By: Fr. Renan Dantas – Diocese of Juína – MT
In the heart of South America, the Amazon stretches like a green blanket covering nine countries, with Brazil being the guardian of most of this sacred territory. On September 5, we celebrate Amazon Day, not only as an environmental milestone, but as a date that calls us to look at this strategic biome with reverence, care, and commitment.
The Amazon is more than just a forest: it is home to indigenous peoples, a sanctuary of biodiversity, and a theological space where faith, culture, and resistance meet.
The Amazon as a living biome
Covering approximately 5.5 million km², the Amazon is considered the largest tropical forest on the planet, responsible for regulating the global climate and home to 10% of all known biodiversity. Its rivers—including the majestic Amazon—carry 20% of the Earth’s surface freshwater.
But this immensity is not just natural wealth. For millions of indigenous people, riverine communities, and extractivists, the forest is home, food, and spirituality. As an elderly woman from the Munduruku ethnic group said: “The forest is mother, the river is blood, and without them there is no life for us.”
“Querida Amazônia”: Pope Francis’ dream
In February 2020, after the Synod for the Amazon, Pope Francis published the apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia, one of the most significant documents of his pontificate.
The Pope outlined four dreams for the region:
- Social dream – justice for the poorest and respect for indigenous cultures.
- Cultural dream – appreciation of ancestral traditions and knowledge.
- Ecological dream – preservation of the forest as a heritage of humanity.
- Ecclesial dream – a Church with an Amazonian face, incarnated in the local reality.
Francis recalled that the Amazon is not only the “lungs of the world,” but also a spiritual heart that beats with hope for the Church and for humanity.
Pope Leo XIV and the mission in the Amazon
In August 2025, during the Meeting of Bishops of the Pan-Amazon Region in Bogotá, convened by the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), Pope Leo XIV sent his message to the more than 90 bishops present, representing 76 ecclesiastical jurisdictions from the nine Amazonian countries.
In the telegram signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, the Pope stated:
“It is necessary that Jesus Christ, in whom all things are recapitulated, be proclaimed with clarity and immense charity among the inhabitants of the Amazon, in such a way that we must strive to give them the fresh and pure bread of the Good News and the heavenly food of the Eucharist, the only means to truly be the people of God and the body of Christ.”
Leo XIV recalled three inseparable dimensions of the Church’s mission in the region:
- the proclamation of the Gospel,
- the just treatment of the peoples who live there,
- and the care of our Common Home.
The message concluded with an exhortation: that no one should irresponsibly destroy the natural goods that speak of the goodness of the Creator, for creation is a gift entrusted to us for the praise of God and the salvation of souls.
Martyrs of the Amazon
Amazon Day is also a living memory of those who gave their lives for the forest and its peoples. These are women and men who became martyrs of hope:
- Sister Dorothy Stang (1931-2005) – Missionary of Notre Dame, murdered in Anapu (PA) for defending small farmers and sustainable extractivism projects. Her last words echo: “The forest is our life.”
- Dom Pedro Casaldáliga (1928-2020) – Bishop of the Prelacy of São Félix do Araguaia (MT). Known as the “prophet of the Amazon,” he confronted large landowners and denounced the exploitation of indigenous peoples. He lived as a martyr of the prophetic word.
- Fr. Ezequiel Ramin (1953-1985) – Comboni missionary, killed in Rondônia while supporting squatters and indigenous people against armed land grabbers. His testimony continues to inspire young missionaries today.
- Sister Cleusa Carolina Rody Coelho (1953-1985) – Consolata missionary, murdered in Lábrea (AM) for defending the rights of indigenous peoples to their territory.
- Fr. João Bosco Penido Burnier (1917-1976) – Jesuit, shot in Ribeirão Cascalheira (MT) while interceding for peasants tortured by the police.
- Brother Vicente Cañas (1944-1987) – Spanish Jesuit, called Kiwxi by the Enawenê-Nawê (MT), among whom he lived and became part of the community. He was brutally murdered for defending the territorial rights of indigenous peoples against the invasion of land grabbers and farmers. His life was a sign of the deep alliance between the Church and the indigenous peoples.
These names are added to so many anonymous ones: indigenous leaders, rubber tappers, and defenders of the forest. The blood shed became a seed of life and justice, reminding us that the struggle for the Amazon is not only ecological, but deeply evangelical.
Challenges and preservation
Despite recent advances in combating deforestation, the numbers are still worrying. Between August 2024 and July 2025, the DETER system recorded 4,495 km² of area under deforestation alert—the second lowest rate in the historical series, but still alarming given the severity of forest loss.
In May 2025, there was a sharp jump: deforestation grew 92% compared to the same month of the previous year, reaching 960 km² destroyed in just 30 days. This increase was driven by fires and pressure from illegal activities. Scientists such as Carlos Nobre warn that if deforestation reaches between 20% and 25% of the forest, the Amazon could reach a point of no return, transforming into savanna — with irreversible impacts on the global climate.
More than an environmental concern, the Amazon is a theological and spiritual place, the Common Home of humanity, as recalled in the encyclical Laudato Si’.
For the Church, defending the forest is part of the mission of caring for creation. Indigenous peoples, with their spirituality rooted in the earth, teach a path of respectful coexistence with nature. Their vision dialogues with the Christian faith, which sees in the created world a reflection of God’s goodness.
September 5 is not only a commemorative date, but a call to action. It is an invitation to celebrate the life that springs from the forest, to honor the testimony of the martyrs, and to renew our commitment to preservation.
The Amazon is a gift to all humanity. To preserve it is to respond to the voice of God that echoes in the jungle, in the rivers, and in the communities that resist there.
On this Amazon Day, Francis’ appeal in Querida Amazônia resounds:
“I dream of an Amazon that fights for the rights of the poorest, that preserves its cultural wealth, that guards its natural beauty, and that is also a place of new paths for the Church.”
And the voice of Leo XIV also echoes, inviting the Church to proclaim Jesus with clarity and charity, caring for our Common Home as a gift entrusted by the Father.
Photo: Fr. Renan Dantas