Amazonia Synod: Are we on the threshold of some real, significant change?

As the Synod on Amazonia in Rome heads into its third and final week, there was a Laudato Si' Prayer Walk on Sunday to inaugurate the week of 'Integral Ecology'. Columban Father Peter Hughes writes from the Synod:

Greetings from Rome and a note beginning the final week of this extraordinary Synod. The perennial question arises: are we on the threshold of some real, significant change? This is very much in the air. After two years of preparation and consultation involving over 87,000 people, we have completed two weeks of dense, intense sharing in the general assembly and in group work.

The first version of final document will be presented tomorrow, and then we are in the final furlong. Right now things are looking good, and we have had excellent leadership from Pope Francis, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Cardinal Pedro Barreto, and Cardinal Michael Czerny. Yet, in these situations anything can happen, and Rome has weathered many storms.

The most significant voices are new. Women, particularly indigenous women, are speaking out loud and clear. The voice from the periphery is more free, honest, grounded in the pain and reality of violence in the Amazon. Most bishops are speaking from lived experience, and they have also brought "what we have seen and heard". Cardinals from other continents have made an impact, from Africa, Europe, India, and the USA.

The issues are on the table: destruction of the Amazon caused by the extractives, mining, oil etc; environmental degradation; climate impact; deforestation; land grabbing of indigenous peoples' territories; need for real dialogue. There has been a strong emphasis on theology of creation, incarnation of Word as culture, and history from the periphery, new ministry. There has been significant support for ordaining married men and a special ministry for women. The challenge for mission will be grounded in dialogue with the ancestral wisdom of the indigenous peoples, a new paradigm to care for the Earth, and the link between physical space and spiritual reality.

There is a real sense of count down and crunch time: timing of the Synod and Amazon rain forests burning, plus the leadership of Greta Thunberg and the Friday climate youth protests. Outside and inside the Synod there has been a real festive spirit. Yesterday a Stations of the Cross on the streets of Rome focused on the martyrs of the Amazon. This morning about 200 people - including around 40 bishops - renewed a new 'Pact of the Catacombs for the Common Home; for a Church with an Amazonian face, poor and servant, prophetic and Samaritan'. Press and media have been a major presence.

Peter Hughes is a Columban priest, based in Peru, who works closely with REPAM - the Church network for the defence of Amazonia.

Columban series of Amazon Synod articles at: www.indcatholicnews.com/search/amazonia%20synod