‘Querida Amazonia’: A reinforcement of Pope Francis’ missiology

Progressives were disappointed. Traditionalists were perplexed. In the end, Querida Amazonia (“Beloved Amazon”), the 2020 Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis following the Synod on the Pan-Amazon region, was neither the revolutionary push that many were fearful of nor the reaffirmation of the well-established Roman Catholic discourse on mission that others could have desired.

Querida Amazonia was rather a reinforcement of Pope Francis’ own missiology. Its tenets had been already enshrined in Evangelii Gaudium (2013), with its call to his Church to be “outgoing”, and furthered affirmed in Laudato Si’ (2015), with its ecological concerns elevated to missiological primary focus. In the latest papal document, these threads are interwoven and more strongly knitted together as they are applied to the Amazon region. Initial reactions to it show the fact that the Pope did not go left or right, but followed his path.

Different Expectations

As already mentioned, the Pope did not back up progressive voices expecting his approval for the consecration to the priesthood of the viri probati (married “men of proven virtue”) and for women to join the diaconate. These measures had been foreshadowed in the Final Document of the Synod (The Amazon: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology) but the Pope kept silent on them.

Perhaps the silence was due to awareness of the fact that, if approved, they would have caused further disruption to a Roman Catholic Church already in turmoil. Both the celibacy of priests and the exclusion of women from the diaconate belong to the Latin tradition to which Rome is committed.

Progressive sectors of the Roman Church (i.e. some Latin American bishops and the majority of the German bishops) supported the relaxation of the vetoes and the eventual admission of married men to the priesthood and of women to the diaconate. Pope Francis did not mention these points, although the Final Document of the Synod makes reference to them. In this respect, Francis wrote that he did not want his Exhortation to replace or duplicate the Final Document (n. 2) – indeed, he called the “entire Church” to apply it (n. 4). So, even though he does not treat the two critical points explicitly, the Final document does and his Exhortation somehow validates it. Francis’ silence is, at best, an ambiguous silence.

While breathing a sigh of relief for not seeing the intentional undoing of well-established traditions, Catholic conservatives were disturbed to find in the papal document a powerful reaffirmation of some idiosyncratic elements of the “outgoing” missiology of the reigning Pope. Apparently weak in doctrinal emphases and overflowing with a “merciful” tone, the Exhortation insists on globalist and nativist themes and focusses on the practice of theological and liturgical inculturation: twenty-five paragraphs are dedicated to inculturation, one fourth of the whole document. The kind of inculturation that is envisaged is basically open to syncretism with indigenous cultures. Querida Amazonia tends to have a very positive view of indigenous cultures – at times somewhat naïve – and in so doing it lacks biblical realism. According to the Bible, cultures are not to be idealized nor demonized: they are mixed bags of idolatry and common grace in need of redemption. Pope Francis tends to idealize native cultures, seeing them as already infused by the grace of God.

The Pope’s “Dreams”

Querida Amazonia presents four dreams that the Pope has for the region. Talking about dreams is very evocative and emotionally engaging. First, Francis has a “social dream” in which he deals with themes such as injustice and crime, a sense of community, broken institutions, and social dialogue. Second, there is a reference to a “cultural dream” whereby the Pope talks about caring for roots, intercultural encounters, endangered cultures,and peoples at risk. Third, reference is made to an “ecological dream” in which the preservation of water reservoirs and the contemplation of the environment are treated together with the need for ecological education and habits. More than half of the document is dedicated to the first three dreams.

Finally, the Pope also has an “ecclesial dream”. In this section he talks about the “message” that the Amazon region needs to hear. The gospel is summarized in this sentence:

“God who infinitely loves every man and woman and has revealed this love fully in Jesus Christ, crucified for us and risen in our lives” (n. 64).

This is the papal kerygma. It is a message of love manifested in Jesus Christ who died and rose and lives in us. This is all biblically right, though selective at best, flawed at worst. There is no reference to sin, the need for repentance and faith, salvation in Christ alone, God’s holiness and righteousness in salvation and judgement, and the biblical framework of the Christian faith.

Francis’ gospel is a proclamation of a divine love that falls on all and is already in all. While it contains elements of the gospel, it is not the biblical gospel. Jesus’s kerygma was “The kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the gospel” (e.g. Mark 1:15). Here God’s action (i.e. his Kingdom) and man’s lostness (i.e. our need to repent) are explicitly stated and interwoven. The need to believe in the gospel is also essential and that implies a transition, a conversion on our part. Without it we are lost and continue to be lost. Unlike the Pope’s truncated message, this is the biblical kerygma.

It is true that the Pope encourages readers of Querida Amazonia to refer to “the brief summary of this great message found in Chapter Four of the Exhortation Christus Vivit”, i.e. the 2019 document issued after the Vatican Synod on the young people. Even there, the gospel is summarized under three headings: “God is love; Christ saves you; the Spirit gives life”. The outlook is Trinitarian, but the content misses the reference to our sinful condition and our responsibility to respond in repentance and faith to God’s love.

Again, the papal gospel looks like an objective and historical message, although void of covenantal premises and consequences, i.e. God’s righteous judgement on sinners. It seems that all have already received God’s love and are saved by Christ and live in the Spirit. Is this universalist message what the biblical gospel teaches? Given the fact that Querida Amazonia is addressed to “all persons of good will”, therefore Christians and non Christians alike, the ambiguity of the account of the gospel contained in the Exhortation is even more striking. The non-Christian reader of the document is not challenged to repent and believe, but is assured that God is love inspite of what she/he believes and stands for.

A Word to Evangelicals: “All this unites us”?

In the final paragraphs, Querida Amazonia makes reference to “ecumenical co-existence”, i.e. a word to Evangelicals and Pentecostals who have become a strong presence in the Amazon region, subtracting people and influence from the Roman Catholic Church. After having summarized his account of the kerygma, Francis writes:

“All this unites us. How can we not struggle together? How can we not pray and work together, side by side, to defend the poor of the Amazon region, to show the sacred countenance of the Lord, and to care for his work of creation?” (n. 109)

Does all this unite us? If “all this” refers to the papal gospel as it is presented earlier, the answer is no. Many words and themes are the same, but they are understood and lived out differently, and what is missing is as important as what is said. Then, the Pope invites Evangelicals and Catholics to “pray and work” together. These two activities do not overlap and need to be distinguished. Certainly there is room for “co-belligerence”, i.e. common action in advocating for the poor and caring for creation. This is both possible and necessary, open to all peoples sharing these concerns. However, common prayer is a spiritual activity requiring unity in the biblical gospel and involvement from born-again Christians.

Does all this unite us? What comes after adds further reasons to answer in the negative. The following paragraph is a heartfelt invocation to Mary (n. 110) by Pope Francis:

Mother whose heart is pierced,

who yourself suffer in your mistreated sons and daughters,

and in the wounds inflicted on nature,

reign in the Amazon,

together with your Son.

Reign so that no one else can claim lordship

over the handiwork of God.

We trust in you, Mother of life.

Do not abandon us

in this dark hour.

Why is the Pope so selective and ambiguous in the presentation of the biblical gospel and why does he spend so many words in the invocation to Mary? Does all this unite Evangelicals and Roman Catholics? No. Is a truncated kerygma and an invocation to Mary (who is said to reign and in whom we are called to trust) the foundation for being united in the gospel? No. After all, Querida Amazonia consolidates the blurred and confusing missiology of Pope Francis.

Leonardo De Chirico is an evangelical pastor in Rome (Italy). He is a theologian and an expert in Roman Catholicism.