There have been what seem to be justifiable concerns about the Amazon Synod. After all, it is not as if we haven’t seen Synods gone awry in recent times, for which Edward Pentin has done an excellent work of reporting diligently. Now that the Instrumentum Laboris for the Amazon Synod has been published, we might perhaps consider if certain fears for this Synod seem to be warranted or not. Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio chaired a meeting before his election as pope, which raised great concerns related to the environment (and which work was drawn on for Laudato Si.) One of the proposals from that summit was to propose taxing all nations for the oxygen they breathe, claimed to be provided by the Amazon forestation. Tax on the air we breathe? Really.
But it is not always possible to determine what is really behind language which seems harmless, or even worthy, when we don’t really know what it means. But we do know that three major concerns of some faithful clergy and laity for this Synod are 1) dropping the requirement for priestly celibacy, 2) ordination (of a sort) of women deacons and 3) changing the matter from which the Eucharist is confected to use more local starch products. Yikes x 3!
So here is the Instrumentum Laboris (click on “read rest of this entry” to read in its entirety.) See if you can find hidden among the generalizations where the threats lie. There must be threats or so many of the German bishops wouldn’t be so excited about the Synod. Or is the Instrumentum Laboris just so general that anything could be included, even if not disclosed?
For a thoughtful review, see LifeSite News article here: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/the-most-controversial-passages-from-amazonian-synod-working-doc-full-text
Instrumentum Laboris (for Amazon Synod)
Zenit Newsletter Page 1
17/06/2019-14:02
ZENIT Staff
Vatican Presents Instrumentum Laboris of
Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for
Pan-Amazon Region
The Vatican on June 17, 2019, presented the Instrumentum laboris of the Special
Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, to be held from October
6-27, 2019 and entitled Amazonia, new paths for the Church and for an integral ecology.
Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, general secretary of the Synod of Bishops, H.E. Msgr. Fabio
Fabene, under-secretary of the same Synod, and the Rev. Fr. Humberto Miguel Yáñez,
S.J., titular professor of moral theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome
presented the document a press conference held in the Holy See Press Office.
The cardinal explained the preparatory phase of the Assembly, which began in January
last year with the meeting of the REPAM (Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network) with the
general secretary of the Synod of Bishops, followed by the constitution of the preSynodal
Council of the Secretariat.
“With the publication of the preparatory Document”, he observed, “there began the broad
consultation with the people of God in the Amazon on the theme of the Synod.
The questionnaire attached to the Document offered the opportunity for a rich debate within
the seven Episcopal Conferences involved in the Amazon region, which sent their
answers to the General Secretariat. … The material resulting from this extensive
consultation was the object of careful study and classification by the General Secretariat
of the Synod of Bishops which, with the help of qualified experts, proceeded to draw up a
draft working Document”.
He went on to explain the key features of the text of the Instrumentum Laboris, which is
divided into three sections, following the following three general themes:
The voice of Amazonia, intended as listening to the territory to achieve pastoral
conversion following Evangelii Gaudium. This part treats themes of great importance in
understanding the reality of the Pan-Amazon region.
“The first theme is that of life, given that the Amazon is a source of life, of life in
abundance, which is expressed in the desire of the Amazonian peoples to ‘live well’,
even though that life is often threatened and it is necessary to defend it against
exploitation in its various forms. The second theme refers to the territory, source of life
and of God’s revelation, where everything is connected, in which there co-exist situations
of extraordinary beauty with many forces that threaten to destroy the territory, though
there is no lack of an encouraging openness to hope. The third theme is time,
understood as kairos, time of grace, of inculturation and interculturality, time of
challenges and urgency, but also a time of hope. The fourth theme is that of dialogue
with the Amazonian peoples, conceived in a missionary sense”.
Integral ecology, the theme of the second Part, underlines the reality of the Amazon
territory for an ecological conversion in accordance with the encyclical Laudato si’.
“In this sense”, the cardinal noted, “highly significant issues of the Pan-Amazon reality
are taken into consideration, such as, for example: extractive destruction; threats to and
protection of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation; the complex problem of migration,
with its causes and consequences; the ever-present and growing phenomenon of
urbanization; the social changes that affect the family and make it vulnerable; the
devastating problem of corruption, a true structural moral scourge; and the question of
integral health and integral education, conceived as encounter and conversion towards
an integral ecology”.
The third theme is “The challenges and hopes of the prophetic Church in Amazonia,
with an Amazonian and missionary face”.
The Church is thus “involved in processes of inculturation and interculturality, a church
that lives its faith through an inculturated liturgy, a church that carries out its life in the
indigenous worldview, whether within local communities or in openness to urban
evangelization, a church open to interreligious dialogue, a church that intends to use the
media at the service of integral human promotion and wants to assume more and more a
prophetic role in society “.
“Therefore”, concluded the cardinal, “the Special Assembly for the Pan-Amazonian
Region promises to be a pastoral reflection open to the recognition of diversity, listening
to the Amazonian reality with all its cultural and ecclesial aspects. The image of a Church
with an Amazonian face, courageous in its prophetic proclamation of the Gospel in
defense of Creation and of indigenous peoples, is the horizon towards which we walk
under Pope Francis’ guidance, to share an experience of fraternal communion,
collegiality, and synodality”
Fr. Humberto Miguel Yáñez S.J. focused on the topic of integral ecology and ecological
conversion, which requires “an integral conversion of the whole human being in his or
her networks of interpersonal relationships and with creation; a pastoral conversion of
the Church, called to take care of the common home as part of its evangelizing mission,
to teach its faithful after learning from the native peoples. In this way, he will be able to
fulfill his prophetic mission even with regard to the powerful of this world, many of whom
are not interested in respecting nature and the peoples that inhabit it, especially the poor,
but only in extracting as much wealth as possible, which usually ends up in the hands of
a few”.
Bishop Fabio Febene dedicated his intervention to the new ecclesial paths referred to in
the third part of the Instrumentum Laboris. “Paths that, without forgetting the great work
of the first evangelization and the pastoral work carried out so far”, he said, “must be
traveled in order to build a Church with an Amazonian and missionary countenance. A
Church that is an expression of the plurality of peoples, cultures, and ecosystems that
meet in this territory. It is precisely the human and environmental of the Amazon, where
there live indigenous peoples, ribeirinhos, Afrodescendents, and migrants who ask for
the uniqueness of the region to be highlighted in the unity of the Church.
“The new pathways are implemented through a process of inculturation, that is, the
incarnation of the Gospel in the plurality of human cultures, promoting dialogue among
them with a view to mutual enrichment. In this way, inculturation opens the way to
interculturality”.
Also:
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My husband and I watched Taylor Marshall’s TnT video on this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQUjt0uZv-g
What struck me the most is how could there be so much talk, and a Synod, about a missionary field that has not baptized even ONE person in 58 years? Yes, fifty eight years of Catholic missionaries, who were about “dialogue”, and not conversion, so: NO baptisms. It’s true!* It’s what the How can there be a need for priests at this time? Is the plan for the married priest just to sit and dialogue?
The other pitiful thing I learned is that these are extremely violent people. They ROUTINELY bury alive their eldest if it is not a boy, or if they are handicapped. They routinely rape the people whose villages they pillage, and kill their children in front of their mothers. 50% of the young men of these people are killed by murder. They seriously need to be evangelized, but instead were subjected to dialogue by the Catholic missionaries for 60 years!
Now the Vatican is dialoguing about them on a grand scale. We can expect them to be even less effective than the missionaries they sent! Something is SO WRONG here, if the Vatican is not asking for priests of heroic virtue to go and evangelize, but instead is saying all this gobbledygook. It is satanic.
_____________
* I saw that on TnT and since it sounded like such an incredible fact I verified it on an article I found on this site: https://panamazonsynodwatch.com/ [though I do not remember the exact location on that site]. Also the same fact is reiterated in this article: https://www.tfp.org/a-mission-that-baptized-no-one-in-fifty-three-years-the-flawed-evangelization-model-of-the-pan-amazonian-synod/ (that article says 53 years but I am remembering 58. Still all bad.)
Here’s what I don’t “get.” Why is a Synod on the Amazon being held at the Vatican? It seems to me to be very disrespectful of the cultures involved, and isn’t this whole upheaval called a Synod about culture and “inculturation?” Couldn’t more of the clergy and others who would be affected be able to attend, or just be involved, if it were hosted near where they live? Is this really about Amazonians or about German bishops being convenienced to work their craft?
In regard to Eliza10’s post: It’s astounding that missionaries have been in the Amazon for 60 years and there hasn’t been one baptism in 58 years!
I think the situation needs to be addressed as to why none of these people were able to commit to Christ and His Church and be baptized in 58 years.