{"id":22889,"date":"2020-02-15T17:10:35","date_gmt":"2020-02-15T16:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ofmconv.net\/querida-amazonia-quattro-grandi-sogni\/"},"modified":"2020-02-15T17:16:51","modified_gmt":"2020-02-15T16:16:51","slug":"querida-amazonia-quattro-grandi-sogni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/querida-amazonia-quattro-grandi-sogni\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cQuerida Amazon\u00eda\u201d: Four Great Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"

The future of the Amazon is not just a local problem; it is a global issue, one which requires responsibility, a community vision and the attentive and missionary presence of the Church.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Synod path, which brought bishops to the Vatican (October 6-27, 2019), has now led to Pope Francis\u2019 long awaited Apostolic Exhortation \u201cQuerida Amazon\u00eda\u201d. It is a document that represents a sort of synthesis of the Holy Father\u2019s concerns, but it is also a map and a precise outline for \u201ca harmonious, creative and fruitful reception of the entire synodal process.\u201d
\nThe Pope\u2019s Exhortation is not regional in character, but global. Taking an environmental point of view, it considers the Amazon\u2019s central role as the green lung of the world and as a habitat of immense biodiversity, one which ensures a global balance. However, this habitat is increasingly at risk of extinction due to prolonged exploitation dictated by international interests.
\nTherefore, for the Church, it is a question of raising awareness and making the Church incarnate \u201cin a distinctive way in each part of the world\u201d. Preaching, spirituality and ecclesial structures must become incarnate.
\nThen, there is Pope Francis\u2019 \u201cfour great dreams\u201d for the Amazon, for its peoples, its ecosystem, and for the transmission of the faith. They comprise a social dream, a cultural dream, an ecological dream and an ecclesial dream.<\/p>\n

His social dream envisions a Church that exists alongside the poor because, particularly in Amazonia, the ecological aspect is closely related to the social aspect, to the disavowal of the rights of local peoples and the progressive theft of their lands. These events in turn have spawned a troubling wave of migration that has increasingly forced them from away from their rivers and lakes and into the forests. Now they are being forced to the outskirts of cities where they are unable to resolve their problems and are subject to forms of marginalization and slavery. The Pope does not mince words about this; he calls it \u201cinjustice and crime\u201d and he tells us that we should feel outrage about this because \u201cit is not good for us to become inured to evil; it is not good when our social consciousness is dulled\u201d.
\nIn dealing with this, we must also apologize for the shortcomings and negligence of missionaries who, at times, chose the side of the exploiters over that of the oppressed. Pope Francis continues his denunciation: \u201cNor can we exclude the possibility that members of the Church have been part of networks of corruption, at times to the point of agreeing to keep silent in exchange for economic assistance for ecclesial works.\u201d For this reason, he invites us to always be attentive to the origin of donations or other benefits being offered.
\nFaced with the mindset of colonialism, he invites our engagement in social dialogue, \u201cdeveloping forms of fellowship and joint struggle\u201d and \u201ca globalization in solidarity.\u201d He invites us to seek alternatives for \u201csustainable herding and agriculture, sources of energy that do not pollute, [and] dignified means of employment that do not entail the destruction of the natural environment and of cultures\u201d.<\/p>\n

The second chapter of \u201cQuerida Amazon\u00eda\u201d is about the Pope\u2019s cultural dream. He points out that the Amazonian polyhedron contains more than 110 indigenous peoples who have created civilizations different from \u201cours\u201d but with a dignity that must be recognized. In his dream, these lands and their peoples are allowed to make the best of themselves, keeping or reappropriating their cultural roots, so often lost when peoples are torn from their land. Finding themselves on the outskirts, they are no longer able to preserve their roots, their identity and dignity. This causes the disruption of \u201cthe cultural transmission of a wisdom that had been passed down for centuries from generation to generation\u201d. Thus, their cultural distinctiveness is no longer part of our mutual wealth, but becomes evidence of \u201cdiscarded lives\u201d. This mechanism of creating cultural homogeneity has proven to be harmful, not only to those peoples, but to the whole of humanity. We end up losing a rich and enriching cultural specificity. This is why Pope Francis stresses that \u201cinterest and concern for the cultural values of the indigenous groups should be shared by everyone, for their richness is also our own. If we ourselves do not increase our sense of co-responsibility for the diversity that embellishes our humanity, we can hardly demand that the groups from the interior forest be uncritically open to \u2018civilization.\u201d It is essential that we connect cultural identity and dialogue with different realities.<\/p>\n

The third chapter is about caring for the environment\u2014the Pope\u2019s ecological dream, which is closely related to human economics and which, as Benedict XVI pointed out, in turn requires social ecology. The protection of our common home resounds forcefully here and is very much in the style of Pope Francis, who states, \u201cAs things stand, this way of treating the Amazon territory spells the end for so much life, for so much beauty.\u201d That \u201cgreen lung\u201d serves as \u201ca great filter of carbon dioxide, which helps avoid the warming of the earth.\u201d It is a complex system, a structure in perfect balance, in which every microorganism plays its part. In our relationship with it, we must remember that exploiting \u201cthe environment as \u2018resource\u2019 risks threatening the environment as \u2018home.\u2019\u201d
\nFaced with this delicate balance and recognizing that the health of the Amazon is for our common good, the Pope invites us to combine ancestral wisdom with contemporary technical knowledge, avoiding any delay in dealing with an environmental emergency that has already been scientifically proven and about which we can no longer afford the alibi of \u201cdeafness\u201d in order to maintain our lifestyles and consumption. Rather, we must feel closely united with the Amazon; we must see it as our mother and, at the same time, as a theological place, \u201ca space where God himself reveals himself and summons his sons and daughters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fourth and final chapter of the document is about Pope Francis\u2019 ecclesial dream. It deals with the call to do missionary work in the Amazon and how that work is entrusted to the consecrated and non-consecrated men and women of the Church. It is a proposal of faith that requires a process of inculturation because, as the document reads, \u201can authentic option for the poor and the abandoned, while motivating us to liberate them from material poverty and to defend their rights, also involves inviting them to a friendship with the Lord that can elevate and dignify them.\u201d The transmission of the faith must be done with great sensitivity; when transmitting the new context of the Gospel, we cannot, in addition, impose the culture in which we grew up. Instead, the process of inculturation \u201crejects nothing of the goodness that already exists in Amazonian cultures, but brings it to fulfilment in the light of the Gospel\u201d. We should take up what is \u201cuseful\u201d that emerges from those realities, so different from our models, and allow ourselves to be \u201c\u2018re-educated\u2019 in the face of frenzied consumerism.\u201d
\nA Church that has an Amazonian face is not one that functions like a \u201ccustoms office\u201d. It is not a Church that excludes or keeps itself at a distance. Rather, it reaches out to understand, to listen and to integrate, in spite of the difficulties involved with an extremely vast and complex territory, with places that are difficult to access and with obstacles that are induced by cultural differences.
\nThe priesthood was a much-debated topic at the Synod, and one that has created great expectations for this document. This document reaffirms the priest\u2019s exclusive identity and \u201chis great power, a power that can only be received in the sacrament of Holy Orders.\u201d Ample space, however, must be provided for the laity who \u201ccan proclaim God\u2019s word, teach, organize communities, celebrate certain sacraments, [and] seek different ways to express popular devotion.\u201d
\nPope Francis next turns to all bishops, especially those in Latin America, asking them to promote prayer for new priestly vocations and, at the same time, to encourage those who show a missionary vocation and guide them towards the Amazon.
\nThe Eucharist and priests are therefore at the heart of the ecclesial presence, along with the great and fundamental support of permanent religious and lay deacons. The laity\u2019s renewed prominence has been sustained by the fundamental presence of \u201cstrong and generous\u201d women who have played a major role in the missions. Moreover, these women have not given in to any \u201cclericalism\u201d which would lessen the great value of what they have already provided, or diminish the character of their contribution which is expressive of their womanhood.<\/p>\n

Elisabetta LO IACONO, Seraphicum Press Office<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The future of the Amazon is not just a local problem; it is a global issue, one which requires responsibility, a community vision and the attentive and missionary presence of the Church. The Synod path, which brought bishops to the Vatican (October 6-27, 2019), has now led to Pope Francis\u2019 long awaited Apostolic Exhortation \u201cQuerida […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,148],"tags":[306,308],"class_list":["post-22889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ufficio-comunicazioni-en","category-news","tag-papa-francesco-en","tag-pope-francis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}