In a recent telegram sent to the Amazonian bishops, Pope Leo XIV reminded them that nature as a divine gift entrusted to humanity for stewardship, warning against its irresponsible destruction while emphasizing that it reflects God’s goodness and beauty. He warned against idolizing or becoming enslaved to nature, urging instead that it be used to praise God and aid in soul salvation: “Nor, much less, subjects oneself to them as a slave or worshipper of nature, since things have been given to us to attain our end of praising God and thus obtaining the salvation of our souls.”
The Holy Father also stressed the Church’s role in promoting justice for Amazonian peoples, caring for our common home, while also proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ with clarity and charity.
Bye bye, Pachamama! https://t.co/ytX3kOo7nb
— Catholics for Catholics 🇺🇲 (@CforCatholics) August 19, 2025
His most reverend eminence
Card. Pedro Ricardo Barreto Jimeno, S.J.,
President of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon
The Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, cordially greets your eminence, as well as the participants in the meeting of the Bishops of the Amazon, being held from August 17 to 20 in Bogotá.
His Holiness thanks you for your efforts made to promote the greater good of the Church in favor of the faithful of the beloved Amazonian territory and, taking into account what was learned in the synod regarding the listening to and participation of all vocations in the church, he exhorts you to seek, on the basis of the unity and collegiality proper to an “episcopal body” (cf. Final document of the special synod for the amazon, 115), ways to help diocesan bishops and apostolic vicars concretely and effectively carry out their mission.
In this regard, he invites you to keep in mind three dimensions that are interconnected in the pastoral work of that region: the mission of the church to proclaim the gospel to all (cf. Decree ad gentes, 1), the just treatment of the peoples who dwell there, and the care of the common home.
It is necessary that Jesus Christ, in whom all things are recapitulated (cf. Eph 1,10), be announced with clarity and immense charity among the inhabitants of the amazon, so that we may strive to give them fresh and pure the bread of the Good News and the heavenly food of the Eucharist, the only means to truly be the people of God and the Body of Christ.
In this mission, we are moved by the certainty, confirmed by the history of the Church, that wherever the name of Christ is preached, injustice recedes proportionally, for, as the apostle Paul asserts, all exploitation of man by man disappears if we are able to receive one another as brothers and sisters (cf. Phlm 1,16).
Within this perennial doctrine, no less evident is the right and duty to care for the “home” that God the Father has entrusted to us as diligent stewards, so that no one irresponsibly destroys the natural goods that speak of the goodness and beauty of the Creator nor, much less, subjects oneself to them as a slave or worshiper of nature, since things have been given to us in order to attain our end of praising God and thus obtaining the salvation of our souls (cf. St. Ignatius of Loyola, spiritual exercises, 23).
With these wishes, the holy father wholeheartedly imparts the implored apostolic blessing, which he is pleased to extend to all who are entrusted to your pastoral care.
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