“Everything that the Church has to offer must become incarnate in a distinctive way in each part of the world, so that the Bride of Christ can take on a variety of faces that better manifest the inexhaustible riches of God’s grace.” — Pope Francis, Querida Amazonia: Post-Synodal Exhortation Concerning the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon

In this apostolic exhortation, Querida Amazonia (“The Beloved Amazon”), Pope Francis offers a response to the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon held in Rome in October 2019 and its final document The Amazon: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology.

The pope writes this exhortation to all the faithful calling us to the task of addressing the serious social, environmental, and spiritual issues facing the region, sharing his four dreams for the people of the Amazon:

• A social dream — in which we fight for the dignity of the poor in the region
• A cultural dream — in which the riches and beauty of the Amazonian culture is preserved
• An ecological dream — in which we all strive to preserve the natural beauty of the Amazon
• An ecclesial dream — in which the faithful boldly create paths of inculturation, so that the goodness of the Amazonian culture is brought to fulfillment in light of the Gospel

Pope Francis asks: “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?”