Religious institutions and faith-based organizations with a presence in the United States support the people of the Amazon and welcome the Synod on the Amazon as an important opportunity for the entire Church to discern how best respond to “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” (Laudato Si’, #49).
Statements of support from these organizations are included below.
Catholic Climate Covenant
Catholic Climate Covenant offers prayerful support this month for the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region. The Covenant is grateful for the Synod’s focus on key themes, especially its emphasis on respect for indigenous peoples who live at the epicenter of the global climate and ecological crises, and whose example provides many solutions to these crises.
You can read the full statement here.
Franciscan Action Network
St. Francis is the Patron Saint of Ecology and Franciscans hold a deep relational understanding of creation, seeing all creatures as brothers and sisters. We are steadfast in our work to care for our sister Mother Earth, acknowledging all creation as emanating from the goodness of God and existing as a “footprint” of God.
You can read the full statement here.
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
The Synod is an opportunity for the Church to engage, through encounter and dialogue, in a deeper level of ecological conversion, a spirituality of communion, and a commitment to living in peace with each other and with nature.
You can read the full statement here.
Missionary Society of St. Columban
As an international missionary Society, we see the Amazonian web of life extending to the whole world. The Amazonian cry for justice, healing and peace is global and so animates our work in Asia, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas. We hope that Amazon Synod becomes a model for dialogue in other parts of the world in places where biomes are especially fragile.
You can read the full statement here.
Order of Friars Minor
Those of us who live far away from the Amazon receive a vital call regarding what comes from that area. The search and extraction of gold from rivers and other places, continuously produce destruction and pollution of the environment. It is good to remember that this precious metal is also the cause of violence, slavery, smuggling, robbery and theft in indigenous territories. The same happens with wood, illegally removed from the forest, which passes through corrupt means and then reaches the “legalised” international market. In silence, there is also the “bio-piracy” that steals various products and plant and animal species from nature, together with the millennial knowledge of the Amazon peoples. Many other products are exported as commodities, whose production requires the complete eradication of the forest (see Preparatory document).
You can read the full statement here.
Pax Christi International
The indigenous communities that inhabit this region have taken care of Mother Earth for centuries and have incorporated, within the concept of “Good Living” (or Buen Vivir), the practice of active nonviolence as a way of life and an essential characteristic for change in the historical paradigm. Pope Francis alluded to this in Puerto Maldonado, Peru and it is affirmed in the working document. This approach opposes a concept of “development” which attacks the environment and the communities that inhabit this region.
ROAR (Religious Organization Along the River)
Just as the world has failed to listen to the voices of the indigenous peoples of Amazonia, we confess that our work has not attended to the voices of indigenous peoples of the Hudson River Valley. We commit ourselves as an organization to a deeper listening and a closer collaboration going forward.
You can read the full statement here.
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas
The Sisters of Mercy stand in solidarity with communities, especially indigenous communities, harmed by extractive industries such as mineral and coal mining, oil and gas drilling, pipelines and other infrastructure, mega-hydroelectric dams, large-scale corporate agriculture and even, in some cases, renewable energy projects. Most recently, in preparation for the Synod, we have been engaging with REPAM, the Church’s Amazonian network, and Churches and Mining, which addresses concerns throughout Latin America.
Justice Peace & Integrity of Creation Commission
We came together in response to the ongoing crisis concerning the impact of mining activities on the environment and human rights and the role of church organizations. In the spirit and light of the Synod on the Amazon which is creating new paths for the Church, we are grateful and inspired by the blessings and fruits of creation: the land that gives us food, the rivers and seas that nourish the earth and all that nurtures life itself. We celebrate the interconnectedness and the sacredness of creation while recognizing that the earth’s goods are finite and some of them are nonrenewable
You can read the full statement in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration
Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration has declared a Revolution of Goodness by committing to action that demonstrates how we are interconnected, united in Christ. We are committed to building bridges of relationships that stretch us to be people of encounter who stand with all suffering in our Earth Community. That is why FSPA joins other religious congregations in a global call to prayer for the Vatican’s October 2019 Synod, “The Amazon: new paths for the Church and for integral ecology” in Rome. During the Amazon Synod, bishops from around the world are gathered to consider the dire ecological needs of the Amazon region and its people.
You can read the full statement here.