“Querida Amazonia”: Pope Francis pleads for the Amazon

Text by: RFI Follow

It is a text that was eagerly awaited at the Vatican, the apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis which follows the synod on the Amazon last October. Its title, "Querida Amazonia", "Dear Amazon". A text in which the sovereign pontiff once again invites to protect the ecosystem of this region and the peoples who inhabit it and in which the Pope closes the door to the ordination of married men.

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with our Vatican correspondent, Eric Sénanque

In this exhortation, the pope evokes his "four dreams" for the Amazon: a social dream, a cultural dream, an ecological dream and an ecclesial dream.

As he recalled in the past, François once again invites to listen to the “ cry of the poor ” from this Amazon region. In particular, he lashes out at businesses that sow " injustice and crime " by flouting the rights of indigenous peoples and invites to ask forgiveness for the abuses done to the natives.

To respond to the challenges of the local churches, the pope calls for a stronger acculturation of the priests but does not repeat what the final document of the October synod had recommended, namely the possibility of ordering married men to compensate for the lack of vocations.

François insists rather on a better formation of the priests so that their language is more comprehensible to the Amazonian populations. Some will therefore see the closing of a door, the Vatican explains rather that it is a question of giving way to the action of God, and not to marketing strategies or communication techniques of religious influencers.

Finally, a word on the Amazonian women that the Pope wishes to highlight. " Without women, he explains in this exhortation, the intimate structure of the Church is collapsing, as many communities in the Amazon would have fallen to shreds if the women had not been there ."

► Read also : The Amazon: a laboratory for the Church of tomorrow?

I address this Exhortation to the whole world, to help awaken affection and concern for the Amazon, a land which is also “ours”. #QueridaAmazonia https://t.co/i74vN4fK1E

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• Vatican
• Pope Francis
• Amazon
• Environment

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