On November 3 and 4, 2025, the Commission for the Development of CEAMA’s Synodal Apostolic Horizons met in person at the Consolata Missionaries’ House in Bogotá, taking a decisive step forward in the journey of communal discernment that the Church in the Amazon is undergoing.
The meeting was attended by Monsignor Joselito Carreño, delegate of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia for CEAMA; Sister Sonia Pinho de Matos, delegate of Religious Life for CEAMA in Brazil; Fr. James Sáenz of the Archdiocese of Florence; Lidiane de Aleluia Cristo of REPAM; Alicia Covaleda, consultant to CEAMA; as well as Marcelo Lemos, Viviana Granada, and Carmen de los Ríos of the Executive Secretariat. Mauricio López, member of the Presidency (Ecuador), participated virtually.
During the two days of work, the main messages of the synodal listening process were explored in depth. These messages were the result of territorial consultations and meetings held with bishops, religious life, women, young people, and indigenous people in different areas of the Amazon, including the meetings in Manaus and Bogotá.
The first day focused on reviewing the results of the listening process and defining the essential elements of CEAMA’s identity and mission, while the second day was devoted to identifying the initiatives that emerged most strongly in the listening process (and which are reflected in the synodal apostolic priorities) and discussing the characteristics that CEAMA’s organizational structure should have in order to respond to and support these initiatives.
Executive Secretary Marcelo Lemos also shared the main messages from CEAMA’s recent institutional visit to Rome, highlighting Pope Leo XIV’s support and encouragement for the process underway in the Church in the Amazon.
At the close of the meeting, the participants agreed on the steps for drafting the working document that will be presented to the CEAMA Presidency in the second week of December, as a basis for discerning the Synodal Apostolic Horizons that will guide CEAMA’s evangelizing action in the coming years.
“It has been two intense days, but we leave with the certainty that we have built the foundations of a proposal that faithfully reflects the voice and hope of the Amazonian peoples,” said the members of the Commission at the end of the meeting.
CEAMA thus continues on its path of discernment and communion, consolidating a Church with an Amazonian face, which walks alongside the peoples and bears witness to the hope of the Gospel in the heart of the Amazon.
