Vatican – Mons. Valenzuela, SDB: "Synod Fathers' cry, the cry of thousands of Amazon youth"

25 October 2019

(ANS - Vatican City) - The Salesian iNfo Agency met with Msgr. Edmundo Valenzuela, Salesian and archbishop of Asunción, Paraguay, currently in Rome to participate in the Synod of Bishops on the Pan-Amazon region. He presented us the main lines of the synodal works and, above all, the clamor of the millions of indigenous people living in the Amazon and who, from 6 to 27 October, the Synod Fathers wished to represent.

What are the challenges this Synod will bring us?

For six days, the Synod listened to the concerns of the Synod Fathers, their desires, their pains and we witnessed the diversity and richness of a culture that is not yet known. The Synod tried to find new ways to take care of the Amazon as a common home. And from this meeting, a question arose: how to inculturate faith, how to proclaim Jesus Christ in this common home? How to announce Jesus Christ to the 33 million inhabitants of the Amazon, to the 2.5 million natives? It was not an easy task.

And what is the cry of the Synod Fathers today?

The cry of the Synod Fathers is the cry of the thousands of young people in the Amazon world who ask their authorities and politicians to become aware of the situation and make decisions that respect the Amazon. At this moment, the Amazon is being destroyed by businesses ... It has been said that it is time to take care of the common house because it is the hour of life or death for our Amazon. There is a duty to take care of God's work and therefore we must teach to respect, protect and defend. The cry of the Church is to take care of "integral ecology", which brings together nature and people, indigenous peoples and their cultures.

A fundamental theme is pastoral care and the proclamation of the Gospel. What was the work of the Synod?

At the Synod, we worked a lot on the pastoral column and the important challenge was to bring the Gospel and announce Christ incarnate, to see the image of Christ in nature and in every human being. We have seen that the Gospel has purified cultures. The church has helped to abandon realities like infanticide, polygamy, violence ...

What message do you want to leave us as a Pastor?

On the one hand, an invitation to become aware that the time has come to take care of and defend the common home and that it is necessary to educate in this field, taking Laudato Sì as a point of reference. On the other hand, we need courageous missionaries for the Amazon: I ask the young people not to be afraid to listen to God's call. And finally, know that these proposals that have been made for the whole of the Amazon can be a prophecy for the Church.

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