Amazonia: New Paths for the Church
There’s to be a special assembly for the Pan-Amazon region which will take place in October 2019.
The preparatory document: “Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology”: Preparatory Document of the Synod of Bishops for the Special Assembly for the Pan-Amazon Region seems to take a particularly interesting approach. Rather than an ecclesial or theological perspective, it goes right away to the sensitive ecology of the region.
The Eucharist is seen in this context:
“In the Eucharist, the community celebrates an act of cosmic love, in which human beings, together with the incarnate Son of God and all creation, give thanks to God for new life in the risen Christ. In this way, the Eucharist builds community, a festive, pilgrim community that becomes “a source of light and motivation for our concerns for the environment, directing us to be stewards of all creation” (LS 236). At the same time, the blood of so many men and women that has been shed – bathing the Amazonian lands for the good of its inhabitants and of the territory – is joined to the Blood of Christ, which was poured out for all and for all creation… One of the main points to be heard is the cry of thousands of [their] communities deprived of the Sunday Eucharist for long periods of time…”
The Aparecida document mentions the need for “Eucharistic integrity” (DAp 436) for the Amazon region, that is, that there be not only the possibility for all the baptized to participate in the Sunday Mass, but also for a new heavens and a new earth to take root in the Amazon Basin in anticipation of the Kingdom of God… Finally, new ways should be considered for the People of God to have better and more frequent access to the Eucharist, the center of Christian life.”
It will be interesting, not just for Amazonia, to see what comes of this.
The full Preparatory Document is at http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2018/06/08/180608a.html.