to a tax system that prioritizes consumption taxes over income taxes and allows the wealthy to avoid taxation on much of their income.
Speaking to the rain-soaked crowd in Varginha today, Pope Francis declared, “I would like to make an appeal to those in possession of greater resources, to public authorities, and to all people of good will who are working for social justice. Never tire of working for a more just world, marked by greater solidarity. No one can remain insensitive to the inequalities that persist in the world.”