Dear Pope Francis,
We send you all our gratitude, trust and joy! As an association of Ignatian lay faithful throughout the world, the members of the Christian Life Community (CLC), would like to express our great joy for the celebration of the Amazonian Synod.
A universal message
We are aware that this Synod transcends that beloved region and involves all of us, because the Amazon affects the entire planet. It is a universal message that, Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, takes place in each of our homes, neighborhoods and countries. Although the pain caused by the different resistances affects us, the joy of the Amazon Church fills us. We feel that the entire universal Church is being transformed by the action of the Holy Spirit in this synodal process.
Listening to the Voice of the People of the Earth
Around the world we perceive how the great majority of Humanity feels a deep joy for the Amazonian Synod. There is a silent Christian majority that does not usually have a voice in the Church. Although sometimes only those with the largest loudspeaker are heard, the silent Church is made up of billions of persons. Thank you, dear Pope Francis, for hearing, and being their voice. An Integral Ecology makes us hear the voice of the Earth and the voice of the people of the Earth. Thank you because this Amazonian Synod is bringing the voice of the people of the Earth to the center and the heart of the Church.
The Amazonian Spirit Deepens the Synodal Church
Perhaps the most relevant event in all these years is that many human beings have sensed an invitation to look at Jesus and follow Him along His path. In believing Jesus when he says, “I am the Way,” we find ourselves on a synodal path with him. We trust that this sense of synodality will deepen the Church in following Jesus’ way, making it more open, inclusive, welcoming and audacious.
We know the difficulties of the synodal path. The pyramidal structures, the temptation to please the powerful, the clericalism, the risk of following and serving only our own purposes, leaving people – especially the poor, weak and suffering – in the gutter, etc. Thank you, because this Amazonian Synod strengthens our notion of being God’s people walking together, leaving no one behind.
The urgency of uniting everything in God
Laudato Si’ and the Amazon Synod have made us profoundly feel the urgency to make everything one in the Father, care for the gifts we have been given, and multiply them so that all may be fulfilled. We fully embrace the appeal to care for our common home, “the patrimony of all humanity and the responsibility of everyone.” Burning and destroying the Earth is to squander ourselves as the Prodigal Son squandered his inheritance Thank you, Your Holiness, for the prophetic message of Integral Ecology.
In the next 50 years, the whole world will consider the Doctrine of Integral Ecology as a natural outcome, just as we now consider natural the Church’s commitment to social issues and the welfare of workers during the nineteenth century. We are experiencing that Integral Ecology is at the center of the Holy Spirit’s prophetic message in this twenty-first century.
We also feel the loud noise made by the messages of the powerful. It is not limited to the political arena, but it also seeks to tame the Church into servitude. These same power figures threaten and slander from the same places. They desire, as Ignatius of Loyola used to say, to have God come where they want. Thank you, Your Holiness, for not allowing the Church to be used for the interests of the powerful. Our only separation from Christ would be separating ourselves from the poor and the Earth.
We are particularly committed to the ecological conversion of people and institutions. We know the importance of offering experiences of encounter and discernment in this fundamental area for Humanity. Integral Ecology is about healing the foundation of all our relationships. That is how we feel, and we are joyful that the Amazonian Synod will offer a deeper understanding and experience.
Sharing Jesus in the diversity and plurality of humanity
In a world community as large and diverse as CLC, the message of inculturation and the plurality of people and their cultures has touched us very deeply. This message of the Amazonian Synod is not only for the diversity of ethnicities of the Pan-Amazonian territory, but it takes place in the increasingly diverse heart of all our cities and communities.
The world is like the Pentecost Square: full of people with a vast diversity of beliefs and ways of life. The Holy Spirit impels us to go out and share God using the Language of the Heart. We believe that this is the message of the Amazonian Synod.
There is another great call that we have felt in the preparatory work of the Synod: getting to know Jesus alongside people in the language of their life, listening to how the Holy Spirit has worked in those cultures over centuries… All regions and ethnic groups that are part of CLC wish to renew our commitment to the inculturation of the Gospel and the path to the Incarnation. We reaffirm our decision to have discerned and chosen Ecology as one of the four frontiers of our action. Integral Ecology is an inseparable part of seeking God in all things. This Synod is a gift that encourages us to continue deepening, sharing and renewing our commitment “in bearing witness to those human and Gospel values within the Church and society which affect (…) the integrity of creation.” (CLC General Principle n.4).
We are very grateful to you, Your Holiness, to the Synod Fathers and Mothers, and to all those who are making this Synod possible. We are in communion with everyone at the Synod and are confident that they will encourage us to build the Kingdom of God with more boldness and joy. We pray to God every day for the Synod and for you: for your health, for your reforms and, above all, for your joy.
With gratefulness, we are at your disposal for anything- each and every CLC member, including us who serve in the World Executive Council:
Denis Dobbelstein, Ann Marie Brennan, Catherine Waiyaki, Fernando Vidal, Daphne Ho, Diego Pereira, Najat Sayegh, Alwin Macalalad, Rojean Macalalad and Manuel Martínez.
(original in Spanish)
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