Pope Francis on Feb. 25 received in private audience 3 members of REPAM, the Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network that is collaborating with the Vatican General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops in organizing the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, in the Vatican in October.
By Robin Gomes
Pope Francis on Monday met 3 members of the Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network (REPAM), an organism that is collaborating with the Vatican General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops in organizing the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, in the Vatican in October.
The Pope received in private audience Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the prefect emeritus of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy, Colombian Bishop Carlos Barreto Barreto of Quibdò and Mauricio Lopez Oropeza, the executive secretary of REPAM.
Also on Monday, the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops announced that the Synod on the Pan-Amazon Region will take place in the Vatican, October 6 to 27.
The theme is: “Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology.”
The idea of such a synod was born out of Pope Francis’ 2015 environmental encyclical “Laudato Si – On Care for Our Common Home”, which calls for action on global warming and pinpoints the Pan-Amazon Region as an area of concern.
The Pope first announced the synod on 15 October 2017.
Preparing for Synod
During a press conference to release the preparatory document of the Pan-Amazon Region Synod, on June 8, last year, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the general secretary of the Synod of Bishops noted that “in the Pan-Amazon region, priority must be given to the native peoples who live there”.
When Pope Francis visited the Amazonia region for the first time at Puerto Maldonado in southeast Peru on January 19, 2018, he said that the indigenous people of the Amazonia have never been so threatened as they are now.
Card. Baldisseri said that the synod will pay attention to the theme of the environment, ecology, and care for creation, our ‘common home’. All these will be presented in the light of the teaching and life of the Church, working in the region.
