The recent apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te (“I loved you”), signed by Pope Leo XIV on October 4, has been received by the Church in the Amazon as a renewed inspiration for pastoral and missionary work in Amazonian territories.
The document, centered on the preferential option for the poor, invites the whole Church to “go out of itself to listen and accompany the cries of the most vulnerable,” a perspective deeply linked to the experience of Amazonian communities living amid natural wealth, cultural diversity, and realities of exclusion and environmental threats.
A message that resonates in the Amazon
For the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), Dilexi Te confirms the synodal and missionary path that the Amazonian Church has been following since the Synod for the Amazon (2019).
“Pope Leo XIV reminds us that the option for the poor is not an optional gesture, but the very heart of the Gospel,” said Cardinal Pedro Barreto, president of CEAMA.
“Christ loves the Amazon, and in it his love for humanity becomes visible. This call strengthens our hope and our mission to walk alongside the peoples, defending life, dignity, and our Common Home,” he said.
Ways to respond from CEAMA
Inspired by Dilexi Te, CEAMA renews its commitment to four fundamental pastoral axes:
- Listening and itinerancy: extending the missionary presence to the most forgotten territories, accompanying communities where life is threatened by poverty and environmental degradation.
- Encounter with peoples and their knowledge: promoting intercultural dialogue and valuing the spirituality of indigenous, Afro-Amazonian, and riverine peoples as part of the ecclesial face of the Amazon.
- Ecological conversion and integral justice: recognizing that poverty is not only material, but also cultural, spiritual, and ecological, working to defend rivers, the forest, and traditional ways of life.
- Amazonian synodality: strengthening a Church that walks alongside the peoples, integrating their voices and charisms into the processes of discernment and ecclesial participation.
A Church that learns by loving
Cardinal Barreto emphasized that Dilexi Te gives continuity to the Latin American magisterium that began in Aparecida (2007) and continued in Querida Amazonía, and that today is expressed in a deeply pastoral and communal way:
“Pope Leo XIV returns to the conviction that the option for the poor is implicit in Christological faith. His exhortation encourages us to live as a Church that loves, serves, and allows itself to be evangelized by the poor.”
“We are recharged and ready to continue walking with joy and hope,” said Cardinal Barreto. “Dilexi Te renews us in the certainty that God loves the Amazon and invites us to care for the poorest and our Common Home with tenderness and courage.”