l ''And he who sat upon the throne said, "Behold, I make al things new.” Also he said, “Write this: for these words are trustworthy and true!" (Openb. 21, 5) [b:Openb. 21, 5]
After a long synodal joumey of listening to the People of God in the Church of the Amazon, inaugurated by Pope Francis during his visit to the Amazon, January 19, 2018, the Synod was held in Rome [d:459] in a fraternal meeting of 21 days in October 2019. The climate was one of open, free and respectful exchange between bishops, pastors in the Amazon, missionaries, lay people and representatives of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon. We were witnesses participating in an ecclesial event marked by the urgency of the theme that calls for opening new paths 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.
The Synod was held in a fratemal and prayerful atmosphere. Several times the interventions were accompanied by applause, songs and all with deep contemplative silences. Outside the synodal hall, there was a notable presence of people from the Amazonian world who organized acts of support in different activities, processions, such as the opening with songs and dances accompanying the Holy Father, from Peter's tomb to the synodal hall. The Via Crucis of the martyrs of the Amazon had a major impact upon those involved as well as a massive presence of the international media.
2. All participants have expressed a keen awareness of the dramatic situation of destruction affecting the Amazon. This results in the disappearance of the territory and its inhabitants, especially indigenous peoples. The Amazon rainforest is a "biological heart" for the increasingly threatened earth. It is a rampant race to death. It is scientifically proven that the disappearance of the Amazon biome will have a catastrophic impact on the planet as a whole!
3. The synodal joumey of the People of God in the preparatory stage involved the whole Church in the territory, the Bishops, missionaries, members of the Churches of other Christian communities, lay people, and many representatives of indigenous peoples, around the consultation document that inspired the Instrumentum Laboris. lt emphasizes the importance of listening to the voice of the Amazon, moved by the major breath of the Holy Spirit in the cry of the wounded earth and its inhabitants, The active participation of more than 87,000 people, from different cities and cultures, as well as numerous groups from other ecclesial sectors and the contributions of academies, and civil society organizations in the specific central themes, were recorded.
4. The celebration of the Synod [d:459] managed to highlight the integration of the voice of the Amazon with the voice and feelings of participating pastors. It was a new experience of listening to discem the voice of the Spirit who leads the Church to new paths of presence, evangelization and intercultural dialogue in the Amazon. The claim, which arose in the preparatory process, that the Church was an ally of the Amazon, was strongly affirmed. The celebration ends with great joy and hope of embracing and practicing the new paradigrn of integral ecology, the care of the "common home" and the defence of the Amazon.
CHAPTER I
AMAZON: FROM LISTENING TO INTEGRAL CONVERSION
"Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as a crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb" (Openb. 22, 1) [b:Openb. 22, 1]
5. "Cruist points to the Amazon" (Paul VI, attrib.). He frees everyone from sin and bestows on them the dignity of the sons and daughters of God. Listening to the Amazon, in the spirit of a disciple and in the light of the Word of God and of Tradition, leads us to a profound conversion of our plans and structures to Cruist and his Gospel.
THE VOICE AND SONG OF THE ÁMAZON AS A MESSAGE OF LIFE
6. In the Amazon, life is inserted, linked and integrated to the territory, which, as a vital and nourishing physical space, forms the basis, support, and limits of life. The Amazon, also called Panamazonia, is a vast territory with an estimated population of 33,600,000 inhabitants, of whom between 2 and 2.5 million are indigenous. Tuis area, made up of the Amazon River basin and all its tributaries, spreads over 9 countries: Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. The Amazon region is essential for the distribution of rainfall in the South American area and contributes to the great movements of air around the planet; it is currently the second most vulnerable area in the world in relation to climate change due to direct human activity.
7. The water and land of this region nourish and sustain the nature, life and cultures of hundreds of communities, indigenous, Afro-descendant, mestizo, settlers, river-dwellers and urban dwellers. Water, the source of life, has a rich symbolic meaning. In the Amazon region, the water cycle is the great connection. It connects ecosystems, cultures and the development of the territory.
8. The Amazon region is a multi-ethnic and multicultural reality. The different peoples know how to adapt to the territory. Within each culture, they built and rebuilt their worldview, their signs and meanings, and the vision of their future. In indigenous cultures and peoples, ancient practices and mythical explanations coexist with modem technologies and challenges. The faces that inhabit the Amazon are very varied. In addition to the native peoples, there is a great mixture bom with the encounters and misunderstandings of different peoples.
9. As the Amazonian indigenous peoples seek life in abundance this takes the form of what they call 'good living', and is fully realized in the Beatitudes. It is a matter of living in harmony with oneself, with nature, with human beings and with the supreme being, since there is intercommunication within the whole cosmos, where there are neither exclusions nor those who exclude, and where we can forge a project of full life for all. Such an understanding of life is characterized by the connectedness and harmony of relationships between water, territory and nature, community life and culture, God and various spiritual forces. For them, 'good living' means understanding the centrality of the transcendent relational character of human beings and of creation, and implies 'good acting' too. This integral way is expressed in their own way of organizing that starts from the family and the community, and that embraces a responsible use of all the goods of creation. Indigenous peoples aspire to better living conditions, especially in hcalth and education, They want to enjoy the sustainable developmcnt that they themselves choose and shape and that maintains harmony with their traditional ways of life, in a dialogue between their ancestral wisdom and technology and the new ones acquired.
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