Posted on 11/20/2021 5:04:43 PM PST by marshmallow
LIMA, Peru (CNS) — Latin America’s Indigenous people will play a central role at a regional assembly the Catholic Church will hold at the end of November in Mexico.
The Sixth Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean will plot a course for the church in the region as it heads toward landmark events in the coming years, including, in 2031, the 500th anniversary of Mary’s appearance to St. Juan Diego, a Chichimeca Indigenous man, in what is now Mexico City.
It is also an opportunity for Latin America’s Indigenous peoples to highlight their role within the church and society, and the challenges they continue to face across the region.
The assembly builds on Pope Francis’ 2015 “Laudato Si’” encyclical and the 2019 Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, particularly its consultation or listening process. It also helps lay the groundwork for the 2023 Synod of Bishops on synodality.
“A synodal church is one in which everyone is heard. Indigenous people have been a step ahead of us with their assemblies and communal work. Their example is a major contribution to the synodality of the church,” said Bishop Rafael Cob of Puyo, Ecuador.
Latin America’s eight Amazon Basin countries had a head start for the assembly thanks to a listening process they undertook for the Amazon synod.
Church leaders in the eight countries — Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela — began a round of consultations after Pope Francis visited Puerto Maldonado, in Peru’s southern Amazon, in 2018. While not the first papal visit to an Amazon city, it was the first that specifically addressed the concerns of Indigenous people — representatives of groups throughout the Amazon participated — and environmental stewardship.
(Excerpt) Read more at theleaven.org ...
Don’t tell the Pope but a growing number of these folks are born again Christians.
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