The Tablet: Pope calls on national governments to help save Amazon
by Ruth Gledhill
Pope Francis has set out his vision for Amazon region in a document that places the emphasis on social justice, the environment and the responsibilities of national governments worldwide to help.
In his long-awaited Apostolic exhortation from last year’s Pan-Amazon Synod, Querida Amazonía, or “Beloved Amazonia”, Pope Francis spells out his dream for the Amazon, and that it should be a region that fights for the rights of the poor and the original people, a region that can preserve its distinctive cultural riches and that can preserve its overwhelming natural beauty.
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The Women’s Ordination group also criticised the Pope for “leaving women and their dreams to the footnotes of the document” and his papacy.
“With Querida Amazonia, the Pope is willfully turning his back on the calls of women for recognition of the sacramental ministries they offer the people of the Amazon and the global Church,” the group said. “Pope Francis writes that we need ‘courageous openness to the novelty of the Spirit, who is always able to create something new … Let us be fearless; let us not clip the wings of the Holy Spirit’, but despite the testimonies of women from the Amazon and the overwhelming discussion of their bishops throughout the month-long synod process, the Pope again relies on outdated spousal metaphors to deny women their fullness in Christ.”
Accusing him of complementarianism, the group says the Pope seemingly ignores the synod’s request for more study on the possibility of women deacons, and instead, in the face of sacramental scarcity, calls for prayer for male vocations to priesthood.”Recognising women’s work with diaconal ordination would be the first, most basic step towards righting the wrong of institutional sexism that hobbles our Church as it attempts to respond to the moral crises of our time. While the Women’s Ordination Conference applauds the Pope’s sincere concern for the global climate catastrophe and its particular threats within the Amazonian region, we find it problematic that the Pope fails to connect the degradation of the earth with the degradation of women in his own Church, and the similar power structures at play.”