New Paths: Pope meets with church officials from Amazon
By Johan Pacheco
“The Amazon recognises Pope Francis as the ‘grandfather’. That is what they call him, the grandfather, and for the native peoples, the grandfather is the wise person, the person who guides, the person who has no other interest than to be able to serve and encourage life."
That's according to Cardinal Pedro Barreto, President of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA).
He was speaking in an interview with Vatican Radio-Pope after meeting with the Holy Father on the morning of 3 June.
The meeting was attended jointly by members of CEAMA and the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM). Cardinal Barreto explained that they are two separate organisations: the former juridical, while the network comprises the territory of Amazonia.
“We have offered the Pope the progress we have made in recent years, after the Synod on the Amazon that was held five years ago, in 2019. And we have seen how the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon is a mature fruit of this synodal process that has been followed throughout the Amazon,” said Cardinal Barreto.
During the meeting, they were able to express to the Pope their concern over the murder of environmental activists; and the exploitation of natural resources, “illegal mining, which makes the urgency of the situation ever greater due to the effects of climate change.”
The president of CEAMA shared that Pope Francis “thanked them for the work that the Church is doing throughout the Amazon biome and told us to continue working together, also because the synodal experience in the Amazon is like a model experience of what life in the Universal Church can be like.”
“We are living an ecclesial kairos, a propitious time for the renewal of the Church in the Amazon; and from the Amazon we are also offering the Universal Church a new path, as was requested for the Amazon Synod: ‘New paths for the Church.’ All together, all the baptised, men and women, are part of the people of God who are on pilgrimage in history with the consolations and caresses of God, but also with the anguish and tears of many brothers and sisters,” the Cardinal said, looking to the future of the missionary and synodal work in Amazonia.
And with the Jubilee of 2025 in mind, Cardinal Barreto pointed out that “the Jubilee of Hope is also closely linked to this synodal spirituality. There is already a beginning of signs of enthusiasm and this enthusiasm is being transformed into hope. But hope is being put into action, joint action.”
On Tuesday 4 June, the Acts of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region will be released. “New paths for the Church and for an integral ecology” will also be presented at the Sheikh Zayed Centre at the FAO headquarters in Rome.
Later this week, on Friday, a congress on the synodal journey of the Church in the Amazon, will be held at at the Pontifical Gregorian University. The congress is sponsored by REPAM and CEAMA.
Interview with Pedro Cardinal Barreto
President of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon
What was your experience of the audience with Pope Francis?
We have had a meeting of the CEAMA presidency with the particiapation of the presidency of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network. There are two organisms: one, CEAMA, is juridical, the other is a territorial network in the Amazon. And today we have had the great joy of meeting with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, to thank him for all the support he has been giving us. There were representatives of the native peoples, the vice-presidents of REPAM and CEAMA, religious men and women, lay people, bishops. I have brought greetings from all over the Amazon. The Pope encouraged us, he gave us a lot of encouragement to continue walking together in this synodal process.
What were the most important points that you shared with the Pope about this synodal process and what were the fruits of the meetings held there with CEAMA?
First of all, we shared with the Pope the progress we have made in recent years, after the Synod on the Amazon that was held five years ago, in 2019.
And we have seen how the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon is a mature fruit of this synodal process that has been followed throughout the Amazon.
The Amazon covers more than 7 million square kilometres, 9 countries, 105 dioceses – that is, we are talking about more than 130 bishops; and we are also very, very concerned about the situation, I would say, of abuse of environmental defenders, with some murders; but also, and in a very special way, with the irrational exploitation of natural resources, deforestation, illegal mining, which means that the urgency is increasing due to the effects of climate change.
Regarding this concern, for the person, certainly also deforestation, but also illegal mining, in which the people, the communities are most affected: What have you been doing concerning this issue?
The Church’s evangelizing mission is caring for life. Caring for the natural environment is, I would say, a natural part of our mission. To proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ is also to proclaim the rights of people. And also the quality of life that they should have with the air, water and soil. But definitely the Church in the Amazon, through the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network is very attentive, they are the roots of what the Church is doing and that is through the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network. CEAMA, which is the canonically-approved Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon, already has legal status at a judicial level in the various countries. In this sense, we are taking up these proposals that the final document of the Synod on the Amazon has offered us and we are putting them into practice. And this is the report that we have given to Pope Francis.
And what was Pope Francis' message to encourage you?
Basically, Pope Francis welcomed us, as he has always done, with great affection, he welcomed each one of us. We were thirteen people in total and each one of us brought a small gift, a letter from the Amazon that they recognise in Pope Francis as their “grandfather.” That is what they call him, the grandfather, and for the native peoples, the grandfather is the wise person, the person who guides, the person who has no other interest than to be able to serve and encourage life.
Secondly, he thanked the Church for the work it is doing throughout the Amazon biome and told us to continue working together, because the synodal experience in the Amazon is like a model experience of what life in the Universal Church can be like. And this has come out very strongly in the Synthesis Report of the first session of the Synod on Synodality, in which it expressly indicates in number 1G that the fruit of the synodal process in the Amazon region is the creation of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon, the first in the history of the Church, where all baptized men and women, lay people, native peoples, priests, religious, and bishops share the same faith and the same vision of announcing Jesus Christ in the Amazon region.
Your Eminence, during these days, apart from the Pope's visit, do you have a working agenda of activities to present this report in other institutions?
Yes, we have taken advantage of this presence here in Rome to be in contact with various dicasteries: the Dicastery of Evangelisation, which Pope Francis presides over and Cardinal Tagle is there, as is Archbishop Fisichella; and we will also be visiting the Dicastery of Bishops, the Dicastery for Integral Human Development, and the Dicastery of Consecrated Life, because the great majority of pastoral agents are religious, mainly religious women and men, especially religious women.
And so we are going to continue with these visits; and we will finish on Friday afternoon with a very important event to invite those entities of the Church that are partners in this synodal process because we are celebrating eleven years of the synodal journey of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network, five years from the Synod on the Amazon, and four years since the creation of this first and unprecedented Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon.
It is a gift for the Church, for the Amazon, that the Church accompanies these people and all the movements that live there. How do you see the future for CEAMA, for REPAM, and for all the institutions that work together? What do you hope for the future?
First of all, I believe that we must always be grateful to the many missionaries who have been present in the Amazon biome since the 16th century. And we have to recognise that we are heirs to the great pastoral richness that they have achieved.
Secondly, we are living an ecclesial kairos, a propitious time for the renewal of the Church in the Amazon, and from the Amazon we are also offering the Universal Church a new path, as was requested for the Amazon Synod: “New paths for the Church.” All together, all baptised men and women are part of the people of God who are on a pilgrimage through history with the consolations and caresses of God, but also with the anguish and tears of many brothers and sisters.
In this sense, I hope that we will continue to walk together and that the Synod on Synodality will not only take up this synodal experience from the Amazon, but will also promote the participation of all baptised men and women in the mission of the Church, in families, in society, in politics, in the economy, and also, logically, within our Church.
In the presentation of the report on the synod, you encourage us, as the Church in the Amazon, to live it, to walk together, but we would also like to ask you how you are preparing to live the Jubilee of Hope?
Yes, the Jubilee of Hope is also closely linked to this synodal spirituality. There is already a beginning of signs of enthusiasm and this enthusiasm is being transformed into hope. But hope is being put into action, joint action. And this is a small seedling, we could say, that is emerging; so the Jubilee of hope that Pope Francis has called for next year is certainly already showing some signs.
I am convinced that the year 2025 will be for all of us a wonderful experience of gathering this hope put into action. God walks with us, God is not mistaken in calling us, and therefore He calls us all to walk together, the more we walk toghether as brothers, as “Fratelli tutti” and he tells us: praising God, caring for nature and above all, living this joy of a God with us in the person of Jesus Christ with the special intercession of our Mother the Blessed Virgin.
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