What is so special about the Amazon?

[HomeschoolDad]

Aside from the fact that there are souls living there who are created in the image and likeness of Almighty God, souls who need to hear the Gospel and be led to salvation in God’s one true Church, what is so special about the Amazon region that makes it worthy of a synod — when other parts of the world are not?

Is it a question of Catholics living there who supposedly can’t be ministered to properly? How many? Or adherents of nature-based religions who need to have the Faith taught in a way they can understand and embrace? We’ve been doing inculturation, in one form or another, from day one. How are these people different from people in other parts of the world who are in similar circumstances?

And how, exactly, would it be desirable for them to have married priests, as opposed to other areas? Celibacy and perfect continence aren’t understood or appreciated in affluent Western culture either, and there is no synod to address this. We do not have an abundance of vocations (aside from traditionalist communities). We import priests from parts of the world where vocations are abundant. Why can’t they do the same in the Amazon?

And if life is so rugged in the Amazon, wouldn’t it be harder to maintain priests who are married, possibly with families of their own? Better to have celibate priests who only have to endure a harsh lifestyle on their own, without worrying about the welfare of their loved ones?

I’m sure these questions have been posed and addressed elsewhere (on CAF and outside it), but these are just things I’ve been scratching my head over lately. Forgive my ignorance.

 

[BartholomewB]

The synod ends this coming Sunday and hopefully all our doubts will be cleared up then, or not too long afterward.

That this synod is being held at all is largely the fruit of a long, solitary campaign by one man, Erwin Kräutler, a Brazilian (originally Austrian) bishop identified with the Liberation Theology movement.

When Kräutler, now retired, was still the bishop of the prelature of the Xingu in Brazil, he campaigned strenuously, for years on end, both for women and for married men to be ordained priests, to meet the need for bringing the Eucharist to the scattered communities in his vast, sparsely populated prelature. Under Benedict XVI he realized he was getting nowhere, but when Francis was elected he renewed his campaign, believing he might now get a sympathetic hearing in Rome. His fellow Brazilian bishops advised him to drop his call for women priests and to concentrate on married men, telling him it would improve his chances of success. It now looks quite likely that he is going to get his way.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Nothing is so special about them, other than that they are made in the image and likeness of God.

The Catholic Church has been infiltrated. The evil actors in the Church wish to teach to spread religious plurality ideology and Nouvelle Theologie. We must fight for the Truth of Catholicism just like the brave men who threw the Pachamama idols into the Tiber

Christius Vincit, Christus Regnat, Christus Imperat!

You said it, I didn’t. Quite agreed, Christus Vincit, Christus Regnat, Christus Imperat!

 

[HomeschoolDad]

When Kräutler, now retired, was still the bishop of the prelature of the Xingu in Brazil, he campaigned strenuously, for years on end, both for women and for married men to be ordained priests, to meet the need for bringing the Eucharist to the scattered communities in his vast, sparsely populated prelature.

It wouldn’t be the first time people, both settlers and indigenous, have been scattered in vast, sparsely populated regions. Think of our own country in frontier days, without the advantages of modern transportation and electronic communications. Some people did well to hear Mass and make confessions once a year — if that often.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

Amazon region that makes it worthy of a synod — when other parts of the world are not?

Who said other parts of the world aren’t worthy of a synod?

There is plenty of material out there that’s been produced out ahead of the synod which highlights the special needs of the Amazon region. It’s not that difficult to find on the internet.

 

[CRV]

I think of all the missionaries (since Christ told the Apostles to ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’) who went forth into indigenous lands to spread the Gospel as it was handed to them. I do not believe they watered it down, included elements of the natives religions/beliefs in order to draw them in - yet these same indigenous people converted and became Christians. And some missionaries lost their lives whilst doing so.

Why are these Amazonians so different to other earlier indigenous peoples that aspects of their beliefs have to be incorporated into the Catholic Faith in order for them to be converted to Catholicism?