Amazon Church renews ‘synodal commitments’ in line with ‘dream of Pope Francis’

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (LifeSiteNews) — The Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA) has re-elected its leadership and doubled down on promoting a “synodal” Church in continuity with the “dream of Pope Francis.”

In March, CEAMA held its 6^th General Assembly under the motto, “I am about to do something new; even now it is springing forth. Do you not perceive it?” (Is 43:19) in Bogotá, Colombia. The body elected its new presidency for the 2026-2030 period and renewed “its missionary and synodal commitments in the Amazonian territories,” Vatican News reported.

The new presidency is comprised of its president, Cardinal Leonardo Steiner, OFM, of the Archdiocese of Manaus (Brazil), and four vice presidents: Juan Urañavi, of the Apostolic Vicariate of Ñuflo de Chávez (Bolivia); Father Jesús Huamán, of the Apostolic Vicariate of Puerto Maldonado (Peru); Marva Joy Hawksworth, of the Diocese of Georgetown (Guyana); and Sr. Sônia Maria Pinho de Matos, of the Archdiocese of Manaus (Brazil).

Cardinal Steiner said the General Assembly saw the election of a new presidency “to give continuity to that dream of Pope Francis to go to the Churches of the Amazonia and to be an ecclesial Church. We want to carry forward that dream of Pope Francis, implementing especially the four dreams he addressed to us in Querida Amazonia. We take into consideration the social question, the cultural question, the ecological question, and also, naturally, our ecclesial situation.”

“This way of being Church is deeply synodal and missionary. May God bless us, and may Our Lady of the Amazon always accompany us,” he stated.

Pope Leo XIV sent a video message to the assembly, encouraging the Church in the Amazon “to continue together, pastors and faithful, in strengthening the identity of missionary disciples in the Amazon Region. Keep sowing in the furrow that has been watered even with the blood of so many men and women who have gone before you, and who, united to the passion of Christ, have become the root of a ‘giant tree’ growing in the Amazonia.”

“I am pleased that among the objectives of the Assembly is the formulation of the Synodal Pastoral Horizons, which could be a useful instrument for guiding the proclamation ‘of a God who infinitely loves every human being, who has fully manifested that love in Christ’ (Pope Francis, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia, 64),” Leo stated.

CEAMA was founded in 2020 following the controversial Amazon Synod with the goal of fulfilling “the commitments of the Amazon Synod (2019), strengthening and exploring new paths for the evangelising mission with an Amazonian vision of the Church and integrating the proposal of integral ecology in this territory.”

Francis’ post-synodal exhortation Querida Amazonia, which was cited as the basis of CEAMA’s vision for its local church, has been criticized by many Catholic prelates for containing errors and ambiguities.

While most of these faithful bishops, such as Cardinal Gerhard Müller and Bishop Athanasius Schneider, were relieved that Francis did not seek to change mandatory priestly celibacy or introduce female deacons, they still highlighted the document’s major flaws.

Schneider made clear that, “in noting the improvements made in Querida Amazonia, one cannot be silent about the lamentable doctrinal ambiguities and errors it contains, as well as its dangerous ideological tendencies.”

He specifically identifies as “highly problematic” Querida Amazonia’s “implicit endorsement of a pantheistic and pagan spirituality,” its assertion that Christians may “take up an indigenous symbol in some way, without necessarily considering it as idolatry” (n. 79), and its designation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the “mother of all creatures” (n. 111).

Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes had published an analysis of Querida Amazonia in the German Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost, criticizing its novel teaching that the priest’s main duties are merely the administration of the sacraments of the Eucharist and of Penance, while the laity could take over many of the other duties, to include the governing office.

Cardinal Raymond Burke said that “there are passages in the document which gravely contradict theological truths,” while rejecting the potential laicization of the Church by saying that, “If the Amazon Church is going to be a lay Church, then it won’t be Catholic.” Burke also reminded Catholics that in the Church as instituted by Jesus Christ Himself, “The pastoral charity exercised by those called to be apostles and successors to the apostles is essential.”

Bishop Marian Eleganti of Switzerland also noted the danger of attempting to remove the distinction between the ordained clergy and the laity.

“I have long seen the danger of deconstructing the priesthood by reducing it only to Holy Mass and Confession,” Eleganti said regarding Querida Amazonia. “The ontological difference to the general priesthood of the baptized and the unity of the three ministries (governing; teaching; sanctifying) in the sacramental priesthood must not be touched. They are transmitted through ordination and constitute the sacramental character of the Church.”