This archive report was first published on 6 October 2019.
Pope Francis has opened a synod in Rome to address the Amazon's environmental crisis, condemning the destructive interests he blames for the devastating fires in the region.
The synod, which runs until October 27, aims to champion the Amazon's poverty-stricken and isolated indigenous communities, who are bearing heavy crosses and awaiting the liberating consolation of the Gospel, the Church's caress of love.
Francis denounced the destruction of the Amazonian rainforest in his 2015 encyclical on ecology and climate change, 'Laudato Si', and has now taken a strong stance against the destructive interests he believes are responsible for the fires.
"The fire set by interests that destroy, like the fire that recently devastated Amazonia, is not the fire of the Gospel," Francis said before the bishops from the nine countries of the pan-Amazonian region and representatives of indigenous peoples.
"The fire of God is warmth that attracts and gathers into unity. It is fed by sharing, not by profits," he added.
Francis' hopes of bringing the Catholic faith to far-flung populations will also see the bishops gathered in Rome debate a highly controversial proposal - allowing married men to become priests.
The issue deeply upsets some traditionalists, who argue that making an exception for the Amazon would open the door to the end of celibacy for priests, which is not a Church law and only dates back to the 11th century.
Among those attending the synod as an observer was Sister Laura Vincuna, a missionary trying to protect the territories of the Caripuna indigenous people in the Brazilian Amazon.
"Help us defend our motherland, we have no other home!" she said on Saturday.
"Earth, water, forest: without these three elements nobody can do anything," she added.
