The Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, commonly referred to as the Amazon synod, met in Rome from 6 to 27 October 2019. Pope Francis announced on 15 October 2017 that a special assembly of the Synod of Bishops would work "to identify new paths for the evangelization of God's people in that region", specifically the indigenous peoples who are "often forgotten and without the prospect of a serene future". The obstacles to evangelization include the difficult terrain that makes native populations hard to reach, the great variety of languages spoken, and the resistance of landowners and business interests. The Amazon basin, according to one Vatican report, covers some 6,000,000 km2 (2,300,000 sq mi), with a population of 2.8 million divided among 400 tribes that "speak some 240 languages belonging to 49 linguistic families". The synod defines the region to include all or parts of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Venezuela and Suriname, most of which are countries where the population is largely Roman Catholic.
Background As early as 1912, in the encyclical Lacrimabili statu, Pope Pius X denounced the owners of the rubber plantations in Peru for mistreating the native population and condemned Capuchin missionaries for failing to protect them. Pope John Paul II called similar synods for the Netherlands in 1980 and for Lebanon in 1995. Visiting Brazil in July 2013, Pope Francis said: "The Church's presence in the Amazon Basin is not that of someone with bags packed and ready to leave after having exploited everything possible. The Church has been present in the Amazon Basin from the beginning, in her missionaries, religious congregations, priests, laity and bishops, and she is still present and critical to the area's future." Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato si' (2015) focused on the need to defend the poor and their natural environment. Since March 2015, the Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network (REPAM) has coordinated the work of the Catholic Church in the Amazon region, marshaling the work of priests and missionaries, national representatives of Caritas, and lay advocates to protect from exploitation both the indigenous peoples of the Amazon and the natural resources of the region. Archbishop Salvador Pineiro García-Calderón of Ayacucho, President of the Peruvian Bishops' Conference, reported that Pope Francis proposed a synod devoted to the Amazon region in a meeting with the bishops of Peru in May 2017. He mentioned it to the bishops of Ecuador in September 2017. Francis visited Peru on 19 January 2018 and was met by 4,000 members of the indigenous communities from the Amazon rainforest. He said that the people of the Amazon were threatened now more than ever, and questioned the conservationist policies that affect the Peruvian rainforest. In Puerto Maldonado, he asked for the indigenous communities to be recognized as partners instead of as minorities. He said that "all the efforts we make in order to regain the life of the peoples of the Amazon will always be too few". He called on the Peruvian people to put an end to practices that degrade women, and criticized the sterilization of indigenous women. On 9 August 2019, Pope Francis announced that the synod will denounce isolationism and populism, which "lead to war". The Pope also stated that "globalization and unity should not be conceived as a sphere, but as a polyhedron: each people retains its identity in unity with others". He previously noted the effects of a globalized market in the working document as well. Pope Francis announced that the ordination of married priests will "absolutely not" be one of the main topics which will be discussed at the synod and that it is "simply a number of the Instrumentum Laboris".
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