Vatican City – On the occasion of the meeting of the bishops of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon, gathered in Bogotá from August 17 to 20, Pope Leo XIV sent a telegram of encouragement and pastoral guidance. Through the Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, the Pontiff wished to reaffirm three essential dimensions of the Church’s mission in the Amazonian territory: the proclamation of the Gospel, respect for the peoples who dwell there, and the care of our common home.
The Pope’s words leave no room for ambiguity. Those who, in these first hundred days, may have wondered why Prevost’s approach to the climate issue appears different from that of the previous pontificate will find in this message a clear answer. Leo XIV stresses the need to maintain an authentically Christian balance in our relationship with nature. He recalls the Church’s perennial doctrine: “No less evident is the right and duty to care for the home that God the Father has entrusted to us as attentive stewards, so that no one may irresponsibly destroy the natural goods that speak of the Creator’s goodness and beauty, nor, much less, submit to them as a slave or as a worshipper of nature.”
This clarification is by no means secondary. At a time when ecological discourse often risks transforming itself into a new religion of the Earth, the Pope warns against the temptation to absolutize nature, forgetting that it is not an end in itself, but a gift ordered to a higher purpose: to praise God and obtain the salvation of souls. Here, Leo XIV explicitly cites St. Ignatius of Loyola (telling, in itself), who in the Spiritual Exercises (n. 23) reminds us that all created things exist in service of our ultimate vocation.
It is not, therefore, a rejection of the care of creation, but rather a reminder not to confuse the planes. The Amazon rainforest, its rivers, the peoples who inhabit it—all are part of a design that does not find its meaning in itself, but in Christ, “in whom all things are brought together” (Eph 1:10). In this light, Leo XIV urges the bishops of the Amazon never to lose sight of the primacy of proclaiming Jesus Christ, the only one capable of redeeming man from injustice and oppression. “Wherever the name of Christ is preached,” the telegram recalls, “injustice recedes in proportion.”
The message thus stands in continuity with the Church’s doctrinal tradition: to defend nature, yes, but without falling into a cult of nature. To safeguard the goods of creation, but without becoming their captives. For the Christian mission, even in the Amazon, is not to generate new cults, but to lead all things to their fulfillment in Christ. In short, the time of the Pachamama is over.
d.E.T.
Silere non possum