Pope Leo XIV sent his representative to Pan-Amazon Bishops' Meeting Cardinal Michael Czerny. He also had a message for the bishops, signed by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin, which was delivered this Monday, August 18th, the second day of the event that ends next Wednesday, 20th, in Bogota, Colombia. It was convened by the Amazon Ecclesial Conference or CEAMA.
According to Vatican News, over 90 bishops from 9 Amazon countries are gathered in synodal spirit to discern about the pastoral and missionary challenges in the region, where more than 33 million people live, among them indigenous, rivers, peasants and afro-descendants. This is the first major episcopal meeting since the 2019 Synod for the Amazon.
Pope Leo XIV's telegram was sent to Cardinal Pedro Ricardo Barreto Jimeno, president of the Amazon Ecclesiastical Conference, an organization that brings together, besides the episcopal, also laymen, pastoral agents, women and indigenous women.
FULL TEXT Message of POPE LEO XIV to the BISHOPS
His Most Reverend Eminence
Card. Pedro Ricardo Barreto Jimeno, S.J.
President of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon
The Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, cordially greets your Eminence, as well as the participants in the meeting of the bishops of the Amazon, being held from August 17 to 20 in Bogotá.
His holiness thanks you for your efforts made to promote the greater good of the church in favour of the faithful of the beloved Amazonian territory and, taking into account what was learned in the synod regarding the listening to and participation of all vocations in the church, he exhorts you to seek, on the basis of the unity and collegiality proper to an “episcopal body” (cf. Final document of the special synod for the Amazon, 115), ways to help diocesan bishops and apostolic vicars concretely and effectively carry out their mission. in this regard, he invites you to keep in mind three dimensions that are interconnected in the pastoral work of that region: the mission of the church to proclaim the gospel to all (cf. Decree Ad gentes, 1), the just treatment of the peoples who dwell there, and the care of the common home.
It is necessary that Jesus Christ, in whom all things are recapitulated (cf. Eph 1,10), be announced with clarity and immense charity among the inhabitants of the Amazon, so that we may strive to give them fresh and pure the bread of the Good News and the heavenly food of the Eucharist, the only means to truly be the people of God and the body of Christ.
In this mission, we are moved by the certainty, confirmed by the history of the church, that wherever the name of Christ is preached, injustice recedes proportionally, for, as the apostle Paul asserts, all exploitation of man by man disappears if we are able to receive one another as brothers and sisters (cf. Phlm 1,16).
Within this perennial doctrine, no less evident is the right and duty to care for the “home” that God the Father has entrusted to us as diligent stewards, so that no one irresponsibly destroys the natural goods that speak of the goodness and beauty of the creator nor, much less, subjects oneself to them as a slave or worshiper of nature, since things have been given to us in order to attain our end of praising God and thus obtaining the salvation of our souls (cf. St. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual exercises, 23).
With these wishes, the Holy Father wholeheartedly imparts the implored apostolic blessing, which he is pleased to extend to all who are entrusted to your pastoral care.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin
Vatican Secretary of State
https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2025/08/18/0572/00992.html#en
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