Amazon Synod: Presentation of the
draft of the final document
 |
| Synod : One of the General Congregations |
The 14th General Congregation of the Special Assembly of the
Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region took place on the morning of Monday,
21 October, in the presence of Pope Francis. One hundred eighty-four Synod
Fathers were in the Hall for the session. The Synod concludes on Sunday, 27
October.
By Vatican News
Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the Relator General, presented the
draft of the final document of the Synod for the Amazon to participants in the
Synod Hall on Monday morning. The text, which gathers together the fruits of
the interventions presented during the work, will now go to the small groups for
discussion in a “collective manner”.
The program for the coming days
Amendments will be inserted into the final document by the
Relator General and the Special Secretaries, with the help of experts. Then the
text will be revised by the editorial committee; and on Friday afternoon, the
document will be read in the Hall on Friday afternoon, in the course of the 15th General
Congregation. Finally, on Saturday afternoon, at the 16th General
Congregation, the Synod Fathers will vote on the document.
The homily of Archbishop Héctor Cabrejos Vidarte
Monday’s session began as usual with Mid-Morning prayer of
the Liturgy of the Hours. The homily was delivered by Archbishop Héctor
Cabrejos Vidarte of Trujillo, Mexico, who also serves as President of CELAM (the
Latin American Episcopal Council). He invited those present to look to the
example of Saint Francis and his “Canticle of the Creatures”. “For St Francis”,
Archbishop Trujillo said, “beauty is not a question of aesthetics, but of love,
of fraternity at any cost, of grace at any cost”. The Saint of Assisi, he said,
“embraces all creatures with a love and a devotion never seen, speaking to them
of the Lord and exhorting them to praise Him. In this sense, Francis came to be
the originator of the medieval sentiment for nature”.
To know, to recognise, restore
Archbishop Trujillo said that three words – “to know, to
recognise, to restore” – have marked “the rhythm” of the spiritual journey of
the Poor Man of Assisi; that is, to know the Supreme Good, to recognise his
benefits, and render praise to Him. If for Saint Francis, sin is an
appropriation “only of the will but also of the good” that the Lord works in
human beings; praise, on the contrary, means restitution. “Human beings”,
Archbishop Cabrejos Vidarte said, “are unable to praise God as they should,
because sin has wounded the filial relationship” with the Lord.
God, the Father of all persons, and all things
It is for creatures, then, as St Francis states in the
“Canticle”, to carry out the work of mediation to bring praise to God. In fact,
creatures can fill the void created by human beings, who are unable, on account
of sin, to worthily offer praise. “Saint Francis discovers in God the place of
Creation,” the Archbishop said, “and restores Creation to God, because he sees
in Him not only the Father of all persons, but also the Father of all things”.
The morning session was closed by a special guest who
focused on the theme of integral ecology, particularly in relation to climate
change.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét