Querida Amazonia (Beloved Amazon) Resource Kit
"Querida Amazonia" Beloved Amazon is the title of Pope Francis’s new document reflecting on the results of the special Synod of the Amazon in October 2019. This was the first Synod to be based on a region, which also has special significance for the Pope.
It will become apparent to the reader that the document is steeped in Francis’ previous writings, highlighting especially his signature 2015 encyclical Laudato Si' with its critique of extreme and growing inequality globally and warning of catastrophic threats from climate change.
In Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis continues to urge the church to promote an ‘integral ecology’ that recognises the connections between the environmental crisis and the human suffering caused by injustice and indifference affecting global economic policies and practices.
In Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis continues to urge the church to promote an ‘integral ecology’ that recognises the connections between the environmental crisis and the human suffering caused by injustice and indifference affecting global economic policies and practices.
A document which speaks to the topics of ecological conversion’, indigenous rights, a greater role for women in the Church as well as the need to promote an inculturated spirituality, will no doubt evoke a wide range of reactions and discussions. These discussions, even if uncomfortable, are at the core of Pope Francis’s push towards processes of Synodality. This requires the Church to treasure and celebrate the rich diversity of charisms, and guided by the Holy Spirit, to strive to bring the Gospel more fully alive in different cultures.