The Latin American Church through the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM) has released a statement titled, “We raise our voice for the Amazon”, expressing their concern for the seriousness of the fires ravaging the Pan-Amazon region. They described the incident as a “tragedy that is not only of local, not even regional impact, but of planetary proportions”.
The statement released on August 22 comes on the heels of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region in October. Pope Francis convened a Special Synodal Assembly on the Pan-Amazon in 2017 “to find new ways for the evangelisation of that portion of the People of God, especially the indigenous, often forgotten and without a perspective of a good future, also for the cause of the crisis of the Amazonian forest, lung of fundamental importance for our planet”.
CELAM said that with the massive burning of the Amazon, the hope of the Synod “is now tarnished by the pain of this natural tragedy”. Quoting the Synod’s preparatory document (instrumentum laboris), the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean said: “The Amazon is a region with a rich biodiversity, it is multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious, a mirror of all humanity that, in defense of life, demands structural and personal changes of all human beings, States and the Church. This reality goes beyond the strictly ecclesiastical field of the Amazon, because it focuses on the universal Church and also on the future of the entire planet.”
They urged the governments of the Amazonian countries, especially Brazil and Bolivia, the United Nations and the international community “to take serious measures to save the lungs of the world”. Recalling the words of Pope Francis in his homily for the beginning of the Petrine Ministry in 2013, the bishops called on all those who occupy positions of economic, political and social responsibility, and all people of good will to “be custodians of creation, of God’s design inscribed in nature, guardians of the other, of the environment; let’s not let the signs of destruction and death accompany the path of this world of ours.”
In July the Jesuit Conference of Provincials in Latin America and the Caribbean launched an awareness and fundraising campaign to protect the Amazon. The Jesuits through Servicio Jesuita a la Panamazonía has been working to defend and promote environmental sustainability and the indigenous communities in the Amazon through social, educational and pastoral projects in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Guyana.
Click here to read the full statement of the Latin American Episcopal Council.