Synod for the Amazon

COVID-19 has made the "cry of the Amazon" clearer, even as it has drastically altered post-synod activities. Some meetings have happened virtually — not the same as in person, but the process is slowly advancing.

Catholic leaders in the Amazon formed a new church body that will head up implementing the proposals put forward last year at the Vatican's special synod on the Amazon.

Your thoughts: In case you missed it, Pope Francis on Feb. 12 released an apostolic exhortation titled Querida Amazonia ("Beloved Amazon") responding to last October's Synod of Bishops on the Amazon.

Theology en la Plaza: In solidarity with the peoples of Amazonia, motivated by the Spirit's wild ways, may we have the power to remember, the humility to learn and the courage to act.

Just Catholic: Apostolic exhortations neither clarify doctrine nor make law. If Francis is going to do anything about married priests and women deacons, he will — he must — use another type of document.

We say: The undertaking was daunting from the start and disappointing in some respects at the end; compared to what went before, though, we prefer the new pathway that Pope Francis has opened.

Faith Seeking Understanding: A true sense of interconnectedness suggests that one cannot merely select a single ethical issue in isolation as if it were unrelated to all others.

Simply Spirit: There is much good news for our world in Querida Amazonia. But much is lacking, for Amazonian Catholics and also for Catholics like me, who long to return to the practice of the early church.

Grace on the Margins: Pope Francis' failure to see God fully alive and incarnated through the work and ministry of women feels like a betrayal by a man who otherwise sees sacrament everywhere.

Commentary: The entire synodal process has to be read as a move toward a recovery of a localized ecclesiology.

European commentators known as strong supporters of Pope Francis have responded to Querida Amazonia with a range of confusion, disappointment, and outright anger.

Commentary: Only those who love the church, trust the Spirit, and surrender into a wider presence of God — beyond their own conservativism or ideological self-referring view — will understand this kairos moment.

Querida Amazonia calls us to seek justice with the Amazonian peoples; to understand the exhortation, one must begin with the Amazon synod's final document, specifically the section on ecological sin.

Pope Francis told a group of U.S. bishops that, like them, he is accused of not being courageous or not listening to the Holy Spirit when he says or does something someone disagrees with — like not mentioning married priests in his document on the Amazon.

Commentary: "To so clearly identify a threat to the stability of our climate, but to avoid calling for urgent and immediate action, is a missed opportunity and a half step."

Distinctly Catholic: Francis wants us to move away from a monarchical model and engage the whole church in major decisions. You can't achieve synodality if you continually look to the pope to make the tough calls.

Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation on the Amazon disappointed those hoping for an opening of clerical roles to married men and women. The document's language of complementarity outraged many women.

Pope Francis denounces in perhaps his strongest terms yet the unrestrained development in the Amazon that he says destroys one of the planet's critical ecosystems and disenfranchises its indigenous peoples.

Pope Francis has not granted a request from the Catholic bishops of the Amazon to allow for the priestly ordination of married men in their territories in order to address a severe lack of ministers across the nine-nation region.

Pope Francis' highly anticipated document responding to last year's Synod of Catholic bishops from the Amazon region, expected to address of host of sensitive topics, will be released Feb. 12, the Vatican has announced.

Just Catholic: The Austrian who stole the statues of Our Lady of the Amazon and tossed them in the Tiber is on a U.S. speaking tour. There seems to be all-in-one packaging in the message of the thief and his gun-toting supporters: They deny climate change and decry married priests, women deacons, and the pope himself.

We say: The no-holds-barred conversation that Pope Francis has introduced in the synod process requires trust and, while stirring up opposition, also raises expectations.

Distinctly Catholic: Pope Francis has offered the church a way to answer the question about change that, I believe, is so important and obvious that we sometimes overlook it, and that is his emphasis on synodality. 

As the U.S. bishops gather for their annual meeting in Baltimore next week, they might take a page from the Vatican’s recently ended synod on the Amazon region. 

Grace on the Margins: In my time in Rome in October, I frequently heard the synod fathers lament the degrading treatment of the Amazon and the indigenous in the region, particularly women. Yet none of them seemed conscious about the root of all of this suffering: patriarchy itself.

NCR interview: "Women should be invited into every ministry or activity we have that's not doctrinally precluded," said Bishop Robert McElroy, one of three U.S. bishops at the Oct. 6-27 Amazon synod.

The synod of bishops meeting in Rome voted on Oct. 26 to recommend the pope allow the ordination of married men as Catholic priests in the Amazon region.

Concluding a monthlong gathering of Catholic bishops from the Amazon that drew an unprecedented level of criticism from conservative quarters in the church, Pope Francis warned Oct. 27 against Christians who think they are so righteous they wind up worshipping themselves.

The Synod of Bishops for the Amazon has called on Pope Francis to allow for the priestly ordination of married men on a regional basis to address a lack of ministers across the nine-nation region.

"As the bishop of the diocese [of Rome] I ask forgiveness to anyone who was offended," Francis said Oct. 25, referencing the incident involving four wooden statues depicting a pregnant woman.

Josianne Gauthier, secretary general of CIDSE, the network of 18 Catholic social justice organizations, said that throughout the synod's three weeks a "great need" has been articulated for the church to do more to denounce destructive industrial development projects in the world's largest rain forest.

While media focus on married priests and women deacons, "for us, that is a distraction, because the bottom line is life," says a Curripaco leader from Venezuela. "This synod for us is about the planet."

Distinctly Catholic: The common theme from all these critics is that we in the West are the ones with the truth, that those in the Amazon are the ones who need instructing, that their pagan ways must be "overthrown" and replaced. And, of course, that all this is Pope Francis' fault.

Addressing concerns about a proposed Amazonian rite in the Catholic Church, an indigenous participant at the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon called on Catholics to soften their hearts and understand the needs of Catholics in the region.

Simply Spirit: The ongoing Synod of Bishops for the Amazon stands in stark contrast to the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist held in 2005. Prioritizing the people of God makes a difference.

Signs of the Times: Saving the Amazon rainforest requires action by Western nations, a Surinamese bishop attending the Catholic Church's synod on the Amazon region said, charging that the people of the Amazon cannot do it by themselves.

Bishop Ricardo Ernesto Centellas Guzmán said that before considering the proposal from some members of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon to ordain women deacons and married viri probati, or men of proven virtue, the current "model of the church, which is too hierarchal, must change."

We say: In the Amazon, as elsewhere, symbols of faith arise from indigenous culture. The desecration of these symbols in Rome, apparently by ecclesial thugs, was a despicable act and should be condemned by all.

Grace on the Margins: The theft of indigenous statues was profoundly racist and misogynist, and reasserts the white supremacist mentality at the root of the destruction of the Amazon and its peoples.

Solutions to environmental problems discussed at the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon must involve not just Amazonian nations, but countries in Europe and North America, bishops said.

San José del Guaviare, Colombia, is known as the "gateway to the Amazon," and in the forest there I stayed with an indigenous family in their traditional maloca house and learned about how they view their Catholicism, their customs, and a changing world.

People in the Amazon region are hoping that the synod will recognize that the more that Amazon residents can control their own resources, and the young are encouraged to stay and carry on traditions of preserving an ecologically sound way of life, the greater chance for the Amazon to survive.

Just Catholic: Laws on clerical marriage and the ordination of women arise from the same misogynistic swamp. And each is what canon lawyers call a "merely ecclesiastical law."

More than a half century after a group of bishops at the Second Vatican Council made a solemn pledge to live a simple lifestyle close to their people, a group of participants from the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon signed a new pact in the Catacombs of Domitilla.

Bishop Derek Byrne of Primavera do Leste-Paranatinga said he also spoke in favor of ordaining married men: "The duty of the church to provide the Eucharist ... takes precedence over the law of celibacy."

Ten of the 12 small working groups at the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon spent time considering the possibility of ordaining married men to address a lack of Catholic ministers across the nine-nation region.

Proposals for Amazonian development made by well-known observers at the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon could conflict with the expectations of indigenous people unless they are included in decision-making, some synod participants said.

As the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon heard pleas to defend the rights of the region's indigenous people and of the land they hold sacred, indigenous leaders from Canada and the United States came to Rome to support them.

Existing formation programs are not preparing priests and other pastoral workers to be leaders in a church with an Amazonian and indigenous face, according to bishops participating in the synod for the Amazon.

The Synod of Bishops for the Amazon is not a "referendum" on priestly celibacy; it is looking for ways to provide for the sacramental life and formation of the people there, U.S. Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston said.

While the focus of the synod this month in Rome has been on the needs of the Amazon region, an American bishop at the meeting has suggested the synod can enrich the rest of the church and the world.

Analysis: The preparation for the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon region was inclusive and transparent, yet once the official opening business got underway, that transparency effectively ceased. 

Anitalia Pijachi, an indigenous woman from the Amazonian town of Leticia, Colombia, came to the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon bringing a message from the elders of her people to Pope Francis, an elder of the Catholic Church.

The Vatican's nuncio to the United Nations called it welcome news that several nations around the world "have taken active steps to recognize the right to autonomy or self-government of indigenous peoples."

Ecuadorian observers at the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon are keeping an eye on massive protests that have claimed the lives of five people in their country.

As the Amazonian bishops come to the end of their first week of meetings in Rome discussing the issues facing their region, they were united in condemning attacks on the rainforest and the indigenous peoples.

The first working session of the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon began on Oct. 7, with a call from a leading Latin American cardinal for new pathways in service to indigenous peoples and protection of the rainforest.

Lay men and women involved in ministry have been fundamental in spreading the Gospel and furthering the Catholic Church's mission in the Amazon, a Brazilian bishop said.

Among two main possibilities canonists discussed: Francis could issue new norms allowing bishops to deviate from the church canon requiring clerics to remain celibate, or he could invite the bishops to appeal to the Vatican on a case-by-case basis.

Synod members called for the Catholic Church to deepen its theology in a way that would help people recognize "ecological sins."

About two-thirds of the prelates attending the Vatican's Synod of Bishops for the Amazon are in favor of ordaining married men to address a severe lack of Catholic ministers across the nine-nation region, one of the bishops taking part in the three-week gathering estimated.

Climate change, water resources, inculturation and indigenous practices were among the topics discussed during the first afternoon session of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon.

ROME — Catholic clergy, scholars and indigenous leaders joined an Oct. 5 event where voices from the Amazon shared the experiences and concerns they hoped would influence the synod.

At the Mass opening the Synod on the Pan-Amazon Region, Pope Francis urged the assembled bishops to embrace "daring prudence," rather than settle for the status quo.

Openness to new ways of thinking emerged as the primary theme of the Vatican's Synod of Bishops for the Amazon region on its first day of business, with Pope Francis and the cardinals leading the three-week event telling the participating prelates not to be resistant to new ideas.

Opening a monthlong gathering of Catholic bishops expected to consider controversial issues such as the ordaining of married priests on a regional basis, Pope Francis Oct. 6 warned the 185 prelates taking part against being "smothered by the ashes of fear and concern" in defense of the church's status quo.

Pope Francis joined Amazonian church workers and indigenous people Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, to plant a tree in the Vatican Gardens.

The Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network (REPAM) viewed Laudato Si', and in particular its section on integral ecology, as confirmation of their work and has helped shape the upcoming Synod of Bishops focused on the Amazon region, its peoples and ecological significance.

In a press conference, Cardinals Lorenzo Baldisseri and Claudio Hummes focused on the serious implications of Catholics currently living without frequent access to the sacraments and the call of people in the Amazon that the synod address the issue.

A top Vatican cardinal has expressed skepticism about ordaining married men to address the priest shortage in the Amazon, defending the value of priestly celibacy on the eve of a big Vatican meeting where the issue is officially up for debate.

Faith Seeking Understanding: While media attention in the coming weeks will inevitably be preoccupied with those issues seen as most contentious and controversial at the synod, another kind of history-making shift may be underway shaping how the church understands itself and engages other traditions.

Distinctly Catholic: It is fine to criticize the synod's working document. But hysterical allegations of heresy and error tell us more about the accusers than the accused.

In a series of NCR interviews, those involved with preparing the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon struck back at the unprecedented level of criticism the gathering has already received.

The Vatican officially released Sept. 21 the full list of participants, auditors and collaborators for October's hotly anticipated global meeting of Catholic bishops from the Amazon region.

Commentary: The upcoming pan-Amazonian synod's focus on climate change, the rights of indigenous and migrant peoples, and regional innovation will be a hallmark of Pope Francis' humble missionary vision for reform.

Pope Francis appointed three delegate presidents for the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon.

Francis, the comic strip: Mother Earth's smoke alarm makes its way to Rome.

The apparently intentional escalation of fires in the Amazon rainforest has contributed to a growing political split among religious groups in Brazil, as the country's Catholic bishops and Protestant denominations have spoken out against President Jair Bolsonaro's environmental policies while his evangelical Christian allies have remained silent, or even debunked the criticism.

Wildfires raging in Bolivia and Brazil underscore the urgency of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon that Pope Francis has called for October, said Bishop Eugenio Coter of the apostolic vicariate of Pando in northern Bolivia.

"Crying out to the world for solidarity," leaders of the Latin American bishops' council urged international action to save the Amazon rainforest as massive fires continued to burn.

Bishops, nuns, priests and residents of the Amazon basin met in Colombia's capital city in mid-August to prepare for a special Synod of Bishops for the Amazon this fall at the Vatican.

The upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Amazon is an "urgent" gathering, not of scientists and politicians, but for the church whose main focus in discussions will be evangelization, Pope Francis said in a new interview.

Change is roiling the water around Santarem. The city already has a large port where riverboats call with passengers, and freighters load soy and corn from the country's agricultural heartland.

Mention of the Amazon is likely to conjure images of snaking rivers, seemingly endless forests, indigenous villagers and exotic animals. But poor harvests or a desire for jobs and an education drive people from rural areas to fast-growing cities, which generally are poorly planned and ill-equipped to deal with the influx of newcomers.

Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno says the agenda, which raises the possibility of ordaining older married men as priests in rural areas, "largely expresses the feelings and desires of many representatives of the Amazon people."

Science is showing that hydropower is not as environmentally friendly as once thought, and the struggles of the families uprooted by Belo Monte reveal the dam's dark side.

"Quilombolos," as the residents of quilombos are known, still suffer from the racism and discrimination that made the brutal slave trade possible in the first place.

Jesuit missionaries in Guyana are sponsoring a two-year pilot bilingual education program.

Edwina Tancredo last saw her 17-year-old son more than a year ago, when he and some friends left the village of Hiowa to seek work in a mine.

Borderlands are places where "conflicts and violence are aggravated, where the law is not respected and corruption undermines government control, clearing the way for indiscriminate exploitation by many enterprises," according to the working document for the synod.

Human beings are called to praise God for his gift of creation, not be predators out to plunder the earth and all it contains, Pope Francis said.

Consolata Br. Carlo Zacquini was ministering among the Yanomami people in a remote area of Brazil, near the border with Venezuela, when gold miners invaded their lands.

There is some irony in the situation. The places where Amazonian cities were built were once indigenous territories. 

When Pope Francis came face to face with more than 2,000 Amazonian indigenous people in Peru in January 2018, he told them the place where they live is holy ground, and that they and the Amazon region are important to the Catholic Church and the entire world.

German Cardinal Walter Brandmüller's critiques of the working document for the synod of bishops, scheduled for this fall, is closer to heresy than anything in the instrumentum laboris, writes Charles Camosy.

Signs of the Times: Although Francis places a very high value on celibacy, he is also a pragmatist who recognizes that indigenous communities are being denied the Eucharist and the sacraments because they don’t have priests.

The Catholic Church must find ways to reach indigenous Catholics deprived of the sacraments in the most remote areas of the Amazon rainforest, and that may include ordaining married elders, said the working document for the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon.

If the world is to win the fight against climate change, its leaders must stop profiting from fossil fuels that threaten the survival and well-being of the planet and its inhabitants, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis has chosen Brazil's Cardinal Cláudio Hummes to serve as relator general of next year's Synod of Bishops on the Amazon.

This October, a Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian region will mark the Catholic Church's most serious reentry into the ecological arena since 2015's environmental encyclical.

Peruvian authorities are investigating the death of British De La Salle Brother Paul McAuley, whose burned body was found April 2 in a home he founded for indigenous students in Iquitos, in the northeastern Amazonian region.

In indigenous Kichwa communities, women like Patricia Gualinga have traditionally taken on the role of wife, mother and cultivator of the crops that families use to survive in Ecuador's Amazonian region of Sarayaku.

Guatemalan Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini said he notices when he visits family in the U.S. that almost anywhere he goes, the lights seem to be on — even in the daytime, even if there's enough natural light to illuminate a space.

ANAPU, BRAZIL — Fr. José Amaro's supporters say the charges are politically motivated, meant to discredit the ministry he continued after the 2005 assassination of Sr. Dorothy Stang.

While the Vatican's synod on clergy sexual abuse has grabbed headlines in much of the world, another meeting of bishops, slated for October 2019, is already making news in Brazil.

Throughout Latin America, people whose lives and land have been affected by industries that extract natural resources, such as mining or oil operations, find strength in their spirituality, church leaders say.

The break in the Feijao dam complex in Brumadinho is being called a social-environmental crime instead of an accident by some members of the Catholic Church in Brazil. According to the religious who work with populations near dams and mining exploration areas, both the human and environmental costs of this tragedy will affect the area for dozens of years.

Religious leaders in Colombia promised to step up efforts to prevent the destruction of rainforests in the South American country, as they launched a coalition known as the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative.

A Vatican document meant to help prepare for a special meeting of Catholic bishops from the Amazon rainforest focuses on how the church's ministry in the nine-nation region is overextended and calls for consideration of "new ways" to allow laypeople "better and more frequent access to the Eucharist."

Pope Francis met with members of the preparatory council for the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon region, which will take place in Rome in October 2019.

Fr. José Amaro Lopes de Souza, a priest connected with the Brazilian bishops' Pastoral Land Commission, was arrested and charged with extortion and money laundering.

Less than two months after Pope Francis spoke out about environmental destruction in the Amazon basin during a visit to Peru, bishops from Latin America and the Caribbean have issued a pastoral letter calling the region's Catholics to an "integral ecological conversion."

"These people must fish and hunt to survive, and their activities are small-scale and sustainable," says Bishop David Martínez. Protecting the Amazon "must include the survival of its peoples."

Pope Francis has chosen the theme and appointed members of the preparatory council for the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon region, which will take place in Rome in October 2019.

The idea of exceptionally ordaining older married men of proven virtue to celebrate the Eucharist in isolated Catholic communities is something that should be discussed, said Cardinal Beniamino Stella, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy.

Pope Francis' decision to convene a Synod of Bishops dedicated to the Amazon is a sign of his desire for the choice to be a voice for the voiceless living in the region, a Brazilian archbishop said. 

Pope Francis announced a special gathering of the Synod of Bishops to focus on evangelization and the connection between faith and environmental concern in the Amazon region.