Cardinal Leonardo Steiner, president of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), emphasized the need to embrace integral ecology as an essential dimension of the synodal journey and to listen to the peoples who inhabit the Amazonian territories.
The Holy See Press Office hosted a press conference on Friday to present the Fourth Synodal Meeting “Fratelli Tutti: North-South Socio-Environmental Dialogue”, which will take place September 10–12 in Rome. The event serves as a forum for representatives of the Church, labor unions, international organizations, and various stakeholders committed to building more just, fraternal, and sustainable societies.
The meeting is organized by the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, in collaboration with the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM) and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and seeks to deepen a dialogue process that began six years ago, aimed at generating synergies and responses to the social and environmental crises affecting humanity.
Participants in the press conference included Cardinal Jaime Spengler, president of CELAM; Liz Schuler, president of the AFL-CIO; Monsignor Daniel Flores, vice president of the USCCB; Cardinal Leonardo Steiner, president of CEAMA; Gerardo Martínez, member of the Governing Body of the International Labor Organization (ILO), representing workers; and Monsignor Reginald Andrietta, coordinator of CELAM’s Organized Labor Network.
A Dialogue Seeking to Transform Reality
Cardinal Jaime Spengler opened the proceedings by highlighting the value of the synodal path as a methodology and a spirit capable of promoting participatory processes, carried out in communion and oriented toward the Church’s mission.
He emphasized that, given the complexity of today’s challenges, it is necessary to unite the best forces of the North and the South, listen to one another, and discover the dreams that can lead to a dignified life for all people. In this regard, he highlighted the importance of bringing together diverse voices and wills to build consensus and agreements that enable us to act responsibly in the face of the socio-environmental crisis.
For her part, Liz Schuler, president of the AFL-CIO, emphasized social dialogue and the role of workers in building the common good. She pointed out the need to overcome the false dichotomy between job creation and caring for our Common Home, and presented examples of collaboration between labor organizations and companies regarding the energy transition and the development of artificial intelligence.
Schuler also warned of the challenges posed by artificial intelligence to the world of work and advocated for workers to have a voice in decisions regarding the technologies that transform their working conditions.
Along the same lines, Monsignor Daniel Flores, vice president of the USCCB, highlighted the value of creating spaces where people and communities with different perspectives can meet, listen to one another, and seek shared solutions.
Flores particularly emphasized the need to give a voice to those who have no power, by promoting spaces for participation and respect that contribute to a more just social order. For the Church, he affirmed, dialogue is a path to overcoming conflicts and building unity amid the diversity that exists in the Americas.
Cardinal Steiner: “We cannot forget the peoples living in the rainforests”
One of the highlights of the press conference was the remarks by Cardinal Leonardo Steiner, OFM, president of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), who framed socio-environmental dialogue from the perspective of integral ecology, human dignity, and the lives of the Amazonian peoples.
Steiner recalled that the synodal journey necessarily involves incorporating integral ecology and taking seriously the reality of the peoples who inhabit the Amazon region, including indigenous peoples and Quilombola communities, heirs to a history marked by slavery and resistance.
In his remarks, he linked this process to the path opened by Pope Francis through Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti—documents that, he affirmed, have opened up a horizon that the Church and society are called to take seriously.
“A synodal path also means taking seriously what Pope Francis began with Laudato Si’—integral ecology—and then, with Fratelli Tutti, has opened up a new horizon that we cannot forget, but must take seriously.”
For the president of CEAMA, this perspective must illuminate not only the life of the Church but also its evangelizing mission and its commitment to society.
Steiner also incorporated into the discussion one of the great contemporary challenges: artificial intelligence and its relationship to human dignity. In this context, he proposed broadening our perspective and establishing a connection between human dignity and the dignity of nature.
“The dignity of the person could also be connected to the dignity of nature,” he noted, drawing on the vision of St. Francis of Assisi, who recognized all beings as brothers and sisters.
From this perspective, the cardinal highlighted two words he considers fundamental to understanding our relationship with our Common Home: care and cultivation. It is not merely a matter of production, he explained, but of caring for the common good and recognizing that nature cannot be reduced to an object of exploitation.
Cardinal Steiner drew particular attention to the need to listen to and take seriously the peoples living in the rainforests, recognizing their ways of life, their knowledge, and their deep connection to the land.
His remarks thus highlighted a conviction central to CEAMA’s mission: it is not possible to speak of integral ecology without listening to the Amazonian peoples or defending their dignity, their territories, and their ways of life.
Decent Work and a Just Technological Transition
The conference also addressed challenges related to the world of work and technological transformations.
Gerardo Martínez, a workers’ representative on the ILO Governing Body, highlighted the participation of multilateral agencies and organizations from various sectors in the dialogue process. He emphasized the importance of subsidiarity and of strengthening social dialogue as a tool for addressing inequalities on the continent.
Referring to artificial intelligence and innovation processes, he summarized the labor movement’s position in three principles: “do not resist innovation, do not accept exclusion, and negotiate the transition”.
Martínez advocated for workers’ participation in decisions regarding the adoption of new technologies and warned that an algorithm cannot decide on its own regarding employment, wages, or labor rights.
The challenge, he argued, is not to pit technology against work, but to build a relationship between technology, decent work, productivity, distribution, development, and social justice.
Finally, Monsignor Reginald Andrietta, coordinator of CELAM’s Organized Trade Union Network, highlighted the inclusive nature of the process, which seeks to build bridges between Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America.
He recalled Pope Francis’ vision of Latin American integration and noted that these meetings represent concrete steps toward greater unity among the peoples of the Americas.
Andrietta also called for overcoming the culture of indifference, individualism, and an exclusively technocratic perspective, in order to move toward a humanism inspired by Christian ethics and the culture of encounter.
Building Bridges to Care for Life and Our Common Home
The various presentations converged on a fundamental idea: the major social, environmental, labor, and technological challenges of our time cannot be resolved in isolation.
The Fourth Synodal Meeting on “Fratelli Tutti” aims precisely to create spaces for listening and dialogue capable of bringing together diverse perspectives, transcending borders, and generating shared responses.
For CEAMA, Cardinal Leonardo Steiner’s participation reaffirms the importance of placing the voices of the Amazonian peoples, the defense of their territories, and the dignity of all forms of life at the center of the socio-environmental dialogue.
From the Amazon, the call is to understand that caring for our Common Home also means caring for those who inhabit it, recognizing their knowledge and cultures, defending their rights, and building—together with them—paths of justice, fraternity, and hope.
Dialogue between the North and the South, in this sense, cannot be limited to the exchange of ideas. It is called to become a path of listening, discernment, and joint action, capable of responding to the profound crises of our time and of opening horizons for a humanity reconciled with nature and with itself.
Photo: Óscar Elizalde – CELAM Communication Center