Yesterday afternoon in Rome, the first press briefing about the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops currently taking place at the Vatican was held in the presence of His Excellency, David MartÃnez De Aguirre Guinea, Apostolic Vicar of Puerto Maldonado; His Excellency, Emmanuel Lafont, Bishop of Cayenne; Sister Alba Teresa Cediel Castillo; Mister Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communications; and Father Giacomo Costa, Secretary of the Commission for Information. Christiane Murray, the Associate Director of the Vatican Press Centre moderated the session.
Debora Donnini sent the following report:
Pope Francis wanted to bring these peoples to the heart of the Church. The words of Monsignor David MartÃnez De Aguirre Guinea, Apostolic Vicar of Puerto Maldonado in Peru and one of the special secretaries of this Synod, expressed these feelings that emerged from the words of various speakers at this first briefing of the Synod Press Conference for the Amazon : gratitude and joy for how the Pope was able to bring the Amazon here. Must we give visibility to these peoples, who have so much to say to the planet? asked Monsignor De Aguirre.
We are united in gratitude for the gift of welcome that is being extended to indigenous people as part of this synodal process, including among others Sister Alba Teresa Cediel Castillo, of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Immaculate and of Saint Catherine of Siena, who works in Colombia. She focuses on the wounds of the people of the Amazon. She who spent her life among the natives, along with the founder of her Congregation, Saint Laura Montoya, who gave her life to the missions among the Indians in the jungle. As a woman, Sister Alba Teresa, knows well the suffering of women in those contexts, as a result of guerrilla warfare and drug trafficking, but also how important her own presence is. In particular, she explained how the missionary nuns in Amazonia, in the absence of priests, baptize, witness the love of couples who wish to marry, and then listen to the confessions of sick and dying people, even if they cannot give absolution. Women in the Amazon play a leading role, which we hope the Church recognizes more and more, she says.
The pain of so many wounds that are experienced in the Amazon also emerges from the intervention of the bishop of Cayenne, in French Guyana, His Excellency, Emmanuel Lafont who has been working in the Amazon since 2004 and has focused in particular on the situation in Suriname: many feel abandoned by the State, there is a lack of recognition of rights, young people break away from their parents, and so there is no longer a spread of traditional culture.
In the speech by the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, Paolo Ruffini, he emphasized that a process is being followed which, as the Pope pointed out this morning, the Instrumentum laboris is a martyr text in the sense that it is intended to be destroyed, because it is a starting point for what the Spirit will do. Regarding the request to entrust the priestly ministry to the so-called viri probati, married men of the local community, given the vastness of the territory and in proportion, the scarcity of priests, which emerged in the introductory report to the Synod by Cardinal Claudio Hummes, which was done in his role as spokesman for the Catholic communities in the Amazon, this is not the only possibility, explained Ruffini. It is not said that this is the answer but not listening to the request that comes from the Catholic community of Amazonia would have been wrong.
In this sense, Father Giacomo Costa, Secretary for the Commission for Information - of which Mister Muffini is the President - also spoke, pointing out the necessity of not being afraid to confront the challenge that we find in front of the synod fathers, for then the entire Synod will face the questions in a collegial way.
Debora Donnini sent the following report:
Pope Francis wanted to bring these peoples to the heart of the Church. The words of Monsignor David MartÃnez De Aguirre Guinea, Apostolic Vicar of Puerto Maldonado in Peru and one of the special secretaries of this Synod, expressed these feelings that emerged from the words of various speakers at this first briefing of the Synod Press Conference for the Amazon : gratitude and joy for how the Pope was able to bring the Amazon here. Must we give visibility to these peoples, who have so much to say to the planet? asked Monsignor De Aguirre.
We are united in gratitude for the gift of welcome that is being extended to indigenous people as part of this synodal process, including among others Sister Alba Teresa Cediel Castillo, of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Immaculate and of Saint Catherine of Siena, who works in Colombia. She focuses on the wounds of the people of the Amazon. She who spent her life among the natives, along with the founder of her Congregation, Saint Laura Montoya, who gave her life to the missions among the Indians in the jungle. As a woman, Sister Alba Teresa, knows well the suffering of women in those contexts, as a result of guerrilla warfare and drug trafficking, but also how important her own presence is. In particular, she explained how the missionary nuns in Amazonia, in the absence of priests, baptize, witness the love of couples who wish to marry, and then listen to the confessions of sick and dying people, even if they cannot give absolution. Women in the Amazon play a leading role, which we hope the Church recognizes more and more, she says.
The pain of so many wounds that are experienced in the Amazon also emerges from the intervention of the bishop of Cayenne, in French Guyana, His Excellency, Emmanuel Lafont who has been working in the Amazon since 2004 and has focused in particular on the situation in Suriname: many feel abandoned by the State, there is a lack of recognition of rights, young people break away from their parents, and so there is no longer a spread of traditional culture.
In the speech by the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, Paolo Ruffini, he emphasized that a process is being followed which, as the Pope pointed out this morning, the Instrumentum laboris is a martyr text in the sense that it is intended to be destroyed, because it is a starting point for what the Spirit will do. Regarding the request to entrust the priestly ministry to the so-called viri probati, married men of the local community, given the vastness of the territory and in proportion, the scarcity of priests, which emerged in the introductory report to the Synod by Cardinal Claudio Hummes, which was done in his role as spokesman for the Catholic communities in the Amazon, this is not the only possibility, explained Ruffini. It is not said that this is the answer but not listening to the request that comes from the Catholic community of Amazonia would have been wrong.
In this sense, Father Giacomo Costa, Secretary for the Commission for Information - of which Mister Muffini is the President - also spoke, pointing out the necessity of not being afraid to confront the challenge that we find in front of the synod fathers, for then the entire Synod will face the questions in a collegial way.
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