The Amazon Synod, Son of Laudato si'

Card. Michael Czerny S.J.

Under-Secretary, Migrants and Refugees Section 

Dicastery for promoting integral human development, Rome

Have you ever opened Google Maps and, beginning in outer space, you keep going down-down-down towards a continent, a country, a city, a street and finally your own house. While every level has its charm and a certain truth, there's something finally very satisfying about reaching reality, concreteness, the here-and-now of life where my all my experiences and relationships are rooted, my desires, projects, my faith, my love and commitments and hopes, right?

So, today we're going to take a trip or odyssey in the style of Google-Maps. We start at the top, with the decisive, definitive and all-encompassing context for our Church and for the vocation of each one of us: the Second Vatican Council. Then wel descend to a viewpoint of both faith and reason, intelligence and spirit, that is to say, the truly catholic vision of Laudato si' . Now, according to its author Pope Francis, Laudato si' has recently had a son: the special Synod of Bishops for the whole Amazon basin with the theme: "New paths for the Church and for an integral ecology". And finally we get close to home, to see what new paths the Church is trying to trace in our own territory.

Here you can download the conference of Card. Czerny