Pope Leo offers pointed guidance to Amazon region’s bishops

August 20, 2025

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, offered pointed guidance from Pope Leo XIV to the bishops of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon as they held their first assembly in Bogotá, Colombia.

In Pope Leo’s telegram, signed by Cardinal Parolin, the Pontiff asked the bishops to “seek ways to help diocesan bishops and apostolic vicars concretely and effectively carry out their mission. In this regard, he invites you to keep in mind three dimensions that are interconnected in the pastoral work of that region: the mission of the Church to proclaim the Gospel to all, the just treatment of the peoples who dwell there, and the care of the common home.”

“It is necessary that Jesus Christ, in whom all things are recapitulated (cf. Eph 1:10), be announced with clarity and immense charity among the inhabitants of the Amazon, so that we may strive to give them fresh and pure the bread of the Good News and the heavenly food of the Eucharist, the only means to truly be the People of God and the Body of Christ,” the papal telegram continued, as it linked greater societal justice to the proclamation of Jesus Christ:

In this mission, we are moved by the certainty, confirmed by the history of the Church, that wherever the name of Christ is preached, injustice recedes proportionally, for, as the apostle Paul asserts, all exploitation of man by man disappears if we are able to receive one another as brothers and sisters (cf. Phlm 1:16).

The papal telegram then called for care for our common home while warning against nature worship:

Within this perennial doctrine, no less evident is the right and duty to care for the “home” that God the Father has entrusted to us as diligent stewards, so that no one irresponsibly destroys the natural goods that speak of the goodness and beauty of the Creator nor, much less, subjects oneself to them as a slave or worshiper of nature, since things have been given to us in order to attain our end of praising God and thus obtaining the salvation of our souls (cf. St. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, 23).

 

---

For all current news, visit our News home page.

---

 
Further information:

• Telegram of the Holy Father, signed by the Cardinal Secretary of State, to the bishops of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon, 18.08.2025 (Vatican Press Office)
• Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA)
• CEAMA holds first Assembly of Bishops of the Amazon (Vatican News)