During the 12th Pan-Amazonian Social Forum (FOSPA), the vice president of REPAM and Missionary Laurita shared her experience of encountering the Amazonian peoples and highlighted the challenges facing religious life as it continues to support the defense of life and our Common Home.
“The Amazon awaits us.” With these words, Sister Ana María Palomino, a Missionary of Mother Laura (MML) and vice president of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM), summarized the call emerging from the 12th Pan-Amazonian Social Forum (FOSPA): to renew our missionary commitment, strengthen our networks, and walk alongside the Amazonian peoples in the defense of life.
During the gathering, held in Puyo, Ecuador, from August 16 to 21, 2026, the Peruvian religious sister participated in various dialogue sessions with representatives of indigenous peoples, social organizations, pastoral workers, and other stakeholders from the Pan-Amazon region. In an interview with the communications office of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), she shared a perspective deeply rooted in her missionary experience and in the journey of a Church called to listen, accompany, and walk alongside the peoples.
A Gathering That Renews the Missionary Vocation
For Sr. Ana María, meeting once again with the indigenous peoples of the Amazon was an experience of profound joy and gratitude.
“Whenever I meet with the indigenous peoples, it brings me immense joy to be able to share with them, to be close to them, to listen to them, and to dream with them of new paths and new journeys,” she affirmed.
FOSPA also allowed her to reconnect with one of her former students, whom she accompanied during his educational experience in the Amazon and who has now become a binational indigenous leader.
“I said, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to see the fruits,’ but I am now seeing the fruits,” she said emotionally.
This reunion, she noted, represents for her a confirmation of the fruitfulness of a mission that does not seek to replace the peoples, but rather to accompany their processes and help foster new leadership emerging from within their own territories.
“Who could fail to join the cause of the indigenous peoples when one hears their cries, their pleas, when one shares their stories of struggle, of triumph, but also of pain, suffering, and loss?” she asked.
Building Networks to Address the Challenges of the Amazon
One of the clearest messages the nun took away from FOSPA is the awareness among Amazonian peoples of the need to strengthen their coordination.
Indigenous peoples, she explained, recognize the value of their ancestral knowledge, their worldviews, and their spiritualities, but they also know that today’s challenges require them to walk together.
“They are aware that they cannot do this alone, that we must join forces,” she affirmed.
The solution, then, lies in building networks, forging alliances, and charting common paths among peoples and organizations from the various Amazonian countries.
Sister Ana María emphasized that this coordination also reflects a growing awareness that the threats affecting the Amazon are not exclusively a problem for its inhabitants.
“They also recognize that this harm to our Common Home—where they live—affects not only them but all of humanity,” she noted.
From this perspective, the peoples’ commitment takes on a prophetic dimension: denouncing threats, raising awareness, and calling on all of society to assume its responsibility in the face of the ecological crisis.
“It is no longer climate change; it is a climate crisis that has already reached us, and we are already seeing its effects,” she warned.
A Church Called to Be a Bridge and to Walk with the Peoples
The FOSPA experience also led Sister Ana María to highlight the importance of a Church that deepens its synodal dimension.
Recalling one of Pope Francis’s recurring themes, she noted that the Church is called to be a “bridge of encounter,” but also to develop an ever-greater capacity to listen.
“We strengthened that aspect that Pope Francis emphasized so much: being able to serve as a bridge of encounter, knowing how to listen, and walking together,” she said.
For the sister, walking alongside the peoples means recognizing their capabilities, learning from their wisdom, and accompanying their processes without seeking to impose oneself on them.
This perspective connects with the very missionary legacy of St. Laura Montoya, founder of the Missionaries of Mother Laura, whose charism has been deeply linked to the accompaniment of indigenous peoples.
The Amazonian Legacy of Saint Laura Montoya
The Laurite Missionaries maintain a presence in six of the nine countries of the Pan-Amazon region: Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
For Sister Ana María, this presence is a concrete expression of the legacy of the congregation’s founder.
“It is Mother Laura’s will, her charism, her legacy. She wanted to be in that environment, in that setting of the Amazon, and she fought to get there,” she explained.
Laura Montoya’s missionary experience, she recalled, was marked by her decision to personally explore the territories before sending her sisters there.
“She would go first, assess the territory and the route, and then bring her daughters to live in that territory, teaching us how to live there,” she noted.
From this experience emerged a missionary pedagogy based on love, tenderness, and respect for the dignity of the peoples.
“Never look down on them,” Mother Laura used to say. “We had to walk alongside them,” she recalled.
Today, faced with the new challenges of religious life and the declining number of missionaries available to remain in Amazonian territories, the congregation seeks to share its experience with other religious communities.
“You must now help other congregations learn how to be present in those territories, because you have lived this your whole lives. You are teachers in the territory,” the nun recalled, citing a reflection she received from Father Simón Pedro Arnold.
“We don’t do this for the sake of an ideology; we do it based on the Gospel”
The presence of the nuns in the Amazonian territories also involves supporting the communities’ concrete struggles.
Statements, marches, demonstrations, advocacy efforts, and direct accompaniment are all part of a mission that, according to Sister Ana María, stems from a Gospel-based commitment to life and dignity.
“We stand with the peoples in their struggles,” she affirmed.
In response to interpretations that seek to reduce this presence to political or ideological positions, she was clear:
“We do this based on the Gospel. Our position is that every man and woman—including Indigenous peoples—deserves a life of dignity.”
From this perspective, the defense of life, the dignity of peoples, and the care of our Common Home are not secondary elements of the mission, but rather an integral part of a spirituality incarnated in these territories.
Pucallpa: A Papal Visit That Renews Hope
Sister Ana María also shared her anticipation regarding Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming apostolic visit to Pucallpa, scheduled for November 2026—a region she knows well from the years she lived in the Peruvian Amazon.
For her, the Holy Father’s presence in the Ucayali region takes on special significance given the history of violence faced by numerous Indigenous leaders and communities defending their territories.
“I think the Pope’s visit to this region, under these circumstances, will be very comforting for indigenous organizations, communities, peoples, and victimized families,” she said.
The local Church’s preparations, she explained, are not limited to logistical matters. Above all, it is about preparing the heart.
“We must prepare the house, but not so much the structure or infrastructure as the heart—our spirit,” she noted.
For this reason, training programs and gatherings have been organized to prepare pastoral workers, communities, young people, and families in three areas: a personal encounter with Jesus, encountering others, and strengthening the mission.
Sister Ana María believes that Pope Leo XIV can help strengthen these processes and renew the commitment to a Church that goes forth.
“We want pastoral workers to be present in indigenous communities, vulnerable communities, and communities that are suffering,” she said.
An Amazon Under Threat, Yet Full of Hope
According to Sister Ana María, the papal visit will encounter an Amazon region marked simultaneously by grave threats and by community organizations with a strong capacity for resilience and hope.
Among the challenges she highlighted were extractivism, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and the threats faced by indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact.
In particular, she drew attention to the situation of the region’s uncontacted indigenous peoples, whose territories are being affected by illegal activities and other pressures.
“There is much we do not know. Our brothers and sisters need help; they need our support,” she affirmed, highlighting the commitment of indigenous organizations and the Church to defend their rights and ensure the protection of their territories.
Faced with this reality, she believes the Church has a fundamental responsibility: to accompany, listen, inform, and strengthen community processes that seek to defend life.
“The Amazon Awaits Us”
At the end of the interview, Sister Ana María addressed a special message to the religious men and women currently carrying out their mission in the Amazonian territories.
To those remaining in remote communities, she acknowledged their daily dedication and the difficulties of living in territories with severe limitations in communication, healthcare, and access to services.
“A fraternal embrace and deep admiration and respect for my sisters who are on the ground,” she said.
To the congregations that do not yet have a presence in the Amazon, she urged them not to be afraid and to discover new forms of solidarity.
“To those who can be there, take heart. The Amazon awaits us. There is still much to be done for our brothers and sisters in those territories,” she affirmed.
And she recalled that the Amazonian mission can be undertaken in many ways: through direct presence, but also through prayer, hospitality, accompaniment, formation, and solidarity.
“When there is willingness, when there is a spirit of going forth, the Lord’s grace is manifested,” she assured.
Sister Ana María Palomino’s message from the 12th FOSPA thus becomes an invitation to the entire religious life community and to the Amazonian Church: to walk with the peoples, learn from their wisdom, strengthen networks, and remain where life calls for a presence, care, and hope.
Because, as the sister concluded, “the Amazon awaits us”.