{"id":16352,"date":"2020-03-04T20:33:16","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T09:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/?p=16352"},"modified":"2020-03-10T14:40:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T03:40:08","slug":"why-pope-franciss-letter-beloved-amazon-resonates-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/?p=16352","title":{"rendered":"Why Pope Francis\u2019s letter, \u2018Beloved Amazon\u2019, resonates in Australia."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bruce Duncan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Posted 10 March 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\nparts of Pope Francis\u2019s response to the recent Amazon Synod could have been\nwritten for Australia, especially about European colonisation of the New World,\nthe destruction of indigenous peoples and their cultures, the appropriation of\ntheir lands and the despoliation of natural resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francis urges\nrenewed efforts to respect indigenous cultures and to appreciate their values,\nspirituality and customs, and in particular, to learn from their care and\nunderstanding of nature and the environment that has sustained them over\nthousands of years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He dreams\n\u2018of an Amazon region that fights for the rights of the poor, the original\npeoples and the least of our brothers and sisters, where their voices can be\nheard and their dignity advanced.\u2019 He wants an Amazon with \u2018its distinctive\ncultural riches, where the beauty of our humanity shines forth\u2026\u2019 and the\n\u2018overwhelming natural beauty\u2019 and \u2018teeming life\u2019 are preserved. He hopes that committed\nChristian communities give \u2018the Church new faces with Amazonian features.\u2019 (#7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ecological & social disaster in the Amazon<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The\nAmazon is \u2018facing an ecological disaster\u2019, which is also a social one, where its\ninhabitants \u2013 including those of African descent and the river people \u2013 cannot\nbe ignored. Many are experiencing \u2018the worst forms of enslavement, subjection\nand poverty\u2019. Francis insists that crimes and injustices against the Amazonian inhabitants\ncontinue still, as powerful economic interests occupy indigenous lands for\ntimber or massive mines, and destroy ancient forests to raise cattle and crops\nfor international markets. \u2018The imbalance of power is enormous; the weak have\nno means of defending themselves, while the winners take it all\u2026\u2019 (#13)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We need\nto feel outrage\u2019, as did Moses, Jesus and God in the face of injustice. The\ncruelty in the colonisation of the Americas should make us more sensitive to\n\u2018current forms of human exploitation, abuse and killing\u2019. Colonisation has not\nended, he says, but changed into a disguise, where a minority profit from the\nunscrupulous plundering of the Amazon. Francis recognises instances when even\nmissionaries failed in the past to protect the indigenous peoples, and he\n\u2018humbly asks forgiveness\u2019. (#19).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francis\nencourages a new dialogue in the Amazon, with the indigenous peoples \u2018our\nprincipal dialogue partners, those from whom we have the most to learn, to whom\nwe need to listen out of a duty of justice, and from whom we must ask\npermission before presenting our proposals.\u2019 (#26). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global implications<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Pope Francis in Philadelphia 2015.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In his\nresponse to the October Amazon Synod, Pope Francis reiterates his appeal for\nthe world to address the growing threat from climate change, and to tackle the\ndominant pattern of globalisation which is despoiling much of our natural world\nwhile channeling immense riches into the grasp of tiny elites leaving vast\nnumbers in poverty and hunger. As frequent references in the document indicate,\nFrancis amplifies his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si\u2019<\/em> with specific examples\nfrom the Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pope\nissued his response, Querida Amazonia<\/em> <\/a>(Beloved Amazon) as a 15,000-word\nexhortation addressed to \u2018the People of God and All Persons of Good will\u2019 on 2\nFebruary 2020. Indicating the urgency of the issues, Querida Amazonia<\/em>\nwas actually completed by 27 December, unusually soon after the Synod document\nitself, which was dated only two months earlier on 26 October 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning the process of synodality<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In this\nresponse, Francis says he does not duplicate the final document from\nthe Amazon Synod <\/a>but aims\nto \u2018synthesise some of the larger concerns\u2019 to guide a \u2018creative and fruitful\nreception of the entire synodal process\u2019 (#2). The emphasis on process is\ncritical in his thinking. As he explained in his 2013 document, The Joy of\nthe Gospel,<\/em> we need good processes of listening, dialoguing and engaging\nwith today\u2019s pressing issues, and discerning how the Holy Spirit is calling for\ngenuine solidarity in our common global home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nAmazon Synod is unique in focusing so closely on a geographic region. It\nfollowed an extensive two-year consultation throughout the nine countries of\nAmazonia involving more than 60,000 people. Discussions centred on how God\u2019s\nHoly Spirit was moving hearts and minds, with specific reference to protecting\nthe Amazon forests and their peoples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was\nsome confusion about the status of the final Synod document. Though he quotes from\nthe Preparatory Document<\/a>, Francis does not quote from its\nfinal version, which he did \u2018officially present\u2019, because, he says, \u2018I would\nencourage everyone to read it in full\u2019. He urges Catholics in the Amazon to\napply its conclusions and he hopes it will inspire everyone of good will. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A question of ordaining married men & women deacons, or something \u2018not yet even imagined\u2019?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Many\ncommentators were surprised that the Pope did not endorse the ordination of \u2018viri\nprobati<\/em>\u2019 (married lay men who have been leaders in their communities) or of\nwomen in ministry as deacons, as requested by over two-thirds of the bishops in\nthe Amazon Synod held in Rome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto Austen Ivereigh<\/a>, Francis was \u2018deeply troubled\nover the issue and couldn\u2019t see an obvious way through\u2019. He felt there was not\nenough consensus on the issue, and that the Holy Spirit was urging a different\nresolution, \u2018perhaps something not yet even imagined\u2019 (#104). Looking beyond\nthe customary hierarchy of laity, deacons and priests, Francis suggests a new\nway of structuring the Church in the Amazon, empowering mature lay women and\nmen \u2018endowed with authority\u2019 for leadership roles within their cultural\ncommunities, roles which were stable, publicly recognised and commissioned by\nthe bishop (#94). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francis\nwrites that these charisms have \u2018already poured out\u2019 in the Amazon. He urges\nthat the Church be \u2018open to the Spirit\u2019s boldness\u2019 and help develop \u2018the growth\nof a specific ecclesial culture that is distinctively lay\u2019. Almost all the\nCatholic communities in the Amazon are run by lay people, of whom 60 per cent\nare women. Francis is gently pushing the Church into a different type of\ngovernance and co-responsibility, with lay men and women playing much greater\nroles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francis\naddresses his appeal to everyone alarmed about the catastrophic effects of\nglobal warming and the extreme inequality within and between countries. He sees\nthese as profoundly moral issues which threaten our future as human beings and\nimperil the life support systems of the planet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the crisis in the Amazon shows, and as the recent terrible fires in Australia in 2019-2020 confirm, our remarkable Indigenous Australians have much to teach non-Indigenous peoples about how to care sustainably for the natural world around us, thus ensuring our own future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. Anna & Michal. flickr cc.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bruce Duncan Posted 10 March 2020 Many parts of Pope Francis\u2019s response to the recent Amazon Synod could have been written for Australia, especially…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[57,36,40],"tags":[507,511,510,163,508,446,95,509],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16352"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16463,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16352\/revisions\/16463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialpolicyconnections.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}