If you’ve been following Catholic news much over the past year, you have no doubt heard
a lot about the Church’s interest in the Amazon peoples.
After convening a synod in Rome, Pope Francis promulgated an apostolic exhortation called
Querida Amazona to offer a pastoral plan of action.
Which… is getting a lot of press for something it did not address, namely, the issue of married
men becoming priests.
And while that is certainly an important question, and the pope’s silence on the issue has
left some disappointed, what the document does say is worth understanding.
What does Pope Francis want to teach us, and why is it important for those far from the
Amazon?
This is Catholicism in Focus.
—
After a
brief explanation of the synodal process and offering some basic background material, Pope
Francis outlines his purpose in writing at the conclusion of the introduction with four
dreams:
I dream of an Amazon region that fights for the rights of the poor, the original peoples
and the least of our brothers and sisters, where their voices can be heard and their
dignity advanced.
I dream of an Amazon region that can preserve its distinctive cultural riches, where the
beauty of our humanity shines forth in so many varied ways.
I dream of an Amazon region that can jealously preserve its overwhelming natural beauty and
the superabundant life teeming in its rivers and forests.
I dream of Christian communities capable of generous commitment, incarnate in the Amazon
region, and giving the Church new faces with Amazonian features.
Clearly… this is going to be an aspirational document.
Francis is not meaning to clarify dogma or condemn heresies.
He’s all about inspiring us to reach higher.
The four dreams offer the basis for the document, each representing a chapter in the document:
a social dream, cultural dream, ecological dream, and ecclesial dream.
Chapter 1, his social dream, seeks to address the immense poverty facing the people of the
Amazon.
He writes, “Our dream is that of an Amazon region that can integrate and promote all
its inhabitants, enabling them to enjoy “good living”.”
(8)
Right out of the gate, we read echoes of his encyclical Laudato Si.
In saying that “a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach,” he highlights,
once again, the interconnectedness of all life.
To be pro-life is to integrate the cries of both the poor and ecological disasters
Specifically, he calls our attention to the incredible imbalance of power in the region,
how the few profit off of the backs of the many, that the weak have no means of defending
themselves.
Like Moses in Egypt, Jesus in the temple, and God in the face of injustice, he exhorts
us to feel outrage at what is being done to the poor, and to change our lives for their
sake.
Echoing previous popes, he reminds the Church of the importance of one of the main tenants
of Catholic Social Teaching: the preferential option for the poor.
In everything we do, we must ask, “How will this effect the weakest?
What do they need from us?”
In order to answer these questions, Francis calls us to engage the poor as our principle
dialogue partners—it is not enough to do things for the poor… we must do it with
them, and empower them to do it for themselves.
Too often we look to the poor and marginalized and jump right in to be their saviors.
We must spend more time learning from them.
Chapter two delves into the culture of the Amazon peoples, something that is worth preserving.
Francis writes, We do this because the people have within themselves a treasure of culture
that the Church and world needs.
It must be our goal, not to colonize, but to help bring out the best of itself.
He wants to make it clear to all Christians that these are not uncivilized savages—rather,
he writes, “They are simply heirs to different cultures and other forms of ciliation that
in earlier times were quite developed.”
For those times that we in the developed world might look with condescension or arrogance,
he reminds us that, “In each land and its features, God manifests himself and reflects
something in his inexhaustible beauty” and that engaging with different cultures
helps us to realize the deficiencies of our own culture.
“They also offer perspectives that help uncover our own darker aspects.
Amazonian peoples have “developed a cultural treasure marked by a strong sense of community.”
In this regard, Francis points to how many of our cultures are commercialized, disconnected,
and individualistic, traits not exhibited in the Amazon communities.
Of course, the most obvious factor in developing this social and cultural world is its physical
location amidst overwhelming ecological beauty, pointing to chapter three, Francis’ ecological dream.
Directly related to Laudato Si, Francis again reminds us that the immense complexity of
the Amazonian ecosystem teaches us that “humanity… must be increasingly conscious of the links
between natural ecology and human ecology.”
In other words, everything is connected.
Our life is dependent on the earth, and the earth can benefit greatly from us.
Unlike much the developed world, the Amazonian people’s understanding of this connection
prohibits their abuse of the natural world.
For them, “To abuse nature is to abuse our ancestors, our brothers and sisters, creation
and the Creator, and to mortgage the future.”
Because of this, Francis stresses a need for greater urgency in caring for our common home.
The earth cries out in agony just as the poor do.
It is time to love the earth, not just use it.
This can only be done when we learn to stop and admire the beauty around us.
When we do this, it is clear that major changes need to happen.
“An integral ecology cannot be content simply with fine-tuning technical questions or political,
juridical and social decisions.”
We need new habits, and a new relationship with the earth.
All of this culminates in the final chapter of the letter in which Pope Francis outlines
his ecclesial dream: a Church that recognizes and promotes the incarnation of the Gospel
in the Amazonian people.
It is not enough, Francis notes, to simply care for the poor, maintain a culture, or
save the earth: “How sad it would be if they were to receive from us a body of teachings
or a moral code, but not the great message of salvation…
If we devote our lives to their service, to working for the justice and dignity that they
deserve, we cannot conceal the fact that we do so because we see Christ in them and because
we acknowledge the immense dignity that they have received from God, the Father who loves
them with boundless love.”
The Amazonian people have already received the Gospel and made it their own.
Despite the lack of priests and regular sacraments, women in particular have baptized, catechized,
prayed and acted as missionaries for years.
He praises them for their commendable work of the Gospel.
But the people need more.
While any lay person can do these things when absolutely necessary, it is only a priest
who can hear confessions and celebrate mass.
Far too often the people are left without these central foundations of faith.
Francis writes that the Church needs to place more emphasis in seminaries and ongoing formation
on the need for missionaries, priests who will serve a Church is desperate need.
But he exhorts such men to recognize the beauty of the faith that already exists, and cautions
against the tendency to believe that the Church has but one cultural expression, thus dismissing
spontaneous religious practices of faith as superstitious or pagan.
“It is possible to take up an indigenous symbol in some way, without necessarily considering
it idolatry.
A myth charged with spiritual meaning can be used to advantage and not always considered
a pagan error.”
“The history of the Church shows that Christianity does not have simply one cultural expression”,
and “we would not do justice to the logic of the incarnation if we thought of Christianity
as monocultural and monotonous.”
Those who fail to recognize this run the risk of destroying what God has planted.
“The greatest danger would be to prevent them from encountering Christ by presenting
him as an enemy of joy or as someone indifferent to human questions and difficulties.”
And I think this is really what’s at stake here.
As much as the media played up the question of potentially ordaining married men in this
region, the central question for Francis regarding the Church in the Amazon has nothing to do
with ordination, and everything to do with inculturation.
It’s a question of how the Church evangelizes another culture, and how that culture then
expresses the truth of the Gospel in its own unique way.
Being a follower of Christ is not tied to a particular language or cultural expression.
Our very identity as Catholics recognizes the universal nature of the Church.
What Pope Francis is calling our attention to in the Amazon and what we can take into
our own lives, is that faith must be integrated into every aspect of our lives: society, culture,
environment, and Church structures.
In each place and in each time with each people, the Church not only can, but must allow God
to take on flesh, expressing faith in a new and ever growing way.