To remember is to keep the memory alive, to renew our commitments, and to not allow time to make us forget what we are called to defend and transform: life, the dignity of Indigenous peoples, and the care of our Common Home. Seven years after the Pact of the Catacombs for Our Common Home—signed during the Synod for the Amazon in Rome—its commitments remain prophetic and urgent.
On October 20, 2019, as part of the Synod for the Amazon held in Rome, about 200 people—including bishops, synod participants, missionaries, pastoral workers, representatives of indigenous peoples, and other ecclesial and social organizations—gathered in the Catacombs of Saint Domitilla to sign the Pact of the Catacombs for Our Common Home, with its 15 concrete commitments to be lived out on a personal and communal level. Seven years after that event, these commitments remain deeply relevant in the face of the threats affecting the Amazon, its peoples, and the territories that sustain life.
Inspired by the Pact of the Catacombs signed in 1965 during the Second Vatican Council, this new commitment reaffirmed the choice for a poor and servant Church, close to the most vulnerable and committed to the defense of creation. The proposal, promoted in the context of Pope Francis’s pontificate and his call to heed the cry of the poor and of the earth, took on a concrete identity: a Church with an Amazonian face—poor and servant-like, prophetic and Samaritan.
Its commitments keep alive the mission and legacy of Pope Francis, now taken up and encouraged by Pope Leo XIV: “Dear brothers and sisters, what the Church desires is to be a sign of unity in diversity and a safe haven that generates and protects life” (video message to the Sixth General Assembly of CEAMA, March 17, 2026).
A prophetic commitment to remember, renew, and never forget
The celebration, presided over by Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, then president of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM), was marked by the memory of the martyrs and prophets who gave their lives for justice, the peoples, and the defense of our Common Home. Symbolic gestures—such as the use of objects linked to witnesses of the Church committed to the poor and the footprints left by the participants—expressed the desire to renew a mission that unites faith with the defense of life.
Seven years later, the Pact continues to challenge the Church and society. The pressure on Amazonian territories, violence against its communities, the exploitation of natural resources, and threats to the cultures and spiritualities of indigenous peoples make it even more urgent to renew the commitments made. It is not merely a matter of remembering a historical event, but of discerning how to translate its principles into decisions, ways of life, and concrete actions.
On this anniversary, recalling the Pact is also an invitation to prayer, to personal and communal conversion, and to prophetic action. It means renewing the preferential option for the poor, recognizing indigenous peoples as protagonists of their own history, and strengthening an integral ecology that cares for forests, rivers, cultural diversity, and all forms of life.
In light of today’s challenges, the Catacombs Pact for Our Common Home remains a roadmap for a Church that listens, accompanies, and defends life. Its strength lies not only in the signatures of those who signed it, but in the ability to bring its commitments to life wherever human dignity and creation are threatened.
Seven years later, the question remains open: How can we renew our covenant today with the Amazonian peoples and with our Common Home?
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Learn about and read the Catacombs Pact for Our Common Home here:
For a Church with an Amazonian face—poor and servant-like, prophetic and Samaritan
We, the participants in the Pan-Amazonian Synod, share in the joy of living among numerous indigenous peoples, Quilombolas, riverine communities, migrants, and communities on the outskirts of cities throughout this vast region of the planet. With them, we have experienced the power of the Gospel at work among the little ones. Our encounter with these peoples challenges us and invites us to a simpler life of sharing and generosity. Moved by their cries and tears, we wholeheartedly embrace the words of Pope Francis:
“Many brothers and sisters in the Amazon bear heavy crosses and await the liberating comfort of the Gospel, the loving embrace of the Church. For them, with them, let us walk together.”
We remember with gratitude the bishops who, in the Catacombs of Saint Domitilla at the end of the Second Vatican Council, signed the Pact for a Servant and Poor Church. We reverently remember all the martyrs—members of the basic ecclesial communities, pastoral groups, and popular movements; indigenous leaders; missionaries; laypeople; priests; and bishops—who shed their blood because of this commitment to the poor, in defense of life, and in the struggle to safeguard our Common Home. To our gratitude for their heroism, we add our resolve to continue their struggle with steadfastness and courage. A sense of urgency compels us in the face of the attacks that are currently devastating the Amazon region, which is threatened by the violence of a predatory and consumerist economic system.
Before the Most Holy Trinity, our particular Churches—the Churches of Latin America and the Caribbean, and those standing in solidarity with us in Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and North America—at the feet of the apostles Peter and Paul and the multitude of martyrs of Rome, Latin America, and especially our Amazon region, in deep communion with the successor of Peter, we invoke the Holy Spirit and commit ourselves, both personally and as a community, to the following:
In the face of the extreme threat of global warming and the depletion of natural resources, we commit ourselves to defending the standing Amazon rainforest—both within our territories and through our attitudes. From it come the gifts of water for much of South America, its contribution to the carbon cycle and the regulation of the global climate, incalculable biodiversity, and a rich social diversity for humanity and the entire Earth.
- To recognize that we are not the owners of Mother Earth, but her sons and daughters, formed from the dust of the earth (Gen 2:7–8), guests and pilgrims (1 Pet 1:17b and 1 Pet 2:11), called to be her zealous stewards (Gen 1:26). Therefore, we commit ourselves to an integral ecology, in which everything is interconnected—the human race and all of creation—because all beings are daughters and sons of the earth, and the Spirit of God hovers over them (Genesis 1:2).
- To embrace and renew each day God’s covenant with all creation: “As for me, I will establish my covenant with you and your descendants, with every living creature that is with you—birds, domestic and wild animals—in short, with every beast of the earth that came out of the ark with you” (Gen 9:9–10; Gen 9:12–17).
- To renew in our churches the preferential option for the poor, especially for indigenous peoples, and together with them to guarantee their right to be active participants in society and in the Church. To help them preserve their lands, cultures, languages, histories, identities, and spiritualities.
- Grow in the awareness that they must be respected both locally and globally and, consequently, encourage—by every means at our disposal—their inclusion on an equal footing in the global community of other peoples and cultures.
- Consequently, in our parishes, dioceses, and groups, to abandon all forms of colonialist mentality and attitudes, embracing and valuing cultural, ethnic, and linguistic diversity in a respectful dialogue with all spiritual traditions.
- To denounce all forms of violence and aggression against the autonomy and rights of indigenous peoples, their identity, their territories, and their ways of life.
- Proclaim the liberating newness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by welcoming others and those who are different, as happened with Peter at Cornelius’s house: “You know very well that it is forbidden for a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to enter his house. But now God has shown me that I should not call any person profane or unclean” (Acts 10:28).
- To walk ecumenically with other Christian communities in the inculturated and liberating proclamation of the Gospel, and with other religions and people of good will, in solidarity with Indigenous peoples, the poor, and the marginalized, in defense of their rights and in the preservation of our Common Home.
- To establish in our particular churches a synodal way of life, where representatives of Indigenous peoples, missionaries, and laypeople—by virtue of their baptism and in communion with their pastors—have a voice and a vote in diocesan assemblies, in pastoral and parish councils, and, in short, in all matters pertaining to the governance of the communities.
- To commit ourselves to the urgent recognition of the ecclesial ministries already existing in the communities, carried out by pastoral workers, Indigenous catechists, and ministers of the Word, placing special value on their care for the most vulnerable and excluded.
- To bring about, in the communities entrusted to us, a shift from a pastoral ministry of visitation to one of presence, ensuring that the right to the Table of the Word and the Table of the Eucharist is realized in all communities.
- To recognize the services and genuine diaconal ministry of the large number of women who lead communities in the Amazon today and to seek to consolidate these roles through an appropriate ministry for women community leaders.
- Seek new paths for pastoral action in the cities where we work, with laypeople and young people taking the lead, paying attention to the city’s peripheries and to migrants, workers and the unemployed, students, educators, researchers, and the world of culture and communication.
- To confront the onslaught of consumerism with a lifestyle that is joyfully sober, simple, and in solidarity with those who have little or nothing; to reduce waste production and the use of plastics; to promote the production and marketing of agroecological products; and to use public transportation whenever possible.
- Stand alongside those who are persecuted for their prophetic service of denouncing and redressing injustices, defending the earth and the rights of the least among us, and welcoming and supporting migrants and refugees. Cultivate true friendships with the poor; visit the simplest and the sick, exercising the ministry of listening, comforting, and supporting—which brings encouragement and renews hope.
Aware of our weaknesses, our poverty, and our smallness in the face of such great and serious challenges, we entrust ourselves to the prayer of the Church. May our ecclesial communities, above all, help us through their intercession, their love in the Lord, and, when necessary, through the charity of fraternal correction.
We welcome with open hearts Cardinal Hummes’ invitation to be guided by the Holy Spirit during these days of the Synod and upon our return to our churches:
“Let yourselves be enveloped in the mantle of the Mother of God and Queen of the Amazon. Let us not allow self-centeredness to overcome us, but rather let mercy prevail in the face of the cry of the poor and of the earth. Much prayer, meditation, and discernment will be required, as well as a concrete practice of ecclesial communion and a synodal spirit. This synod is like a table that God has prepared for his poor, and he asks us to be the ones who serve at that table.”We celebrate this Eucharist of the Covenant as “an act of cosmic love.” “Yes, cosmic! Because even when it takes place at the small altar of a village church, the Eucharist is always celebrated, in a certain sense, on the altar of the world.” The Eucharist unites heaven and earth; it embraces and permeates all creation. The world that came forth from God’s hands returns to Him in joyful and complete adoration: in the Eucharistic Bread, “creation tends toward divinization, toward the holy marriage, toward unification with the Creator Himself.” “For this reason, the Eucharist is also a source of light and motivation for our concern for the environment, and leads us to be guardians of all creation.”
Catacombs of Saint Domitilla, Rome, October 20, 2019
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* Fr. Julio Caldeira is a Consolata missionary in the Colombian Amazon. Vice President of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM), he is the author of the books *Avancen para aguas más profundas* and *Iglesia con rostro amazónico*, published by Editorial CELAM in 2025.