EarthBeat Weekly: Five years later, Amazon synod still echoes through church

Five years later, Amazon synod still echoes through church EarthBeat Weekly Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change October 19, 2024   Pope Francis walks in a procession at the start of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon at the Vatican Oct. 7, 2019. (CNS/Paul Haring) All through October, the second and final session of the synod on synodality has been playing out inside the Vatican. Elements of the multiyear process — like its widespread consultation and more inclusive list of delegates — have roots in another momentous Vatican meeting five years earlier, the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region. But the ongoing synod is just one of the ways the Amazon synod continues to reverberate throughout the Catholic Church, as Barbara Fraser, former EarthBeat editor and now a freelance journalist based in Peru, reports this week. In her extensive look at the high-level church meeting dedicated entirely to the Amazon biome and its people, she examines what has happened in the past five years in response to the gathering that Pope Francis hoped would place an "Amazonian face" upon the entire church. "It was like saying, 'Look, something new is beginning in the church.' We have to keep going in that way, walking with the people in synodality," said Immaculate Conception Sr. Joaninha Madeira, a member of an itinerant missionary team that ministers in communities along Amazonian rivers. In the must-read article, Fraser revisits the synod itself — from its goals, to its final document, to the pope's response in Querida Amazonia. In that apostolic exhortation, Francis outlined four dreams he had for the massive ecosystem that carries immense global importance. Five years after the synod, those dreams are taking shape, although much remains to be done, said Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno, who heads the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon that was formed from the synod. "I believe we're gaining greater awareness in society that we're all brothers and sisters," the cardinal told EarthBeat. Read more: Amazon synod reverberates through the Catholic Church five years later Barreto isn't the only cardinal reflecting on the Amazon synod this month. Back in Rome, Cardinal Leonardo Steiner of Manaus, Brazil, reflected too on how the Amazon synod paved the way for the synod on synodality, including the ongoing discussions about expanding the role and responsibility of all the baptized in the life and mission of the church. At a synod press briefing Tuesday, Steiner relayed, per Carol Glatz of Catholic News Service, that bishops in the Amazon region are now proposing to some very remote communities "to receive and be able to celebrate some sacraments, such as baptism, without the presence of a priest." When it comes to day-to-day ministry, "many of our women are true deaconesses, without having received the imposition of the hands," he said. Read more: Synod on Amazon opened the way for synod on synodality, cardinal says Another element of the Amazon synod was examining the plight of the biome's many Indigenous communities, who face near-daily threats to their ancestral lands while standing as critical defenders of a rainforest central to addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. This month Amazon Frontlines, which works on conservation and climate activism in the Upper Amazon, became the first South American Indigenous organization to win the world's largest humanitarian award, the Hilton Humanitarian Prize. The $2.5 million honor was presented to Amazon Frontlines for its efforts on "protecting the Amazon rainforest, which is essentially the lungs of the planet," said Peter Laugharn, president and CEO of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Global Sisters Report international correspondent Chris Herlinger was inside the Beverly Hilton ballroom where the award presentation unfolded (as was actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio). Herlinger reports that Amazon Frontlines co-founder Nemonte Nenquimo, a leader of the Waorani people, said that "The prize will help us continue to protect the Amazon and our land from the outside world." She added that Indigenous peoples and climate activists are reminding others in the human family that "Mother Earth is waking us up. We need to listen to her." Read more: Amazon Frontlines wins top humanitarian prize for defending 'lungs of the planet'     What else is new on EarthBeat:   As seas rise, farmers in Bangladesh are growing crops on the water by Stephan Uttom Rozario A centuries-old technique for growing floating beds of vegetables — adapted to put the invasive water hyacinth to use — is gaining popularity in Bangladesh amid flooding and sea rise worsened by climate change. Read more here »   US bishops, Catholic groups ask Supreme Court to protect Native American sacred site by Kate Scanlon, OSV News A diverse group of religious organizations weighed in to ask the Supreme Court to protect an Apache sacred site from destruction by a copper mining giant, including Catholic ones: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Knights of Columbus, and Notre Dame Law School's Lindsay and Matt Moroun Religious Liberty Clinic, all filed friend of the court briefs, also known as amicus briefs, in support. Read more here »   Reading the book of nature in a time of climate crisis by Daniel P. Horan We cannot afford to remain illiterate when it comes to the book of nature, writes Dan Horan, for though the chapter we find ourselves in now is indeed grim, the story is not yet over. Read more here »   A new economy for people and the planet by Christine Schenk How can ordinary Catholics support a new "faith first" economic paradigm? Read more here »   What's happening in other climate news: Trump has vowed to gut climate rules. Oil lobbyists have a plan ready. —Evan Halper and Josh Dawsey for the Washington Post The flood-protection rule that Trump rolled back —Lisa Friedman for The New York Times Trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year. Is nature's carbon sink failing? —Patrick Greenfield for the Guardian Supreme Court allows rule limiting pollution from coal-fired power plants to remain in effect —Lindsay Whitehurst for the Associated Press New report condemns increasing violence and legal retaliation against environmental activists —Keerti Gopal, Mathilde Augustin for Inside Climate News Puerto Rico closes $861M DOE loan guarantee for huge solar, battery project —Akielly Hu for Canary Media Final Beat: On Monday, the latest United Nations biodiversity summit opens in Cali, Colombia. Known as COP16, it is the first international gathering on ecological conservation since 195 nations in Montreal in 2022 adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, what's been billed as the "Paris Agreement on nature." Among its nearly two-dozen targets is a commitment by countries to conserve at least 30% of lands and waters by 2030, all toward restoring natural ecosystems from their trend toward collapse by 2050. It's only at EarthBeat where you'll read how the faith community is engaging the debates and decision-making at COP16. Be sure to stay tuned to ncronline.org/earthbeat, and sign up to receive all the news in your inbox as it unfolds. Thanks for reading EarthBeat.    Brian Roewe Environment Correspondent National Catholic Reporter broewe@ncronline.org Instagram: @broewe_ncr     Featured Advertisers   Explore spirituality and social justice at Xavier University. Graduate theology degrees and certificates. Online options. 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