-OSV News / Cindy Wooden
Efforts to serve, defend and strengthen the Catholic community in the Amazon region must focus on the proclamation of the Gospel, affirmed the Pope Leo XIV.
When the Catholic Church promotes "the right and duty" to care for the natural environment, it is not encouraging people to be "slaves or worshipers of nature," since creation is a gift meant to bring praise to God alone, according to a message sent to the Amazon bishops on behalf of the Pope by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State.
Three interconnected dimensions
The Pope asked the bishops of the region "to keep in mind three dimensions that are interrelated in the pastoral work of that region: the mission of the Church to announce the Gospel to all; the just treatment of the peoples who live there; and the care of the common home," according to the message, addressed to Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno, president of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon.
The message was released by the Vatican on August 18, as some 90 bishops from the 105 dioceses and other ecclesiastical jurisdictions of the Amazon region met in Bogota, Colombia, ahead of the planned general assembly of the church conference - which includes religious and lay people - in March 2026.
The experience of the 2019 Synod of Bishops for the Amazon demonstrated how essential it is for the Church to listen to and involve clergy, religious and laity, according to the message, but Cardinal Parolin said the Pope hoped the Bogota meeting would "help diocesan bishops and vicars apostolic to carry out their mission in a concrete and effective way."
"With clarity and enormous charity."
Jesus must be proclaimed "with clarity and immense charity among the inhabitants of the Amazon, so that we may strive to give them fresh and pure bread of the Good News and the heavenly food of the Eucharist, the only means to be truly the people of God and the body of Christ," the message said.
Access to the Eucharist, especially in remote Amazonian villages, was a major theme at the 2019 synod, leading to debates and discussions about the possibility of ordaining married men who are recognized leaders of their Christian communities to the priesthood.
Pope Francis' response, in his post-synodal exhortation "Dear Amazonia", was to "urge all bishops, especially those of Latin America, not only to promote prayer for priestly vocations, but also to be more generous in encouraging those who show a missionary vocation to opt for the Amazon region".
The importance of proclaiming faith in Christ
Stressing the fundamental importance of proclaiming faith in Christ, the message of the Bogotá meeting - published in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish - affirmed that the history of the Church has confirmed "that wherever the name of Christ is preached, injustice recedes proportionately, for, as the Apostle Paul affirms, all exploitation of man by man disappears if we are able to welcome one another as brothers and sisters".
"Within this perennial doctrine, no less evident is the right and duty to care for the 'home' that God the Father has entrusted to us as diligent stewards," the message continued.
The Church's defense of the environment, according to the message, aims "that no one should irresponsibly destroy the natural goods that speak of the goodness and beauty of the Creator, much less submit to them as a slave or worshipper of nature, since things have been given to us to achieve our end of praising God and thus obtain the salvation of our souls."
Read the original OSV News article in English HERE.
