Here is a first installment of Zenit’s English
translation of the Final Document and Voting on the Final Document of the Synod
of Bishops handed to the Holy Father Francis, at the end of the Special
Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian Region (October 6-17,
2019) on the theme: “Amazonia: New Pathways for the Church and for An Integral
Ecology”:
This installment includes the introduction and
first chapter of the final synod document. Zenit will publish the remainder of
the text in the following days. We will publish the official Vatican English
version when it is available.
Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology
****
Final Document
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I: AMAZONIA: FROM LISTENING TO INTEGRAL CONVERSION
CHAPTER II: NEW WAYS OF PASTORAL CONVERSION
CHAPTER III: NEW WAYS OF CULTURAL CONVERSION
CHAPTER IV: NEW WAYS OF ECOLOGICAL CONVERSION
CHAPTER V: NEW WAYS OF SYNODAL CONVERSION
CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
1. “And he who sat upon the
throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new. And he said: ‘Write this, for
these words are trustworthy and true!’” (Rev 21:5)
After a long synodal path of listening of the People of God in the Church
of Amazonia, which Pope Francis opened on his visit to Amazonia on January 19,
2018, the Synod was held in Rome in a fraternal meeting of 21 days in October
2019. The atmosphere was one of open, free and respectful exchange of the
Bishops Pastors in Amazonia, men and women missionaries, laymen and laywomen,
and representatives of the indigenous peoples of Amazonia. We were witnesses taking
part in an ecclesial event marked by the urgency of the subject, which calls
for opening new pathways for the Church in the territory. Serious work was
shared in an atmosphere marked by the conviction of listening to the voice of
the Spirit present.
The Synod was held in a fraternal and prayerful environment. The
interventions were accompanied several times by applause, singing and all with
profound contemplative silences. Outside the Synodal Hall, there was a notable
presence of persons from the Amazonian world, who organized events of support
in different activities, processions, such as the opening with songs and dances
accompanying the Holy Father, from the tomb of Peter to the Synodal Hall. The
Via Crucis of the martyrs of Amazonia was impressive, in addition to the
massive presence of the international media.
3. The synodal journey of the People of God in the preparatory stage
involved the whole Church in the territory, the Bishops, men and women
missionaries, members of the Churches of other Christian Confessions, laymen,
and laywomen, and many representatives of the indigenous peoples around the
consultation document that inspired the Instrumentum Laboris. It highlights
the importance of listening to the voice of Amazonia, moved by the greater
breath of the Holy Spirit in the cry of the wounded earth and its inhabitants.
Noted was the active participation of over 87,000 persons, of different cities
and cultures, in addition to numerous groups of other ecclesial sectors and the
contributions of academics and organizations of the civil society on the main
specific subjects.
4. The holding of the Synod was able to highlight the integration of the
voice of Amazonia with the voice of the thinking of the participant Pastors. It
was a new experience of listening to discern the voice of the Spirit that leads
the Church to new ways of presence, evangelization and inter-cultural dialogue
in Amazonia. The claim, which arose in the preparatory process, that the Church
is allied to the Amazonian world, was forcefully affirmed. The celebration
ended with great joy and the hope to embrace and practice the new paradigm of
integral ecology, the care of the “common home” and the defense of Amazonia.
CHAPTER I
AMAZONIA: FROM
LISTENING TO INTEGRAL CONVERSION
“Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal,
flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev 22:1)
5. ”Christ points to Amazonia” (Paul VI, attrib.). He liberates all from
sin and grants the dignity of the Children of God. The listening of Amazonia,
in the spirit proper of the disciple and in the light of the Word of God and of
Tradition, drives us to a profound conversion of our schemes and structures to
Christ and to His Gospel.
The voice and song of Amazonia as message of life.
6.
In Amazonia, life is inserted, linked and integrated into the territory,
which as a physical, vital and nutritional area, is possibility, sustenance,
and limit of life. Amazonia, also called Pan-Amazonia, is an extensive
territory with a population estimated at 33,600,000 inhabitants, of whom
between 2 and 2.5 million are Indians. This area, made up of the Basin of the
Amazon River and all its tributaries, is extended around nine countries:
Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana, Surinam, and
French Guyana. The Amazonian region is essential for the distribution of rains
in the regions of South America and it contributes to the great movements of
air around the planet; at present, it is the second most vulnerable area of the
world, by man’s action, in relation to climate change.
7.
This region’s water and earth nourish and sustain nature, life and the
cultures of hundreds of indigenous communities, peasants, Afro-descendants,
mestizos, settlers, riverine people and inhabitants of urban centers. Water,
source of life, has a rich symbolic meaning. In the Amazonian region, the cycle
of water is the connecting pivot; it connects ecosystems, cultures and the
territory’s development.
8.
There is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural reality in the Amazonian
region. The different peoples were able to adapt to the territory. They built
and rebuilt within each culture their cosmo-vision, their signs and their
meanings, and the vision of their future. In the indigenous cultures and
peoples, ancient practices and mythical explanations coexist with modern
technologies and challenges. The faces that dwell in Amazonia are very varied.
In addition to the native peoples, there is great miscegenation born with the
meeting and mix-up of different peoples.
9.
The search of the Amazonian indigenous peoples for life in abundance is
made concrete in what they call “good living,” and it is fully realized in the
Beatitudes. It’s about trying to live in harmony with oneself, with nature,
with human beings, and with the Supreme Being, given that there is an
inter-communication between the whole cosmos, where there are no excluding ones
or excluded, and where we can forge a project of full life for all. Such an
understanding of life is characterized by the connectivity and harmony of
relations between water, the territory and nature, communal life and culture,
God and the different spiritual forces. For them, “good living” is to
understand the centrality of the transcendent relational character of human
beings and of Creation, and it implies “good living.” This integral way is
expressed in their way of organizing themselves, which starts from the family
and the community, and encompasses a responsible use of all the goods of
creation. The indigenous peoples aspire to achieve better conditions of life,
especially in health and education, to enjoy sustainable development led and
discerned by themselves and that keeps the harmony in their traditional ways of
life, dialoguing between the wisdom and technology of their forebears and the
technologies acquired.
The Clamour of the
Earth and the Cry of the Poor
10. However, Amazonia today is a wounded and deformed beauty, a place of
pain and violence. The attacks against nature have negative consequences on
peoples’ life This unique socio-environmental crisis was reflected in the
pre-synodal listening sessions, which pointed out the following threats against
life: appropriation and privatization of nature’s goods, such as water itself,
legal logging concessions and the entry of illegal logging; predatory hunting
and fishing; unsustainable mega-projects (hydroelectric projects, forest
concessions, massive felling, monocultures, highways, waterways, trains and
mining and oil projects; contamination caused by extractive industries and
cities’ dumps and, above all, climate change. They are real threats that bring
with them serious social consequences: sicknesses stemming from contamination,
drug trafficking, illegal armed groups, alcoholism, violence against women,
sexual exploitation, human trafficking, the sale of organs, sexual tourism,
loss of the original culture and of identity (language, spiritual practices and
customs), criminalization and murder of leaders and defenders of the territory.
Behind all this are the economic and political interests of the dominant
sectors, with the complicity of some rulers and some indigenous authorities.
The victims are the most vulnerable sectors, children, young people, women and
Sister Mother Earth.
11. For its part, the scientific community warns about the risks of
deforestation, which to date is close to 17% of the total Amazonian forest, and
which threatens the survival of the whole eco-system, putting in danger
bio-diversity and changing the vital cycle of water for the survival of the
tropical forest. In addition, Amazonia also has a critical role as shock
absorber against climate change; it offers invaluable and fundamental systems
of vital support related to air, water, soils, forests, and the biomass. At the
same time, experts remind that by using science and advanced technologies for
an innovative bio-economy of standing forests and of flowing rivers, it is
possible to help save the tropical forest, to protect Amazonia’s eco-systems and
the indigenous and traditional peoples and, at the same time, to offer
sustainable economic activities.
12. A phenomenon to address is migrations. In the Amazonian Regions,
there are three simultaneous migratory processes. In the first place, the cases
of the mobility of indigenous groups in territories of traditional circulation,
separated by national and international borders. In the second place, the
forced displacement of indigenous peoples, peasants and riverine people
expelled from their territories, and whose final destiny is usually the poorest
areas and worse urbanized of the cities. In the third place, the
inter-regional forced migrations and the phenomenon of refugees who, obliged to
leave their countries (among others, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba) must cross
Amazonia as a migratory corridor.
13. The displacement of indigenous groups expelled from their territories
and attracted by the false shine of the urban culture represents a unique
specificity of the migratory movements in Amazonia. The cases in which the
mobility of these groups takes place in territories of traditional indigenous
circulation, separated by national and international borders, calls for
trans-border pastoral care able to understand the right to the free circulation
of these peoples. Human mobility in Amazonia reveals the impoverished and
hungry face of Jesus Christ (Cf. Mt. 25:35), expelled and homeless (Cf. Lk
3:1-3), and also the feminization of migration that makes thousand of women
vulnerable to human trafficking, one of the worst forms of violence against
women and one of the most perverse violations of human rights. Human
trafficking linked to migration requires permanent network pastoral work.
14. The life of Amazonian communities not yet affected by the influx of
Western civilization, is reflected in the belief and rites about the action of
the spirits of the divinity, called in innumerable ways, with and in the
territory, with and in relation with nature (LS 16, 91, 117, 138, 240). Let us
acknowledge that for thousands of years they have looked after the earth, its
waters, and forests, and have succeeded in preserving them up to today so that
humanity can benefit from the enjoyment of the free gifts of God’s Creation.
The new pathways of evangelization must be built on dialogue with this
fundamental knowledge, in which it is manifested as seeds of the Word.
The Church in the
Amazonian Region
15. In her process of listening to the clamor of the territory and the
cry of the peoples, the Church must recall her steps. Evangelization in Latin
America was a gift of Providence that calls all to salvation in Christ. Despite
the military, political and cultural colonization, and beyond the avarice and
ambition of the colonizers, there were many missionaries who gave their life to
transmit the Gospel. The missionary sense not only inspired the formation of
Christian communities but also legislation such as the Laws of the Indies,
which protected the dignity of the Indians against the trampling of their
peoples and territories. Such abuses caused wounds in the communities and
clouded the message of Good News. Frequently the proclamation of Christ was
done in connivance with the powers that exploited the resources and oppressed
the populations. At present, the Church has the historic opportunity to
differentiate herself from the new colonizing powers, by listening to the
Amazonian peoples to be able to exercise with transparency in her prophetic
activity. Moreover, the socio-environmental crisis opens new opportunities to
present Christ in all His liberating and humanizing potential.
16. The martyrs wrote one of the most glorious pages of Amazonia. The
participation of the followers of Jesus in his Passion, Death and Glorious
Resurrection, has accompanied the life of the Church up to today, especially in
time and places in which she, because Jesus’ Gospel, lives in the midst of an
accentuated contradiction, as happens today with those who fight courageously
in favor of an integral ecology in Amazonia. This Synod acknowledges with admiration
those that fight with great risk to their lives, to defend the existence of
this territory.
Called to An Integral
Conversion
17. The listening to the clamor of the earth and the cry of the poor and
of the peoples of Amazonia with those that walk with us, calls us to a true
integral conversion, with a simple and sober life, all nourished by a mystical
spirituality in the style of Saint Francis of Assisi, example of integral
conversion with joy and Christian enjoyment (Cf. LS 20-120. A prayerful reading
of the Word of God will help us to reflect further and discover the groans of
the Spirit and will encourage us in the commitment to look after the “common
home.”
18. As Church, we, the missionary disciples, implore the grace of this
conversion which “implies to let all the consequences blossom of the encounter
with Jesus Christ in relations with the world that surrounds us” (LS 217); a
personal and communal conversion which commits us to relate harmoniously with
God’s creative work, which is the “common home,” a conversion that promotes the
creation of structures in harmony with the care of Creation; a pastoral
conversion based on synodality, which recognizes the interaction of the whole
of Creation. A conversion that leads us to be a Church going forth that enters
in the heart of all the Amazonian peoples.
19, So, the only conversion to the living Gospel, which is Jesus Christ,
will be able to unfold in inter-connected dimensions to motivate going out to
the existential, social and geographic peripheries of Amazonia. These
dimensions are the pastoral, the cultural, the ecological and the synodal,
which are developed in the following four chapters.
ZENIT’s translation by Virginia M. Forrester
Tout un
chacun peut aider
à construire une
culture de la
paix et de
la non-violence en
vivant à chaque
instant avec joie
et gratitude, avec
la conscience intime que notre
vie, la vie de tous les êtres dela création sont sacrées.
