By Gabrielle Dupuis, President of the National Council
This year’s Advent stories draw on experiences that members of the Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada delegation had in Brazil during the COP30 climate summit in November 2025.
“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
― Amos 5:12
On the campus of the Federal University of Pará, the air was thick, not only with humidity, but with agendas, worries, passion, hope and an urgent longing for just change. We were there for the Cúpula dos Povos, the People’s Forum, a vibrant gathering led by Brazilian social movements. During our time in Brazil, we moved through many different spaces: the formal halls of the COP30, the Catholic and ecumenical events, and gatherings within our Caritas confederation. Of all these spaces, it was the People’s Forum that inspired me most. Its diversity of voices, its spirit of collaboration, its commitment to community, and its deep desire to build a more just world in which communities are at the heart of decisions, left a profound impression.
Throughout our days in Brazil, I witnessed the dignity of the Brazilian people firsthand. Unafraid to step up and take the microphone, they spoke with pride about their communities, the richness of their traditions and the challenges they face. Months before the Forum, communities, NGOs and social movements had begun organizing around thematic axes. Each morning’s plenary was a mosaic of testimonies from representatives of dozens of communities across Brazil and beyond. At the plenary on Just Transition, for instance, speakers described how some major projects were affecting their communities’ livelihoods and health and spoke with remarkable hope for a more just future.
Their courage to speak and to share was rooted in a profound desire for life, a dignified life for themselves, their communities and our Common Home.
A clear pattern emerged. Climate solutions designed to prioritize financial interests rather than the needs of communities affected by climate change often place unjust burdens on those very communities. This reflects a deeper, global issue: when policies ignore the lived realities of local people, they risk perpetuating cycles of inequality and hardship.
In the Amazon, one community described how carbon market initiatives would directly affect them. For centuries, they have lived in harmony with the forest, and now, their territory is being designated as a carbon reserve. To maintain this system, they would face new restrictions and increased surveillance so that others, far away, may continue patterns of consumption and pollution unchanged.
This cycle increases not only the financial debt burden of the Global South but also the ecological debt owed to it by the Global North. So how do we break from this pattern and move toward genuine change?
Again and again, we heard the same conviction: this is a fight for life! In Brazil, especially in the Amazon, the call for a just transition rings loud and clear. The stories we heard were an invitation, a call to imagine new ways of thinking about our economic, social, and ecological relationships.
In his video message to COP30, Pope Leo XIV reminded us that “We are guardians of Creation, not rivals for its spoils.” During this Advent season, may this perspective transform the way we approach consumption, responsibility and solidarity. As we journey toward Christmas, a season of hope, generosity and renewal, let us also lift up the solutions and initiatives that place communities, especially the most vulnerable ones, at the centre.
May this Advent strengthen our commitment to justice, deepen our compassion and renew our hope in the flourishing of all peoples and of our Common Home.