This article was published in the July 30, 2010, edition of the Catholic Herald. Brother Paul McAuley's burnt body was discovered on April 2, 2019, in the Amazon city of Iquitos.

When the news of Brother Paul McAuley’s potential expulsion from Peru filtered through to the indigenous people, protests were held and an influx of support came through.

One letter, from Alberto Pizango, the leader of the indigenous people of the region where Brother Paul works, struck me forcefully.

It said: “Your spirit of solidarity places you on the side of the most abandoned, the most abused and that’s why you were with us in defending the forest and the natural resources, trying to nullify the legislative decrees that wanted to present our Amazon as merchandise up for sale to the best offer. They call you ‘foreigner’, but for us you are one of our own; for us, the foreigner is he who doesn’t love his territory and sells it.”