Brazilian Catholics warn that agrarian reform under Lula remains too slow and uneven.

Catholic leaders and social justice advocates in Brazil say agrarian reform under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has shown signs of renewed dialogue but remains far too slow to address the country’sdeep-rootedd land inequality. In a review of developments during 2025, the Land Pastoral Commission, known by its Portuguese acronym CPT, acknowledged positive gestures by the government while criticizing the lack of concrete structural change.

According to the CPT, Lula’s third administration has taken symbolic and institutional steps welcomed by landless rural workers and traditional communities. Among the most significant was the reestablishment of the Ministry of Rural Development and Family Farming, which had been dismantled during the previous administration. The government also resumed dialogue with peasant movements, Indigenous groups, and quilombola communities, listening to their concerns and launching programs intended to supportsmall-scalee agriculture.

Despite these moves, Catholic leaders argue that progress has stalled at the level of policy implementation. They point to budget priorities as evidence that agribusiness continues to dominate federal support. While the 2025 and 2026 crop plan allocated more than 500 billion reais to large-scale agribusiness, funding for family farming through the National Program to Strengthen Family Farming remained a fraction of that amount. For the CPT, this imbalance undermines the promise of meaningful land reform.

The commission also criticized the government’s current strategy for expanding access to land. Rather than relying on constitutional mechanisms that allow the expropriation of unproductive land, the administration has favored negotiated land purchases from private owners. According to CPT analysts, this approach often benefits failing agribusiness enterprises while doing little to meet the urgent needs of peasant families who have waited decades for land redistribution.

Plácido Junior, a CPT coordinator in Pernambuco, said the federal government tends to treat land reform as a limited social policy rather than the structural economic reform envisioned in Brazil’s constitution. He argued that no administration has yet shown the political courage needed to confront the historic concentration of land ownership that dates back to the colonial period.

Catholic leaders also linked the land issue to violence and environmental destruction, particularly in the Amazon. Ranchers and land grabbers continue to invade protected areas, expel traditional populations, and clear forests for monoculture crops and cattle. In 2025 alone, at least 26 people, including rural workers, Indigenous activists,s and quilombolas, were killed in land conflicts. The CPT warns that this farming model accelerates deforestation, soil degradation, and climate instability.

Bishop José Ionilton de Oliveira of the Prelature of Marajó, who heads the CPT, acknowledged that Lula’s administration represents an improvement over the previous government, which largely froze land reform. Still, he said, progress has been constrained by a Congress hostile to policies favoring the poor and by political alliances that weaken reform efforts.

Catholic voices insist that agrarian reform must be central to Brazil’s political debate ahead of upcoming elections. They argue that agroecological land reform could protect both vulnerable communities and the environment, echoing the vision often emphasized by Pope Francis of defending the common home through justice and solidarity.