Report of the Relator General: Cláudio Card. Hummes

Original article posted by the Amazon Synod

The theme of the Synod we are about to begin is: “Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for an integral ecology”. A theme that takes up the great pastoral lines of Pope Francis. Outline new paths. From the beginning of his papal ministry, Francis stressed the need for the Church to walk. It cannot remain at home, taking care only of itself, enclosed within protected walls. And even less looking back with nostalgia for the past. It needs to throw open the doors, to break down the walls that surround it and to build bridges, to go out and to set out in history, in these times of epochal changes, always walking alongside everyone, especially those who live in the suburbs of ‘humanity. Outgoing Church. Why go out? To turn on lights and warm hearts that help people, communities, countries and all of humanity to find the meaning of life and history. These lights are above all the announcement of the person of Jesus Christ, dead and risen and of his kingdom, as well as the practice of mercy, charity and solidarity above all towards the poor, the suffering, the forgotten and the marginalized in today’s world , migrants and natives.

Walking makes the Church faithful to the true tradition. Not the traditionalism that remains tied to the past, but the true tradition that is the living history of the Church, in which each generation, accepting what was given to it by previous generations, such as understanding and experiencing faith in Jesus Christ, enriches tradition itself with its own experience and understanding of faith in Jesus Christ in present times.

The lights: the announcement of Jesus Christ and the tireless practice of mercy in the living tradition of the church, indicate the path to be followed in an inclusive process that invites, welcomes and encourages everyone, without exception, to walk together, towards the future, as friends and brothers, respecting our differences.

 “New paths”. New. Don’t be afraid of the new. In the 2013 Pentecost homily, Pope Francis argued: “The novelty always makes us a little scared, because we feel safer if we have everything under control, if we build, plan, and plan our life according to our schemes, our certainties, our tastes (…) we are afraid that God will make us travel along new paths, let us get out of our often limited, closed, selfish horizon, to open ourselves to his horizons. But, in the whole history of salvation, when God reveals himself, he brings newness – God always brings newness – he transforms and asks to totally trust Him “. In the Evangelii Gaudium (n. 11), the Pope shows Jesus Christ as “the eternal novelty”. He is always the new. He is always the same, the new, “yesterday, today and always” (Heb 13: 8) the new. your Spirit and it will be  a new creation and you will renew the face of the earth “. So, let’s not fear the new. We do not fear Christ, the new. This synod seeks new paths.

In his speech to the Brazilian bishops, during World Youth Day, in 2013, in Rio de Janeiro, speaking of the Amazon as “a decisive test, a test for the Church and for Brazilian society”, the Pope proposes to ” to relaunch [there, in the Amazon] the work of the Church “,” to consolidate the Amazonian face of the Church “and” to form a native clergy “, adding:” In this, please, I ask you to be courageous, to be fearless “. This necessarily reminds us of the history of the Church in that region. Since the beginning of the colonization of the Amazon, there have also been Catholic missionaries, both to assist the colonizers and to evangelize the natives at the time. Thus began the evangelizing mission of the Church in the region. Between lights and shadows – certainly more lights than shadows – the successive generations of missionaries and missionaries, especially of religious Orders and Congregations, but also diocesan and lay priests – especially women – have tried to bring Jesus Christ to the local peoples and to build Catholic communities. It is right to remember, to recognize and to exalt, in this synod, the heroic – and often martyrdom – history of all the missionaries of the past and also of those and those of today in the Panamazonia. Alongside the missionaries, there have always been numerous lay and indigenous leaders who have given a heroic witness and who have often been – and still are – killed. Furthermore, one cannot forget that the missionary church of Amazonia has distinguished itself in all its history – and still today stands out – for the great and fundamental services to the local population in the scholastic, health-care sector, in the fight against poverty and against the violation of human rights. On the other hand, the history of the Church in Panamazzonia shows that there has always been a great lack of material resources and missionaries for the full development of the communities, in particular the almost total absence of the Eucharist and other essential sacraments for the daily Christian life.

    The Amazonian face of the local Church must be consolidated, as Pope Francis said in the aforementioned address to the Brazilian bishops and also his indigenous face in indigenous communities, as urged by the Pope in Puerto Maldonado (19.01.2018). Since the announcement of the Synod, the Pope has made it clear that the Church’s relationship with indigenous peoples and the Amazon forest is one of its central themes. In fact, announcing the synod and explaining its aims, Francis said: “The main purpose of this convocation is to identify new ways to evangelize that portion of the People of God, especially the indigenous, often forgotten and without the prospect of a future serene, also because of the crisis of the Amazon forest, a lung of capital importance for our planet “(Vatican, 15.10.17).wanted to come to visit and listen to you, to be together in the heart of the Church, to join our challenges and with you to reaffirm a convinced option for the defense of life, for the defense of the earth and for the defense of cultures. ”In the phase of synodal listening , indigenous peoples have demonstrated in many ways that they want the Church’s support in defending and protecting their rights, in building their future. And they ask the Church to be a constant ally. In fact, humanity has a great debt to the indigenous peoples on the different continents of the earth and even in the Amazon. Indigenous peoples must be given back and guaranteed the right to be protagonists of their history, subjects and not objects of the spirit and action of anyone’s colonialism. Their cultures, languages, stories, identities..

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