The Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA) actively participated in the Second Ecclesial Assembly of the Peruvian Amazon, a space for community discernment, listening, and pastoral planning that brought together nearly 90 participants from Peru’s eight Amazonian vicariates* over three days, including bishops, pastoral agents, and indigenous leaders.
*Apostolic Vicariates of the Peruvian Amazon: San José del Amazonas, Iquitos, Yurimaguas, Requena, Jaén, Pucallpa, San Ramón, Puerto Maldonado.
Representing CEAMA was Cardinal Pedro Barreto SJ, president of CEAMA, who encouraged the process of reflection and dialogue from the perspective of a synodal Church with an Amazonian face and committed to the integral defense of life and our Common Home. Also present were Monsignor Martín Quijano SDB, bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Pucallpa, and Father Juan Huamán, of the Apostolic Vicariate of Puerto Maldonado, delegates of the Peruvian Amazon for CEAMA.
The Assembly reaffirmed the synodal path of the Church in the Amazon, placing at its center listening to the cries of the peoples and the earth, in a context marked by the climate crisis, the advance of extractivism, and the violation of the rights of indigenous peoples, especially women, girls, and adolescents. From this perspective, the urgency of strengthening alliances, accompanying processes of resistance and hope, and consolidating prophetic and coordinated pastoral action was emphasized.
One of the central agreements of the meeting was to move towards the participatory construction of an Inter-Vicariate Pastoral Plan, as a concrete expression of the synodal path being followed by the Amazonian Church, in tune with the social, cultural, ecological, and ecclesial dreams of Querida Amazonía. This plan will seek to articulate the pastoral, formative, and advocacy efforts of the vicariates, promoting a Church that reaches out, is close to the people, and is committed to socio-environmental justice.
During the Assembly, key issues were also explored in depth, such as the recognition of water as a right, life, and subject; pastoral and legal accompaniment in the face of illegal mining and other threats to the territories; the intercultural transmission of the faith; the protagonism of indigenous peoples in ecclesial processes; and the path toward the Amazonian Rite, understood as a communal, synodal process deeply incarnated in Amazonian cultures.
Likewise, it was agreed to create an Inter-Vicariate Commission on Women, aimed at articulating, strengthening, and accompanying the processes that Amazonian women promote in the territories, recognizing their fundamental role in the care of life, the defense of the territory, pastoral action, and the construction of a more just and inclusive Church.
With its participation in the Second Ecclesial Assembly of the Peruvian Amazon, CEAMA reaffirms its commitment to walk alongside the Amazonian peoples, promoting a Church that listens, discerns, and acts from a perspective of synodality, interculturality, and integral ecology, as a sign of hope in the face of the challenges facing the Amazon today.