Montreal, June 6, 2025 – Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada (DPCC) is proud to announce the visit from Peru of His Eminence, Pedro Cardinal Barreto, president of the Episcopal Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA) and a longtime friend of our organization. The cardinal will be the guest of honour at the G7 Jubilee People’s Forum, that will be held in Calgary from June 12-15, 2025. He will urge world leaders to place the protection of the planet and impoverished communities at the heart of their discussions at the upcoming G7 summit in nearby Kananaskis.
Appointed Archbishop of Huancayo, Peru, by Pope John Paul II in 2004, Mgr. Barreto was subsequently created a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2018. He helped shape the ideas that the late pope had formulated in the encyclical Laudato Si’ and played a key role in organizing the 2019 Pan-Amazonian Synod within the Catholic Church. He also has close personal ties with Pope Leo XIV, with whom he served in Peru.
The cardinal is known for defending the most impoverished communities in Peru and across Latin America and for his interest in the environment. He has held several prominent Church positions, such as the vice presidency of the Episcopal Conference of Peru and the chancellorship of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.
An old friend of our movement
Cardinal Barreto is well known to DPCC’s members. He had participated in one of our quinquennial priority-setting orientation assemblies in Winnipeg in 2015. He had also visited Canada in 2019 to support For Our Common Home, our campaign in solidarity with the protectors of the Amazon rainforest.
As the Archbishop of Huancayo, Barreto had strongly defended the people of the La Oroya community in their fight against extreme pollution from a smelter owned by Doe Run, an American mining company. For this, he had received death threats from some of the project’s supporters. At that time, DPCC had supported the cardinal by partnering with the Episcopal Commission for Social Action (CEAS) to implement a project that accompanied the same La Oroya community.
Placing our common home on the G7 agenda
Cardinal Barreto will first share his experience of defending the environment at a public meeting at the Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Toronto on Monday, June 9, at 7 p.m. The event will be livestreamed on YouTube:
He will then travel to Alberta for G7 Jubilee People’s Forum, where he will deliver a homily at an interfaith service on June 12 and a plenary address on June 13.
Although Cardinal Barreto speaks only Spanish, it will be possible to interact with and interview him in English or French with the help of volunteer interpreters who will be present at each event.
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About Development and Peace – Caritas Canada
Development and Peace — Caritas Canada is the official international development organization of the Catholic Church in Canada. It works in partnership with local organizations in over 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin American and the Middle East to create greater justice in the world and to act in solidarity with the most vulnerable people.
For more information, contact:
Minaz Kerawala
Communications and Public Relations Advisor
514 257-8710 ext. 328 | mkerawala@devp.org