Every April 22, the world celebrates International Mother Earth Day, a date that invites us to reflect on our relationship with the planet and, from the perspective of the Church in the Amazon, to renew our commitment to the care of the Common Home. For the indigenous peoples and Amazonian communities, this relationship is not merely functional or utilitarian: The Earth is mother, source of life, sister and home.
From the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), we join this global day reaffirming that the environmental crisis is also a spiritual and cultural crisis. As Pope Francis reminds us in Laudato Si’, “everything is connected” and there will be no possible future for humanity if we do not learn to live in harmony with Creation.
The cries of the Earth and the poor
Today, the Amazon faces multiple threats: deforestation, illegal mining, land trafficking, criminalization of territory defenders, climate change. Faced with this, the Church reaffirms its option for the poor and for the Earth. CEAMA promotes spaces for listening, formation and articulation between communities, dioceses, indigenous peoples and pastoral agents, with a comprehensive and synodal perspective.
This date is an opportunity to strengthen our actions in favor of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 15 (Life on Earth’s Ecosystems), as well as to give concrete witness to a Church that is going forth, Samaritan and prophetic.
An active hope
International Mother Earth Day is not just a commemoration, but a call to action. At CEAMA, we encourage ecclesial communities to organize liturgical celebrations with an ecological focus, awareness workshops, reforestation days and spaces for intercultural dialogue.
We believe in an active hope, woven from below, with the peoples who have inhabited and cared for the Amazon since ancient times. Taking care of Mother Earth is also taking care of the future, justice, peace and full life for everyone.