The Second Ordinary Assembly of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon Region (known as CEAMA) was hels in Manaus, Brazil from August 23rd to 26th. Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J., Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, took part.
CEAMA is a unique organisation that promotes synodality, encourages interculturality, and helps to give shape to the Amazonian face of the Church, with a special focus on integral ecology. CEAMA represents the pilgrim People of God in the Amazon Region, particularly in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.
Many members of the seven Episcopal Conferences that share the Amazon biome are taking part in this second Ordinary Assembly, as well as representatives of four regional ecclesial organisations: CELAM (Latin American Episcopal Council), CLAR (Latin American and Caribbean Conference of Religious), REPAM (Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network), and Caritas of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Cardinal Michael Czerny, who participated in the First Ordinary Assembly of CEAMA in August 2023, has closely accompanied the pastoral challenges of the region, from the creation of REPAM to the realisation of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which was held in the Vatican in October 2019 on the theme ‘The Amazon: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology,’ whose Final Document served as the inspiration of Pope Francis’ fifth Apostolic Exhortation, entitled Querida Amazonia.
During these four days of work in Manaus, the Cardinal, using a school metaphor, wanted to leave two “lessons” for CEAMA members. The first on mathematics, with the example of the parable of the loaves and fishes: we often have “the temptation to use the human mathematics of division, thinking that there is only one ‘cake,’ because human mathematics divides. And this closed, precise, scientific mathematics does not work well in our church body. We need to have Evangelical math in our heads to recognize in the other what is multiplied.”
Cardinal Michael Czerny's second lesson was on Evangelical grammar: “Out of everything we have said in these four days, the most important words are the verbs. They indicate what is being done and what is to be done.” We must pay attention to the verbs, and always remember that “the subjects of the verbs must be the local churches, the peoples, the Amazon.”
Also present this year was Cecilia Barja, the Regional Coordinator for Latin America at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
