Barbara Fraser

As the second and final session of the synod on synodality continues at the Vatican, the roots of that meeting trace back to the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region held a half-decade earlier.

Peru's bishops have called on the country's government to stop violence that claimed at least 18 lives in anti-government protests Jan. 9-10 and has left more than 40 people dead and hundreds injured since early December.

The church in Latin America and the Caribbean is called to be a missionary church that heeds the cry of the poor and excluded; a synodal church where women, young people and laypeople have greater roles; and a church that is evangelized even as it evangelizes, according to the final document of the church's First Ecclesial Assembly held a year ago in Mexico.

After the death in the Brazilian forest of an Indigenous man who was thought to be the last of his tribe and who shunned all contact with outsiders, Amazonian church leaders said it is more important than ever to protect the region's remaining semi-nomadic, isolated peoples.

In Laudato Si' and Querida Amazonia, Francis built bridges with Indigenous peoples, but work remains to be done, women leaders say.

Communities affected by mining — and church people working with them — draw strength from spiritualties that center on protecting what Pope Francis calls "our common home," according to members of the Churches and Mining Network, who met in Latin Ameria April 24–28.

Peru's Catholic bishops published a two-page plea to the country's leaders, urging them to address the current political crisis with "greater responsibility" and take "radical measures" to fight corruption.

Easter not only holds God's promise of new life, it also reminds us of how closely our lives intertwine with all of creation on this planet that Pope Francis calls "our common home." Here are four ideas for how to incorporate creation care into your Easter celebrations this year.

Oil spills on opposite sides of Peru — one near Lima and the other in a remote Indigenous village in the Amazon — brought together Catholics in the two regions for simultaneous Masses as they marked the second anniversary of Querida Amazonia.

A spirituality closely bound to God's creation has deep roots in Scripture, is echoed by Pope Francis in documents like Laudato Si' and Querida Amazonia, and can be illuminated by Indigenous peoples' ways of living.

After an oil spill fouled nearly 100 miles of shoreline north of Lima, Bishop Luis Barrera Pacheco of Callao, the seaport where the accident occurred, called for officials to repair the damage and care for "our common home."

Aligning with Indigenous worldviews, the movement to recognize nature as having the same rights as people is rooted in the belief that the Earth and its ecosystems have intrinsic value — beyond how humans use them.

A new report about the Amazon Basin's natural and human history, released Nov. 12 at the United Nations climate conference, COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland, points to potential solutions to prevent further degradation of tropical ecosystems in the region.

From 'climate crisis' to 'climate migrants,' the language used to talk about climate change shapes attitudes and public policies.

The U.S. generates more than 280 pounds of plastic waste per person annually, and some of that reaches the ocean. A new government-funded study calls for greater efforts to tackle that.

Gregory Asner has seen the devastating impact of a warming ocean on coral reefs in his home state of Hawaii. He has been studying coral up close for the past half-dozen years, logging some 16,000 dives on reefs around the world.

In naming their Laudato Si' initiative after martyred Sr. Dorothy Stang, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Ohio honor her legacy of love for the environment and desire to protect the rainforest of Brazil. 

Amazonian Indigenous leaders are waiting to see whether promises made at COP26 will be empty words — and whether their territorial rights will be respected.

The outcomes of this climate conference must spur people of faith toward the ecological conversion of which Pope Francis speaks.

Keeping the pledge to stop deforestation in this decade will mean facing up to powerful economic interests, corruption and organized crime and respecting Indigenous territorial rights.