When I was a freshman in high school, class was suspended one afternoon for a visit of Fr. Anthony Ragogna, a white-haired 80-year-old priest. He described how as a young priest  he was sent to teach in a new school in a remote river town of Brazil.  During the next 18 years, he had many occasions to visit the forest peoples and his eyes lit up as he described these experiences. He described men using poison dart blowguns to hunt monkeys and birds. He told of women swimming in the river carrying their children despite risks from flesh-eating piranhas and 20-foot-long water snakes. What particularly impressed me, however, was his regard for the religious cultures of these people, and their profound respect for life and nature. 

       I was reminded of Fr. Anthony recently while reading Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter, Querida Amazonia (“Beloved Amazon”). The letter contains reflections drawn from the work of over 300 bishops and experts who gathered in Rome in the fall of 2019 to address issues of the Amazon Basin. 

       Well before it began, certain American and European groups had expressed concerns about the synod’s doctrinal orthodoxy. Two conservative prelates announced a campaign of 40 days of praying and fasting to ensure that “error and heresy don’t pervert the imminent Synod.” Not surprisingly, the synod had barely begun when it was engulfed in controversy. 

       During the opening ceremonies, fishing nets, a small canoe, woven baskets, and  a wooden image of a pregnant woman, representing the mythic fertility figure of “Pachamama” were featured. A Jesuit missionary explained that the fertility figure of “Pachamama”  had proven an effective means for introducing the concept of Redemption to pre-literate peoples: “Their culture is deeply rooted [in an awareness] that we’re all born from a mother,” he pointed out. “We all have a mother who was pregnant and delivered us to life. It’s  a mystery, life itself, that signifies in a way that God is also mother, he’s engendered us and cares for life.” To the synod critics, such explanations fell on deaf ears. Pope Francis was accused of fostering “pagan idolatry,” and  images of Pachamama were stolen from an altar and thrown into the Tiber River.

        Meanwhile, the work inside the synod went forward. The bishops and observers listened to  presentations by church leaders and experts, prayed and reflected. The entire event occurred without  interruption, and Its conclusions received nearly unanimous approval.  The bishops’ final report, released in late October, was praised by the Pope who encouraged Catholics to read it. In February 2020, Pope Francis affirmed the event in a 14,000-word Apostolic Letter addressed to “the People of God and to all persons of Good Will.”  The 70 page letter, syntheses the deliberations of the bishops in the Pope’s own words.

The document is suffused with respect for the indigenous peoples. They are not “uncivilized savages,” Pope Francis explains, but “heirs to different cultures, and other forms of civilization that in earlier days were quite developed.”  It pleads for greater efforts to protect the biosphere and closely links nature with people of the region. We do not need an environmentalism,” Francis cautions, “that is concerned for the biome, but ignore the neglected and misunderstood Amazonian people.”

       The use of poetry adds unusual lyrical quality to Querida Amazonia.  “Plant yourself, blossom and grow,” one poem reads. “Let your roots sink into the ground, forever and ever…”  In the pope’s Letter,  the words of eight Latin American poets are woven into the text. But the papal text also soars. “In the Amazon region,” Francis writes, “water is queen; the rivers and streams are like veins, and water determines every form of life.”

         Querida Amazonia is candid about the problems faced by the indigenous peoples of this region. “Colonizing interest,” the Pope writes, “have continued to expand – legally and illegally – the timber and mining industries.”  Native populations have been driven to the cities where they are subject to “poverty,, and human exploitation.”  None of this, it goes on to say, “recognizes the rights of the original peoples; it simply ignores them as if they did not exist.” 

       The diversity of native Amazonian  cultures  also presents challenges. “Each of these  distinct groups ,” Francis explains,  is a vital synthesis with its surroundings, and develops its own wisdom…” He cautions against invoking simplistic solutions to solve complex pastoral challenges. “Those of us who observe this from without, should avoid unfair generalizations, simplistic arguments, and conclusions drawn only on the basis of our own mindsets and conclusion.”  In a veiled reference to the Pachamama affair, the pope points out that “it is possible to take up an indigenous symbol in some way, without necessarily considering it as idolatry. A myth charged with spiritual meaning can be used  to advantage, and not always considered a pagan error.”  

         The document is remarkable for its efforts to fuse basic elements of the Christian Creed with the outlook of aboriginal peoples. “A relationship to Jesus Christ, true God and true man,” Pope Francis affirms, “is not inimical to the markedly cosmic overview that characterizes the indigenous peoples, since He is also the risen Lord who permeates all things… He is present in a glorious and mysterious way in the rivers, the trees, the fish, and the wind, as the Lord who reigns in creation without ever losing his transfigured wounds.” 

      The pontiff approaches sacramental theology in a similar manner. “The sacraments,” Pope Francis writes,  “should not be viewed as disconnected with creation….They are the fulfillment of creation in which nature is elevated to become… an instrument of grace enabling us to embrace the world on a different plane.”  “In the Eucharist, God, …”chose to reach our intimate depths through a fragment of matter…The Eucharist joins heaven and earth; it embraces and penetrates all creation.”

           Querida Amazonia was heady stuff.  Many journalists and commentators ignored the substance of the document and pivoted instead to issues that had little to do with the Pan-Amazon people. Complaints were voiced that the document had not dealt with ordination of women, that it was a stealth attack against the priesthood, that it was too revolutionary or not revolutionary enough. Fr. Anthony would not have understood any of this.  But he also would have smiled.

      As a young priest, Fr. Anthony had taken a river journey of several weeks to reach his mission school deep within the interior of Brazil. He had come to the edge of the world to minister to a people whose existence was barely known in Europe and North America. The world has changed greatly since then. But in Querida Amazonia, Fr. Anthony  would have found the same ideals that had animated his work more than a century ago. And he would have wholeheartedly embraced Pope Francis’ closing plea: “How can we struggle together? How can we not pray and work together, side by side, to defend the poor of the Amazon region, to show the sacred countenance of the Lord, and to care for his work of creation?”