Amazonia – Cardinal Czerny visits outskirts of Manaus in center of Amazon
Cardinal Michael Czerny, the Cardinal Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, participates in the CEAMA Assembly, and brings his closeness and messages of respect and love for those on the outskirts of the Brazilian city of Manaus in the heart of the Amazon.
Pope Francis' Church is one that goes to different places to listen, to learn, to discern. Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development, has embodied this way of being Church. He arrived in Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon, to take part in the Assembly of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA) from 8 to 11 August, but before the Assembly began, just hours after landing in the middle of the Amazon jungle, he wanted to get to know the local reality.
Cecilia Vargas works in the Dialogue and Listening Section of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development and accompanies CEAMA and the Territorial Ecclesial Networks, including the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM), currently based in Manaus, which pioneered an ecclesial experience that has spread to all continents.
The advisor says that she arrived in Manaus together with the prefect of the Dicastery "to learn how integral human development and the Vatican can provide better accompaniment, in addition to bringing a word of hope from the Holy Father, Pope Francis."
Need to respect human dignity
Her first contact with the local reality was a meeting with the Archbishop, Cardinal Leonardo Steiner; the auxiliary bishop, Dom Tadeu Canavarros; and members of Caritas, the Catholic Faculty of Amazonas, the Pastoral Coordination and other pastoral agents. A meeting in which, according to Vargas, they wanted to listen, and, in which, she says, she learnt "fundamental things, what their hopes are, for example, to work on the issue of human dignity, of all, migrants, indigenous people, women, children, and at the same time to attend to their suffering, which unfortunately today is marked by sexual exploitation and the negligence of the authorities."
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