March 13, 2025 marks the twelfth anniversary of the pontificate of Pope Francis, characterized by his deep concern for the care of the Common Home, especially the Amazon. Below, we highlight 12 landmarks that reflect his love for this region and its peoples.
By Fr. Julio Caldeira, IMC
Since the beginning of his pontificate on March 13, 2013, Pope Francis has emphasized the importance of caring for the planet, which he calls the “Common Home.” Through speeches, messages and meetings, he has expressed great affection and concern for the Amazon and its peoples. Here are 12 key moments in which he has addressed this cause:
1. Be custodians of creation
In his first speech as pope (March 19, 2013), Francis called on humanity to be custodians of creation and to protect both nature and other human beings. He stressed the importance of kindness and tenderness as essential elements in this commitment.
“I would like to ask, please, all those who hold positions of responsibility in the economic, political or social sphere, all men and women of good will: let us be ‘guardians’ of creation, of God’s plan inscribed in nature, guardians of the other, of the environment; Let us not allow the signs of destruction and death to accompany the path of this world of ours. But, in order to ‘guard’, we also have to take care of ourselves. Let us remember that hatred, envy, arrogance dirty life. To guard then means to watch over our feelings, our heart, because that is where good and bad intentions come from: those that build and those that destroy. We must not be afraid of goodness, indeed not even of tenderness.”
2. Strengthening the “Amazonian face” of the Church
During his trip to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day (July 27, 2013), the Pope urged to strengthen the pastoral presence in the Amazon, promoting an indigenous clergy adapted to local conditions.
“The work of the Church must be further encouraged and relaunched [in the Amazon]. Qualified instructors are needed, especially formators and professors of theology, to consolidate the results achieved in the field of the formation of an indigenous clergy, to also have priests adapted to local conditions and to strengthen, so to speak, the ‘Amazonian face’ of the Church.”
3. Joy for the creation of REPAM
In September 2014, the Pope celebrated the founding of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM) as a key initiative for the defense of the Amazon and its peoples.
“Rejoicing to see your request fulfilled, regarding the creation of this innovative network that is concretely oriented to ecological issues in the Amazon, Pope Francis wishes you every success, reminding everyone that the digital network must be a place rich in humanity: it is not a network of cables, but of human persons. (…) With the hope that the daily work of those who collaborate in the Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network will contribute to extending spaces of understanding and solidarity between men and the people, constantly reflecting that “Light of the Nations” – Christ – which shines on the face of the Universal Church and of the local Churches, the Holy Father grants them with friendship and trust the implored Apostolic Blessing”.
4. Laudato Si’: a call to care for the Common Home
With the encyclical Laudato Si’ (May 15, 2015), Francis reaffirmed the need for an integral ecology, noting that “everything is connected” and advocating for structural changes in the economy and politics to protect the planet.
The central proposal is in an integral ecology that “incorporates the peculiar place of the human being in this world and his relations with the reality that surrounds him” (LS 15), and in the “commitment to another lifestyle” (LS 203) that exerts “a healthy pressure on those who hold political, economic and social power” (LS 206). It presents the need for care for the planet, which is based on the relationship between God, human beings and nature, where “everything is connected” (LS 138).
5. Pedagogy of integral ecology
In Quito, Ecuador (July 7, 2015), the Pope underscored the responsibility to preserve the Amazon for future generations, promoting a global ecological awareness.
“We are here today brothers of native peoples from the Ecuadorian Amazon. (…) And here Ecuador – along with the other countries with Amazonian fringes – has an opportunity to exercise the pedagogy of an integral ecology. We have received the world as an inheritance from our fathers, but let us also remember that we have received it as a loan from our children and from future generations to whom we have to return it! And improved. And this is free! From the fraternity lived in the family, that second value is born, solidarity in society, which does not consist only in giving to the needy, but in being responsible for one another. If we see in the other a brother, no one can be excluded, no one can be set aside.”
6. World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation
Instituted on September 1, 2015, as is the case in the Orthodox Church, this Day invites believers and communities to renew their commitment to the protection of the environment.
“The World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which will be celebrated annually, will offer every believer and communities a precious opportunity to renew personal adherence to their vocation as custodians of creation, raising to God thanksgiving for the marvellous work that He has entrusted to our care. invoking his help for the protection of creation and his mercy for the sins committed against the world in which we live, … for carrying out appropriate initiatives of promotion and animation, so that this annual celebration may be an intense moment of prayer, reflection, conversion and the assumption of coherent lifestyles”.
7. Learning from indigenous peoples
In his visit to Colombia (September 7, 2017), Francis highlighted the “arcane wisdom” of the Amazonian peoples and the need to learn from their vision of life and nature.
“I would like to address one thought to the challenges of the Church in the Amazon, a region of which they are rightly proud, because it is an essential part of the wonderful biodiversity of this country. (…) I think, above all, of the arcane wisdom of the Amazonian indigenous peoples and I wonder if we are still capable of learning from them the sacredness of life, respect for nature, the awareness that not only instrumental reason is sufficient to fill man’s life and answer his most disturbing questions. For this reason, I invite you not to abandon the Church in the Amazon to herself. The consolidation of an Amazonian face for the pilgrim Church here is a challenge for all of you, which depends on the growing and conscious missionary support of all the Colombian dioceses and their entire clergy.”
8. Convening of the Amazon Synod
On October 15, 2017, the Pope announced a special synod for the Pan-Amazon, held in October 2019, with the aim of finding new paths for evangelization and integral ecology.
“The main objective of this convocation is to identify new ways for the evangelization of that portion of the People of God, especially of the indigenous people, often forgotten and without the prospect of a serene future, also because of the crisis of the Amazon rainforest, a lung of vital importance for our planet. May our saints intercede for this ecclesial event, so that, with respect for the beauty of creation, all the peoples of the earth may praise God, Lord of the universe, and, enlightened by him, may walk paths of justice and peace.”
9. Defense of life, land and cultures
During his visit to Puerto Maldonado, Peru (January 19, 2018), Francis denounced threats against indigenous peoples and advocated for the protection of their rights and territories.
“I wanted to come to visit you and listen to you, to be together in the heart of the Church, to join your challenges and with you to reaffirm a sincere option for the defense of life, defense of the earth and defense of cultures. Amazonian indigenous peoples have probably never been as threatened in their territories as they are now. (…) “We have to break with the historical paradigm that considers the Amazon as an inexhaustible pantry of the States without taking into account its inhabitants. I consider it essential to make efforts to generate institutional spaces for respect, recognition and dialogue with native peoples; assuming and rescuing the culture, language, traditions, rights and spirituality that are their own. An intercultural dialogue in which you are the “main interlocutors, especially when it comes to advancing large projects that affect your spaces” (LS 146)”.
10. Peace through ecological conversion
On the World Day of Peace (1 January 2020), the Pope linked peace with the need for ecological reconciliation, urging a change in the relationship between humanity and nature.
“Faced with the consequences of our hostility towards others, lack of respect for the common home and the abusive exploitation of natural resources – seen as useful tools only for immediate benefit, without respect for local communities, for the common good and for nature – we need an ecological conversion. The recent Synod on the Amazon leads us to renew the call for a peaceful relationship between communities and the land, between the present and memory, between experiences and hopes. This path of reconciliation is also listening to and contemplating the world that God gave us to make it our common home.”
11. “Querida Amazonía”: dreams for the region
The Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia (February 12, 2020) sets forth four dreams: social, cultural, ecological and ecclesial, as pillars for a sustainable and just future in the region.
“I dream of an Amazon that fights for the rights of the poorest, of the native peoples, of the least, where their voice is heard and their dignity is promoted. I dream of an Amazon that preserves that cultural richness that makes it stand out, where human beauty shines in such diverse ways. I dream of an Amazon that jealously guards the overwhelming natural beauty that adorns it, the overflowing life that fills its rivers and jungles. I dream of Christian communities capable of giving themselves and incarnating themselves in the Amazon, to the point of giving the Church new faces with Amazonian features” (QA 7).
12. Creation of CEAMA
In response to the Amazon Synod, on June 29, 2020, the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA) was founded, a synodal structure that involves the entire People of God in the mission of the Church in the region.
This is strengthened by the request of Pope Francis, together with his four dreams for this territory and for the whole Church, “that the pastors, consecrated men and women and lay faithful of the Amazon commit themselves to its application (QA 4). Cardinal Claudio Hummes recalled that it was Pope Francis himself who proposed that the new Conference not only be episcopal, but that it should advance in an ecclesial structure that “involves all categories of the People of God, where all are members.” This was confirmed by a chirograph sent on December 16, 2021: “I confirm the creation of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), erected with formal recognition from the Congregation for Bishops, dated October 9, 2021. Its creation entails the recognition of its ecclesiastical public juridical personality” (Francis).
With these and various other milestones, Pope Francis has consolidated his commitment to the Amazon, promoting a model of Church that respects, listens to and defends its peoples and their biodiversity.