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The Amazon Synod has concluded today with a mass at St. Peter's, following yesterdays voting on and subsequent publication of the Synod's final document (in Spanish), addressed to Pope Francis. Since there is no English translation of the final document yet, I would here like to offer my own, rough translation of some of its paragraphs that I consider to be key (please, bear in mind that this document is not a magisterial text of the Catholic Church - that will follow in the form of Pope Francis' exhortation, expected by the end of this year):
9. The quest of indigenous Amazonian peoples for a full life, is embodied in what they call "good living" ["buen vivir"], which attains its fullness in the Beatitudes. It is about living in harmony with oneself, with nature, with human beings and with the supreme being, since there is intercommunication among the entire cosmos, where there are none who exclude nor who are excluded, and where we can forge a project leading to a full life for everybody. Such an understanding of life is characterized by the connectivity and harmony of relationships among water, territory and nature, community life and culture, God and the various spiritual forces. For them, "good living" consists in understanding the centrality of the transcendent relational character of human beings and of creation, and it presupposes "good doing." This integral way is expressed in its own way of organizing that starts with the family and the community, and that embraces a responsible use of all the goods of creation. Indigenous peoples aspire to achieve better living conditions, especially in terms of health and education, to enjoy sustainable development led and discerned by themselves and to maintain harmony with their traditional ways of life, dialoguing between the wisdom and technology of their ancestors and new ones.Worth adding to these rough translations of excerpts from the final document of the Amazon Synod are also a couple of passages from the off-the-cuff address of Pope Francis to its members during the Synod's closing session yesterday evening, where he warned against a false attachment to a dead, fake caricature of Tradition:
10. But, the Amazon today is a wounded and deformed beauty, a place of pain and violence. The attacks on nature have negative consequences for the life of peoples. This unique socio-environmental crisis was reflected in the pre-synodal listening process that pointed out the following threats against life: appropriation and privatization of natural resources, such as water itself; legal logging concessions and the arrival of illegal loggers; predatory hunting and fishing; non-sustainable mega-projects (hydroelectric, forest concessions, large-scale logging, monocultures, roads, waterways, railways and mining and oil projects); pollution caused by the extractive industry and city dumps and, above all, climate change. They are real threats that have serious social consequences associated with them: diseases derived from pollution, drug trafficking, illegal armed groups, alcoholism, violence against women, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, the sale of organs, sex tourism, the loss of the original culture and identity (language, spiritual practices and customs), the criminalization and murder of leaders and defenders of the territory. Behind all this are the economic and political interests of dominant groups, with the complicity of some governments and some indigenous authorities. The victims are the most vulnerable groups, children, youth, women and sister mother earth.
17. Listening to the clamor of the earth and the cry of the poor and the people of the Amazon with whom we walk calls us to a true integral conversion, with a simple and sober life, all fueled by a mystical spirituality in the style of Saint Francis of Assisi, an example of integral conversion lived with Christian cheerfulness and joy (cf. LS 20-12). A prayerful reading of the Word of God will help us deepen and discover the groans of the Spirit and will encourage us in the commitment to care for our "common home."
22. We want to be an Amazonian, Samaritan Church, embodied in the way in which the Son of God became incarnate: "He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases." (Mt 8:17b). He who became poor to enrich us with his poverty (2 Cor 8:9), through his Spirit, exhorts the missionary disciples of today to encounter everyone, especially the original peoples, the poor, those excluded from society and the others. We also want a Magdalen Church that feels loved and reconciled, that announces with joy and conviction Christ crucified and risen. A Marian Church that generates children to the faith and educates them with love and patience, also learning from the wealth of the people. We want to be a servant, kerygmatic, educating, inculturated church in the midst of the towns we serve.
47. The life of indigenous, mestizo, riverside dwelling [riberiños], peasant, quilombola and / or Afro-descendant peoples and traditional communities is threatened by destruction, environmental exploitation and the systematic violation of their territorial rights. It is necessary to defend the rights to self-determination, the demarcation of territories and a prior, free and informed consultation. These peoples have “social, cultural and economic conditions that distinguish them from other sectors of the national community, and which are governed totally or partially by their own customs or traditions or by special legislation” (Conv. 169 ILO, art. 1, 1a). For the Church, the defense of life, community, land and the rights of indigenous peoples is an evangelical principle, in defense of human dignity: "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (Jn 10:10b).
48. The Church promotes the integral salvation of the human person, valuing the culture of indigenous peoples, speaking of their vital needs, accompanying movements that struggle for their rights. Our pastoral service constitutes a service for the full life of the indigenous peoples, which moves us to announce the Good News of the Kingdom of God and to denounce the situations of sin, structures of death, violence and injustice, promoting intercultural, interreligious and ecumenical dialogue (cf. DAp 95).
51. Christ through the incarnation left his prerogative of God behind and became man in a concrete culture to identify with all mankind. Inculturation is the incarnation of the Gospel in indigenous cultures (“what is not assumed is not redeemed”, St. Irenaeus, cf. Puebla 400) and at the same time the introduction of these cultures into the life of the Church. In this process the peoples are protagonists and are accompanied by their agents and pastors.
55. We are all invited to approach the Amazonian peoples as equal to equal, respecting their history, their cultures, their style of "good living" (PF 06.10.19). Colonialism is the imposition of certain ways of living of some peoples on others, both economically, culturally or religiously. We reject a colonialist style evangelization. Announcing the Good News of Jesus implies recognizing the seeds of the Word already present in various cultures. The evangelization that we propose today for the Amazon, is an inculturated announcement that generates processes of interculturality, processes that promote the life of the Church with an Amazonian identity and an Amazonian face.
66. God has given us the earth as a gift and as a task, to take care of it and to answer for it; We are not her owners. Integral ecology is based on the fact that "everything is closely related" (LS 16). That is why ecology and social justice are intrinsically linked (cf. LS 137). With integral ecology a new paradigm of justice emerges, since “a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach, which must integrate justice into discussions about the environment, to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor ”(LS 49). Integral ecology, thus, connects the exercise of the care of nature with that of justice for the most impoverished and disadvantaged on earth, who are God's preferred option in revealed history.
67. It is urgent to face the unlimited exploitation of the "common home" and of its inhabitants. One of the main causes of destruction in the Amazon is predatory extractivism that responds to a logic of greed, typical of the dominant technocratic paradigm (LS 101). Faced with the pressing situation of the planet and the Amazon, integral ecology is not one more path that the Church can choose for the future in this territory, it is the only possible way, because there is no other viable path to save the region. The pillaging of the territory is accompanied by the shedding of innocent blood and the criminalization of the defenders of the Amazon.
74. It is up to all of us to be guardians of God's work. The protagonists of the care, protection and defense of the rights of peoples and the rights of nature in this region are the Amazonian communities themselves. They are the agents of their own destiny, of their own mission. In this scenario, the role of the Church is that of an ally. They have clearly expressed that they want the Church to accompany them, to walk with them, and not to impose a particular way of being, a specific mode of development that has little to do with their cultures, traditions and spiritualities. They know how to take care of the Amazon, how to love and protect it; what they need is for the Church to support them.
82. We propose to define ecological sin as an action or omission against God, against others, the community and the environment. It is a sin against future generations and manifests itself in acts and habits of pollution and destruction of the harmony of the environment, transgressions against the principles of interdependence and the breaking of solidarity networks among creatures (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 340-344) and against the virtue of justice. We also propose to create special ministries for the care of the “common home” and the promotion of integral ecology at the parish level and in each ecclesiastical jurisdiction, which have as its functions, among others, the care of the territory and the waters, as well as the promotion of the encyclical Laudato Si'. To take on the pastoral, educational and advocacy program of the Encyclical Laudato Si' in its chapters V and VI at all levels and in all structures of the Church.
87. "Synod" is an ancient word revered by Tradition; it indicates the path that members of God's people travel together; it refers to the Lord Jesus, who presents himself as “the way, the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6), and to the fact that Christians, his followers, were called “the disciples of the way” (Acts 9:2); to be synodal is to follow together "the way of the Lord" (Acts 18:25). Synodality is the way of being of the early Church (cf. Acts 15) and must be ours too. “ Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.”(1 Cor 12:12). Synodality also characterizes the Church of Vatican II, understood as the People of God, in equality and common dignity in the face of the diversity of ministries, charisms and services. She “indicates the specific way of living and acting (modus vivendi et operandi) of the Church, the People of God, which reveals and gives substance to her being as communion when all her members journey together, gather in assembly and take an active part in her evangelising mission" (...), that is, in the "involvement and participation of the whole People of God in the life and mission of the Church" (ITC, Synodality ... n. 6-7).
88. To walk together, the Church today needs conversion to a synodal experience. It is necessary to strengthen a culture of dialogue, reciprocal listening, spiritual discernment, consensus and communion to find spaces and modes of joint decision making and responding to pastoral challenges. This will foster shared responsibility in the life of the Church in a spirit of service. It is urgent to walk, propose and assume the responsibilities to overcome clericalism and arbitrary impositions. Synodality is a constitutive dimension of the Church. You cannot be a Church without acknowledging an effective exercise of the sensus fidei of the entire People of God.
102. Given the reality suffered by women, victims of physical, moral and religious violence, including femicide, the Church positions herself in defense of their rights and recognizes them as protagonists and guardians of creation and the "common home". We recognize the ministeriality that Jesus reserved for women. It is necessary to promote the formation of women in studies of biblical theology, systematic theology, canon law, valuing their presence in organizations and leadership within and outside the ecclesial environment. We want to strengthen family ties, especially with migrant women. Let us ensure their place in leadership and training contexts. We ask for a review of the Motu Propio of St. Paul VI, Ministeria quedam, so that properly trained and prepared women too may receive the ministries of the Lector and Acolyte, among others to be developed. In the new contexts of evangelization and pastoral work in the Amazon, where the majority of Catholic communities are led by women, we ask that the instituted ministry of “woman leader of the community” be created and recognized within the service of the changing demands of evangelization and care for communities.
103. In multiple consultations held in the Amazon, the fundamental role of religious and lay women in the Church of the Amazon and its communities was recognized and emphasized, given the multiple services they provide. In a high number of these consultations, the permanent diaconate was requested for women. For this reason the subject was also very present in the Synod. Already in 2016, Pope Francis had created a “Study Commission on the Diaconate of Women” which, as a Commission, reached a partial result on what the reality of the diaconate of women was like in the first centuries of the Church and its implications today. Therefore, we would like to share our experiences and reflections with the Commission and look forward to its results.
110. A community has the right to celebration, which derives from the essence of the Eucharist and its place in the economy of salvation. The sacramental life is the integration of the various dimensions of human life in the Paschal Mystery, which strengthens us. That is why living communities truly cry out for the celebration of the Eucharist. It is undoubtedly the point of arrival (climax and consummation) of the community; but it is, at the same time, a starting point: of encounter, of reconciliation, of learning and catechesis, of community growth.
111. Many of the ecclesial communities of the Amazonian territory have enormous difficulties in accessing the Eucharist. Sometimes not only months go by, but even several years before a priest can return to a community to celebrate the Eucharist, offer the sacrament of reconciliation or anoint the sick in the community. We appreciate celibacy as a gift from God (Sacerdotalis Caelibatus, 1) to the extent that this gift allows the missionary disciple, ordained to the presbyterate, to devote himself fully to the service of the Holy People of God. It stimulates pastoral charity and we pray that there may be many vocations that may live celibate priesthood. We know that this discipline "is not required by the very nature of the priesthood ... although it has a many-faceted suitability for it" (PO 16). In his encyclical on priestly celibacy, St. Paul VI maintained this law and presented theological, spiritual and pastoral motivations that support it. In 1992, the post-synodal exhortation of St. John Paul II on priestly formation confirmed this tradition in the Latin Church (PDV 29). Considering that legitimate diversity does not harm the communion and unity of the Church, but rather manifests and serves it (LG 13; OE 6) which testifies to the plurality of existing rites and disciplines, we propose establishing criteria and provisions on the part of the competent authority, within the framework of Lumen Gentium 26, to ordain suitable and recognized men of the community as priests, who have had a fruitful permanent diaconate and receive adequate training for the presbyterate, who may have a legally constituted and stable family, to sustain the life of the Christian community through the preaching of the Word and the celebration of the Sacraments in the most remote areas of the Amazon region. In this regard, some asked for a universal approach to the issue.
117. In the Catholic Church there are 23 different Rites, a clear sign of a tradition that since the first centuries has tried to inculturate the contents of the faith and its celebration through a language as coherent as possible with the mystery to be expressed. All these traditions have their origin based on the mission of the Church: "Churches of the same geographical and cultural area came to celebrate the mystery of Christ through particular expressions characterized by the culture: in the tradition of the "deposit of faith," in liturgical symbolism, in the organization of fraternal communion, in the theological understanding of the mysteries, and in various forms of holiness" (CCC 1202; see also CCC 1200-1206).
118. It is necessary that the Church, in its tireless evangelizing labor, work so that the process of inculturation of the faith is expressed in the most coherent ways, so that it can also be celebrated and lived according to the Amazonian peoples own languages. It is urgent to form translation and writing committees of biblical and liturgical texts in the languages of the different places, with the necessary resources, preserving the matter [substance] of the sacraments and adapting them to the form, without losing sight of what is essential. In this sense it is necessary to encourage music and singing, all of which is accepted and encouraged by the liturgy.
119. The new organization of the Church in the Amazon must establish a competent commission to study and discuss, according to customs and manners of the ancestral peoples, the elaboration of an Amazonian rite, which expresses the liturgical, theological, disciplinary and spiritual heritage of the Amazon, with special reference to what Lumen Gentium affirms for the Eastern Churches (cf. LG 23). This would add to the rites already present in the Church, enriching the work of evangelization, the ability to express faith in one's own culture and the sense of decentralization and collegiality that can be expressed by the Catholicity of the Church. One could also study and propose how to enrich ecclesial rites with the way in which these peoples take care of their territory and relate to their waters.
120. We conclude under the protection of Mary, Mother of the Amazon, venerated with various advocations throughout the region. Through her intercession, we ask that this Synod be a concrete expression of synodality, so that the full life that Jesus came to bring to the world (cf. Jn 10:10) reaches all, especially the poor, and contributes to the care of the "common home". May Mary, Mother of the Amazon, accompany our way; To Saint Joseph, faithful guardian of Mary and her son Jesus, we consecrate our ecclesial presence in the Amazon, a Church with an Amazonian face and missionary release.
"Some think that tradition is a museum of old things. I like to repeat what Gustav Mahler said: "Tradition is the safeguard of the future and not the custody of ashes."1 It is like the root from which the sap comes that makes a tree grow so that it bears fruit. Taking this and making it go ahead, is how the first Fathers [of the Church] understood what tradition is. Receive and walk in the same direction, with that beautiful triple dimension that Vincent of Lérins already gave in the fifth century ["Christian dogma, remaining absolutely intact and unaltered, consolidates over the years, develops over time, deepens with age ”(cf. Common Prime, 23: PL 50, 667-668)]. [...]These are themes that Pope Francis also picked up today, in the homily during the Synod's closing mass, where the following passages were most expressive:
Thinking today about these Catholic "elites", and sometimes Christian ones, but especially Catholic ones, who want to go "to every little trifle" and forget about what is "great", I remembered a phrase from Péguy, and I went to look for it. I'll try to translate it well, I think it can help us, when he describes these groups that want the "little trifle" and forget about the "thing" [itself]. “Because they don't have the courage to be with the world, they believe they are with God. Because they do not have the courage to engage in man's life choices, they believe they are fighting for God. Because they don't love anyone, they believe they love God.” I was very enlightened by it, not to fall prisoner of these selective groups that, as far as the Synod goes, will want to see what was decided on this intra-ecclesiastical point or on this other one, and who will deny the body [core] of the synod, which are the diagnoses we have made in the four dimensions [pastoral, cultural, ecological, synodal].
"The prayer of the Pharisee begins in this way: “God, I thank you”. This is a great beginning, because the best prayer is that of gratitude, that of praise. Immediately, though, we see the reason why he gives thanks: “that I am not like other men” (Lk 18:11). He also explains the reason: he fasts twice a week, although at the time there was only a yearly obligation; he pays tithes on all that he has, though tithing was prescribed only on the most important products (cf. Dt 14:22ff). In short, he boasts because he fulfils particular commandments to the best degree possible. But he forgets the greatest commandment: to love God and our neighbour (cf. Mt 22:36-40). Brimming with self-assurance about his own ability to keep the commandments, his own merits and virtues, he is focused only on himself. The tragedy of this man is that he is without love. Even the best things, without love, count for nothing, as Saint Paul says (cf. 1 Cor 13). Without love, what is the result? He ends up praising himself instead of praying. In fact, he asks nothing from the Lord because he does not feel needy or in debt, but he feels that God owes something to him. He stands in the temple of God, but he worships a different god: himself. And many “prestigious” groups, “Catholic Christians”, go along this path. [...]And, finally, during the Angelus this afternoon he picked up on Mary as the model for closeness and evangelization:
Even Christians who pray and go to Mass on Sunday are subject to this religion of the self. Let us examine ourselves and see whether we too may think that someone is inferior and can be tossed aside, even if only in our words. Let us pray for the grace not to consider ourselves superior, not to believe that we are alright, not to become cynical and scornful. Let us ask Jesus to heal us of speaking ill and complaining about others, of despising this or that person: these things are displeasing to God.[...]
[T]he root of every spiritual error, as the ancient monks taught, is believing ourselves to be righteous. To consider ourselves righteous is to leave God, the only righteous one, out in the cold. This initial stance is so important that Jesus shows it to us with an unusual comparison, juxtaposing in the parable the Pharisee, the most pious and devout figure of the time, and the tax collector, the public sinner par excellence. The judgment is reversed: the one who is good but presumptuous fails; the one who is a disaster but humble is exalted by God. If we look at ourselves honestly, we see in us all both the tax collector and the Pharisee. We are a bit tax collectors because we are sinners, and a bit Pharisees because we are presumptuous, able to justify ourselves, masters of the art of self-justification. This may often work with ourselves, but not with God. This trick does not work with God. Let us pray for the grace to experience ourselves in need of mercy, interiorly poor. For this reason too, we do well to associate with the poor, to remind ourselves that we are poor, to remind ourselves that the salvation of God operates only in an atmosphere of interior poverty."
"For the journey to come, let us invoke the Virgin Mary, venerated and loved as Queen of Amazonia. She became that not by conquering but by "inculturating herself": with the humble courage of a mother she became the protector of her children, the defender of the oppressed. Always going to the culture of the peoples. There is no standard culture, there is no pure culture that purifies the others; there is the Gospel, pure, which inculturates itself. To her, who took care of Jesus in the poor house of Nazareth, we entrust the poorest children and our common home."
1 A variant of "Tradition is not to preserve the ashes, but to pass on the flame" attributed to Mahler.
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