Pope opens Synod discussions:
urges understanding and service
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| Pope Francis take part in the procession for the Opening of the Sunod for the Amazon |
Pope Francis opens discussions at the Synod for the Amazon,
reminding participants of the pastoral dimension of the gathering, and the need
to focus on understanding and serving the people of the Amazon.
By Vatican News
The Synod for the Amazon opened with a procession from St
Peter’s Basilica, out into the Square, through the Arch of the Bells, and into
the Synod Hall. There, Pope Francis opened the proceedings with a discourse in
Spanish in which he spoke of the Synod as having four dimensions: pastoral,
cultural, social, and ecological.
The pastoral dimension of the Synod
The pastoral dimension, he said, is the essential dimension,
“the one that embraces everything”. We need to approach this Synod “with a
Christian heart and see the reality of Amazonia with the eyes of a disciple”.
Only then, said the Pope, can we understand and interpret it.
The pastoral dimension allows us to consider the people of
the Amazon “respecting their history, cultures, and way of living”. Because all
peoples, continued the Pope, “have their own wisdom, awareness, their way of
feeling, of seeing reality”.
Ideological colonization
Pope Francis warned of the ideological colonization that
reduces or destroys the characteristics of a people. “Ideologies lead us to
exaggerate in our attempt to understand intellectually, but without accepting”,
he added. We reduce reality to categories or “-isms”. These become slogans that
prejudice the way we approach a people.
The Pope gave the example of "civilization and
barbarism" which only serves, he said, “to divide and annihilate” by
qualifying people and putting a distance between us.
Feathers vs birettas
Pope Francis said he was “sad to hear the mocking comments”
made about the indigenous man who carried the offerings at the Synod’s Opening
Mass in St Peter’s Basilica on Sunday. The comments were about the feathers the
man wore on his head.
“Tell me”, challenged the Pope, “what difference is there
between wearing feathers on his head and the biretta” (the three-cornered hat)
used by some officials in Vatican Departments?
Pragmatic vs paradigmatic
Pope Francis also warned of “proposing purely pragmatic
measures” when we ought to think “in a paradigmatic way”, a perspective “that
is born from the reality of peoples”.
“We have not come here to invent programs of social
development”, continued the Pope, aimed at keeping cultures in a museum. We are
here, he said, “to contemplate, to understand, to serve the people”.
The Holy Spirit protagonist of the Synod
We do this, continued Pope Francis, in Synod. “A Synod is
not a parliament”, he explained, “it is not to demonstrate who has more power”
or “who has the majority”. A Synod is “walking together under the inspiration
and guidance of the Holy Spirit”. The Holy Spirit is the protagonist of the
Synod, said the Pope. He needs “to express Himself among us, with us, through
us, and despite us”.
Humility and a sense of humour
Finally, Pope Francis urged participants to “reflect,
dialogue, listen with humility… and speak with courage, with parrhesia”.
To participate in the Synod is “to enter into a process”, he said, not just “to
occupy space in the room”.
We need to be respectful, he added, and to be prudent in the
way we communicate, not to spoil the Synod process by creating conflicting
messages: “a Synod from the inside and a Synod from the outside”.
“And please”, concluded Pope Francis, “let's not lose our
sense of humor”.
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