Amazonian Synod Docs For Dummies

A lot of commentators miss some obvious things Germanzonian Synod documents, and others are clap-happy for reasons that don’t quite compute. The docs:

• Apostolic Constitution, Querida Amazonia
  
• Final Document
• Apostolic Constitution, Episcopalis Communio

The very first sentence of the Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia, is, “the beloved Amazon region stands before the world in all its splendor, its drama and its mystery.”

Is it just me or does this sound like something from a National Geographic travel documentary?

Querida Amazonia and the Final Document contain numerous iffy scientific claims, enlists the Bible to support the Synod fathers’ agenda, and gives over to talk of integral ecology, the need to have “an afro-descendent” face, a migrant face, a youth faith, an alleged “right to the city,” and “cosmic” relations. For starters.

 

It’s all not only odd but troubling because Episcopalis Communio raises Synod Exhortations to a magisterial teaching level.

Word counts can be very revealing. Querida Amazonia from beginning to end has 16,438 words.

Of these, the name of Jesus only appears 16 times.

That’s one-tenth of 1%.

In the Final Document, there are more uses of the word salad phrase “integral ecology” than of the name of Jesus.

There seems to be two references to Pachamama in the Exhortation “Querida Amazonia,” in 79 and 101.

If there’s a bottom line here, it’s that the whole concept of synodality really means Protestantism.

Everything is ad hoc, everything is a journey, everything is a process, there are no certain answers.

The fact that “synodal” Apostolic Exhortations now come under the arm of the magisterium sets up a needless conflict between what a local Synod proposes, and what the magisterium has taught since Apostolic times.

On the ground, this means that future Synods — not of the Amazon area, but let’s say the San Diego area or the Chicago area, or the Newark area, is going to come up with different proposals then say a Synod of the Tyler Texas area or the Kazakhstan area.

We’ve already seen what happened with the German Synod.

 

The question becomes: is sappy poetry now part of official Catholic teaching? Because Querida Amazonia displays some Mount Everest level of sappy poetry.

In the meantime, the good news is: Jesus is Lord, the Eucharist is Jesus, and that even if it seems like he is sleeping in the boat, Jesus asleep with us is really all we need.

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________