The document for the Synod on the Amazon: denunciation of neocolonialism and of the “extrattivist” mentality. The cry of thousands of communities deprived of the Eucharist for too long: to find new paths to guarantee the sacrament to everyone. Hypotheses of official ministries for women.
“Today the cry of the Amazonia to the Creator is similar to the cry of God’s People in Egypt. It is a cry of slavery and abandonment, which clamors for freedom and God’s care”. With these words, the preparatory document for the Special Synod on the Amazon scheduled for October 2019 defines the situation of the peoples living in the rain forest’s region. The object of the Synod will be finding “new paths for the Church and for an integral ecology”, paths that “must be conceived for and with the people of God who live” in the Amazon.
In the Amazon forest, the document observes, “which is of vital importance for the planet, a deep crisis has been triggered by prolonged human intervention, in which a “culture of waste” and an extractivist mentality prevail”.
Reflecting on the future of this region means reaching out “also towards the future of the entire planet”.
In the document divided into three parts - to “see, judge (discern) and act” - it is stated that it is necessary “to listen to indigenous peoples and to all the communities living in the Amazonia – as the first interlocutors of this Synod”.
The Amazon Basin encompasses one of our planet’s largest reserves of biodiversity (30 to 50% of the world’s flora and fauna) and freshwater (20% of the world’s fresh water). It covers more than seven and a half million square kilometers, and 9 countries share this great Biome, where different peoples and cultures live and coexist.
“Nonetheless, the wealth of the Amazonian rainforest and rivers is being threatened by expansive economic interests, which assert themselves in various parts of the territory. Such interests lead, among other things, to the intensification of indiscriminate logging in the rainforest, as well as the contamination of rivers, lakes, and tributaries (due to the indiscriminate use of agro-toxins, oil spills, legal and illegal mining, and byproducts from the production of narcotics). Added to this is drug trafficking, which together with the above puts at risk the survival of those peoples who depend on the region’s animal and plant resources”.
On the other hand, “the cities of the Amazon Basin have grown quite rapidly, and have integrated many migrants forcibly displaced from their lands, resulting in the expansion of large urban centers ever-deeper into the rainforest”. “The most recent migratory displacements within the Amazon region have been characterized, above all, by the movement of indigenous people from their native lands to the cities. Currently, between 70% and 80% of the Pan-Amazonian population resides in urban areas. Many of these indigenous people are undocumented or irregular, refugees and those hailing from riverside areas or belonging to other vulnerable categories of people. As a result, an attitude of xenophobia and criminalization of migrants and displaced persons is growing throughout the Amazon region”.
In the nine countries that make up the panamazzonica region there are about three million indigenous people, representing almost 390 different peoples and nationalities. Among these there are between 110 and 130 Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation (PIAV). Moreover, a new category of indigenous people has recently emerged, consisting of indigenous people living in urban areas, some of whom are recognizable as such. But there are other groups which disappear into the urban fabric and are therefore called “invisible”.
The document recalls how and when the Church began to raise its voice in defense of indigenous peoples. By citing the words of Saint John Paul II who defined the forced displacement of a huge number of Africans as slaves to an “unrecognized holocaust”, in which “baptized persons who did not live their faith took part”.
But “It is frightening that still today – 500 years after external conquest, following more or less 400 years of organized mission and evangelization, and 200 years after the independence of Pan-Amazonian countries – similar vicious cycles continue to hold sway over the territory and its inhabitants, who today are victims of a ferocious neocolonialism, carried out “under the auspices of progress”. Probably, as Pope Francis said in Puerto Maldonado, the indigenous peoples of the Amazon Basin have never been as threatened as they are now.
“The harmonious relationship between God the Creator, human beings, and nature is broken by the harmful effects of neo-extractivism; by the pressure being exerted by strong business interests that want to lay hands on its petroleum, gas, wood, and gold; by construction related to infrastructure projects (for example, hydroelectric megaprojects and road construction, such as thoroughfares between the oceans); and by forms of agro-industrial mono-cultivation”. And “New ideological colonialisms hidden under the myth of progress are being imposed, thereby destroying specific cultural identities”. On the other hand, the threat against the Amazonian territories “also comes from the distortion of certain policies aimed at the ‘conservation’ of nature without taking into account the men and women.”
Protecting indigenous peoples and their lands “represents a fundamental ethical imperative and a basic commitment to human rights. Moreover, it is a moral imperative for the Church, consistent with the approach to integral ecology called for by Laudato si’.”
In the second part of the document, dedicated to discernment, after listing the biblical and evangelical foundations, it is recalled that “The mission of evangelization always has “a clear social content”. The task of evangelization “invites us to strive against social inequalities and the lack of solidarity through the promotion of charity, justice, compassion, and care amongst ourselves and with animals, plants, and all creation.
The Church is called to accompany and share the pain of the Amazonian people, and to collaborate in healing their wounds, putting into practice its identity as the Samaritan Church, as expressed by the Latin American Bishops”. The text recalls that “Refusal to care for our Common Home “is an offence against the Creator, an attack on biodiversity and, in short, on life itself”.
Therefore, “the Church’s evangelizing activity in the Amazonia can appear alien to the promotion of care for the territory (nature) and its peoples (cultures). For this reason, it needs to establish bridges to connect ancestral wisdom with contemporary knowledge (cf. LS 143-146), particularly those types related to the sustainable management of the territory and to development in accordance with the cultural value systems of the populations that inhabit this space, who must be recognized as its genuine custodians and even landowners”.
The Synod, the document states, “requires an extensive exercise in reciprocal listening, especially between the faithful and the Church’s magisterial authorities. One of the main points to be heard is the cry “of thousands of [their] communities deprived of the Sunday Eucharist for long periods of time”. It was the meeting of the Latin American episcopate of Aparecida (2007) that highlighted this “cry”. One response - which is not mentioned in the document - could be the priestly ordination of married, mature men of solid faith (viri probati).
In the third part, dedicated to action, indications are given for “new paths”. The Synod will be called “to find “new ways of developing the Amazonian face of the Church and to respond to situations of injustice in the region, such as the neocolonialism of the extractive industries, infrastructure projects that damage its biodiversity, and the imposition of cultural and economic models which are alien to the lives of its peoples”.
Thus, through a focus on local realities and on the diversity of the region’s experiential microstructures, the Church “is strengthened in its opposition to the globalization of indifference and to the unifying logic promoted by the media and by an economic model that often refuses to respect the Amazonian peoples or their territories”.
The document states: “There must be a balance, and the economy should give priority to a vocation for a dignified human life. This balanced relationship must care for the environment and for the lives of the most vulnerable”. For this reason, Pope Francis pointed out that “we need to let ourselves be evangelized by them” and by their cultures, and that the new evangelization implies “lending our voice to their causes, but also [we are called] to be their friends, to listen to them, to speak for them, and to embrace the mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them”. Consequently, these teachings, therefore, could set the direction of priorities for the new paths of the Church in the Amazon.
It was (and still is) necessary to have a greater presence, made difficult by the “immense geographical extension, much of it often difficult to access, its broad cultural diversity”. These new paths for pastoral care in the Amazonia call for “re-launching the work of the Church” in the territory and for delving deeper into the “process of inculturation”, which requires the Church in the Amazon region to make “courageous” proposals, that is, the “daring” and “fearless” attitudes that Pope Francis asks of us. This gives way “to an urgent need to evaluate and rethink the ministries that today are required to respond to the objectives of “a Church with an Amazonian face and a Church with a native face”.
“The text states that “it is necessary to identify the type of official ministry that can be conferred on women, taking into account the central role which women play today in the Amazonian Church.
“It is also necessary to foster indigenous and local-born clergy, affirming their own cultural identity and values. Finally, new ways should be considered for the People of God to have better and more frequent access to the Eucharist, the center of Christian life “. And these new paths “will impact ministries, liturgy, and theology (Indian theology)”.
Finally, the document states that “there is a spirituality of communion between native missionaries and those who come from outside, in order to discover together how to accompany people: listening to their stories; participating in their life projects; sharing their spirituality; and shouldering their struggles. This is spirituality after the fashion of Jesus: simple, human, in dialogue, and Samaritan, allowing us to celebrate life, Liturgy, the Eucharist, and festivals, always in respect for the rhythms proper to each people.” The text concludes with a questionnaire to stimulate preparatory discussion.
