Interview with Sister Laura Vicuña (Brazil), vice president of CEAMA
Within the framework of the synodal path that the Church is living in the Amazon, Sister. Laura Vicuña, Brazilian nun and vice president of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), offered a testimony full of gratitude and hope about what Pope Francis has meant for her life and for the Church in the Amazon territory.
A spring of the Spirit
“Grandpa Francisco was a great spring for us in the Amazon”, He expressed with deep emotion. For Sister Laura, Pope Francis has been a true breath of the Spirit that drives a Church on the move, incarnated in the territory and close to the people. His simplicity, his compassion and his ability to listen have deeply marked his life and ministry: “He has seen us, he has seen the Amazon”.
From the margin to the center
One of the Pope’s main legacies, according to the nun, was to place the Amazon at the very heart of the Church. “He brought it from the periphery to the center”, allowing its beauty, its dramas and its hope to become visible to the world. “The Amazonian people are people of ancient perfumes that continue to perfume the continent against all despair,” he stated.
A Church allied to the people
The Sister Laura Vicuña highlighted that Pope Francis’ teaching has been an authentic ministry of alliance with indigenous peoples. “The Church becomes an ally of the native peoples”, he noted, and recalled how the Pope has courageously assumed the defense of life, collective rights and territory, which for indigenous peoples “is a source of life.”
CEAMA’s commitment to its legacy
Finally, he reaffirmed that the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon is committed to continuing the path outlined by Pope Francis, “making flesh his proposal of a Church, the people of God, a synodal Church without exclusive hierarchy, where all the baptized can contribute to the service of the Kingdom.”.
In every gesture of listening, in every community process and in every choice for life, CEAMA keeps alive the flame lit by Grandfather Francisco: an Amazonian Church, alive and prophetic, that walks with the people and cares for the Common Home.