EarthBeat Weekly: Five years later, Amazon synod still echoes through church
EarthBeat Weekly: Five years later, Amazon synod still echoes through church
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Five years later, Amazon synod still echoes through church
October 19, 2024
 Pope Francis walks in a procession at the start of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon at the Vatican Oct. 7, 2019. (CNS/Paul Haring) All through October, the second and final session of the synod on synodality has been playing out inside the Vatican. Elements of the multiyear process — like its widespread consultation and more inclusive list of delegates — have roots in another momentous Vatican meeting five years earlier, the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region. But the ongoing synod is just one of the ways the Amazon synod continues to reverberate throughout the Catholic Church, as Barbara Fraser, former EarthBeat editor and now a freelance journalist based in Peru, reports this week. In her extensive look at the high-level church meeting dedicated entirely to the Amazon biome and its people, she examines what has happened in the past five years in response to the gathering that Pope Francis hoped would place an "Amazonian face" upon the entire church. "It was like saying, 'Look, something new is beginning in the church.' We have to keep going in that way, walking with the people in synodality," said Immaculate Conception Sr. Joaninha Madeira, a member of an itinerant missionary team that ministers in communities along Amazonian rivers. In the must-read article, Fraser revisits the synod itself — from its goals, to its final document, to the pope's response in Querida Amazonia. In that apostolic exhortation, Francis outlined four dreams he had for the massive ecosystem that carries immense global importance. Five years after the synod, those dreams are taking shape, although much remains to be done, said Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno, who heads the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon that was formed from the synod. "I believe we're gaining greater awareness in society that we're all brothers and sisters," the cardinal told EarthBeat. Read more: Amazon synod reverberates through the Catholic Church five years later Barreto isn't the only cardinal reflecting on the Amazon synod this month. Back in Rome, Cardinal Leonardo Steiner of Manaus, Brazil, reflected too on how the Amazon synod paved the way for the synod on synodality, including the ongoing discussions about expanding the role and responsibility of all the baptized in the life and mission of the church. At a synod press briefing Tuesday, Steiner relayed, per Carol Glatz of Catholic News Service, that bishops in the Amazon region are now proposing to some very remote communities "to receive and be able to celebrate some sacraments, such as baptism, without the presence of a priest." When it comes to day-to-day ministry, "many of our women are true deaconesses, without having received the imposition of the hands," he said. Read more: Synod on Amazon opened the way for synod on synodality, cardinal says Another element of the Amazon synod was examining the plight of the biome's many Indigenous communities, who face near-daily threats to their ancestral lands while standing as critical defenders of a rainforest central to addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. This month Amazon Frontlines, which works on conservation and climate activism in the Upper Amazon, became the first South American Indigenous organization to win the world's largest humanitarian award, the Hilton Humanitarian Prize. The $2.5 million honor was presented to Amazon Frontlines for its efforts on "protecting the Amazon rainforest, which is essentially the lungs of the planet," said Peter Laugharn, president and CEO of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Global Sisters Report international correspondent Chris Herlinger was inside the Beverly Hilton ballroom where the award presentation unfolded (as was actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio). Herlinger reports that Amazon Frontlines co-founder Nemonte Nenquimo, a leader of the Waorani people, said that "The prize will help us continue to protect the Amazon and our land from the outside world." She added that Indigenous peoples and climate activists are reminding others in the human family that "Mother Earth is waking us up. We need to listen to her." Read more: Amazon Frontlines wins top humanitarian prize for defending 'lungs of the planet'
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