AN INTEGRAL ECOLOGY

A reflection on the recent synod for the Amazon

- Vicky Victorino, PDDM

Irene and Rissa, two friends from the Philippines, contacted me on Saturday, October 5, 2019, a few hours before they arrived in Rome. “Can we meet up with you tomorrow?” they asked. Since I was already intent on attending the opening Mass of the Synod on the Amazon on October 6, Sunday, at St. Peter’s Basilica, I asked them if they wanted to join me. Irene confessed that she hesitated to say yes at first, fearing that it would be a long Mass and that they would be late for their departure that same evening. In the end, they accepted the invitation and did not regret it.

Why Such Synod?

What is unique about this Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican that was held on October 6 to 27, 2019? The first thing is the theme: Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and an Integral Ecology. It would appear to discuss a very “localized” region so much so that one of the sisters in my community thought the Synod would take place somewhere in the Amazon. Imagine that! And then there are the questions of the entrenched traditionalists in the Catholic Church who ask, “But why should the Pope be involved in questions of ecology? His mission should only be in the spiritual realm!”