Cardinal Czerny: 25 years of gatherings in ‘service of the Amazon’

By Kielce Gussie

In a message to the 25th Inter-Institutional Meeting of the Amazonian Itinerant Team, Cardinal Michael Czerny expressed his gratitude to God for a quarter of a century of gatherings with various institutions, traveling paths together, serving the Amazon, and seeking answers.

These years provide an opportunity to stop, reflect, and examine the past, present and future. “A true Christian anniversary must also be an examination of conscience,” the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development stressed

That is why the meeting’s theme is so poignant: “Itinerant Team: Our LIFE in mission is CARE,” together with the motto: “Weaving charisms and resources at the service of the Kingdom.”

Cardinal Czerny went on to offer three questions to the meeting participants: What have we done for Christ? What are we doing for Christ? What will we do for Christ?

What have we done?

An anniversary like twenty-five years warrants an honest and grateful look back.

While there is much for which to be thankful, the mission of the Itinerant Team is not just to bring something to others but also to listen, learn, accompany, and make oneself open to transformation.

The Prefect argued that the Synod for the Amazon was a reminder that the Church needs pastoral, cultural, ecological, and synodal conversion. However, he stressed, these are not simply “words to decorate our mission; they are concrete paths of conversion that require an honest review of our lives.”

FILE PHOTO: A view of attendees, including a representative of one of the Amazon Rainforest’s ethnic groups, on the second day of the Special Assembly of the Synod for the Pan-Amazon Region   (AFP or licensors)

What are we doing today?

“We are living through a time that has undoubtedly been a kairós. But kairós is not a comfortable time,” Cardinal Czerny noted. Rather, it is a time that God calls for a response.

The Amazon today is still wounded, “perhaps more than ever”, as its people endure threats, abuse, exploitation, and new forms of violence. “Our common home continues to be attacked,” the Prefect stressed.

Pope Leo XIV—continuing on Pope Francis’ road of listening to the People of God—is helping discern the Church’s steps moving forward in the Amazon.

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In his message to the 6th Assembly of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon in March 2026, Pope Leo offered the image of the “shihuahuaco, a tree that grows slowly and, over time, becomes an ecosystem and a refuge for many forms of life.” This image is a way to understand the Church’s call to be “a sign of unity in diversity and a safe refuge that generates and protects life.”

Pope Leo calls the Church to walk alongside those who suffer, care for creation, and respect life in any form, particularly human life. For this reason, stressing the importance of a Church with an “Amazonian face” must not be simplified to an institutional expression. “Inculturation is a difficult but necessary path,” Cardinal Czerny said.

What will we do?

While the Prefect gave responses to the first two questions, with the third, he offered no explicit answer. Rather, he said, he “would like to invite” the members of the meeting “to discern it together before the Lord.”

What new initiatives, partnerships, ways of living out the Gospel mission God calling us to? “What needs to die so that something new can be born?”

Pope Leo offered the reminder that Christ’s love calls everyone to go out and respond in generosity and courage.

The Prefect concluded his message inviting all those involved to enter the meeting with the perspective of disciples who allow themselves to be questioned by the Lord. The answer, he said, is not solely that of the participants but of all.