The Synod is expected to generate carbon emissions of 572,809kg. The forestry licenses for the reforestation of ​​50 hectares in the Amazon basin will offset the emissions.

Baldisseri says air travel accounts for about 438,373kg of the carbon emissions, with 134,435kg being generated through other activities.

These measurements have been based on the anticipated consumption of energy, water and travel by participants. They include the production of waste and promotional materials.

Bishops from the nine South American countries that share the Amazon are taking part in the Synod.

They aim to highlight the serious threat of destruction hanging over the world's largest rainforest.

One of two Irish participants, Columban missionary Fr Peter Hughes, says he hopes the synod will set out a new view of ecology.

This would be based on Christian faith in God as the creator of a "common home", he says.

Hughes says the Church should firmly place itself alongside the region's indigenous people. This includes defending their territorial rights and way of life.

"The life of the [Amazon] people is intrinsically, inherently part of the territory. If the territory is injured, the people are injured," he says.

In August, as fires blazed across the Amazon, Pope Francis described the forest as vital for the Earth.

He appealed for prayers that the fires would be brought under control.

At that time, Francis told pilgrims in St Peter's Square that the Amazon's green "lung of forest is vital for our planet".

Deforestation would have grave repercussions on the world's environmental health, he said.

Source

• Catholic Ireland
• Image: DW

It is is not official church teaching, he says.

It is a way for bishops to listen to the local church's concerns.

The working document ( also called the Instrumentum Laboris) "isn't a document of the synod, it is for the synod," Hummes told journalists.

"It is the voice of the local church, the voice of the church in the Amazon: of the church, of the people, of the history and of the very earth, the voice of the earth," he said.

Hummes and Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops, responded to a journalist's questions about criticisms against the synod and its working document.

The Vatican-based synod, which began on Sunday and will continue for most of this month, will focus on "Amazonia: New paths for the church and for an integral ecology."

In June, German Cardinal Walter Brandmuller published an essay in which he accused the synod's working document of being heretical.

This is because it refers to the rainforest as a place of divine revelation, he wrote.

He also criticized the synod for its plans to get involved in social and environmental affairs.

Other critics, U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke and Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan, voiced similar accusations in a released on 12 September.

In this, they cited "serious theological errors and heresies" in the synod's working document.

In response, Baldisseri said, "if there is a cardinal or a bishop who does not agree, who sees that there is content that does not correspond (to church teaching), well then, in the meantime I would say that it is necessary to listen and not judge because it isn't a magisterial document."

Baldisseri explained while he believes everyone should be free to express their disagreement, he also thinks it is inappropriate "that a judgment should be made about a document that isn't a pontifical document.

"This is just a working document that will be given to the synod fathers," he said.

"And that will be the basis to begin the work and build the final document from zero. It's also known as a ‘martyred document.'"

Hummes said the synod's working document arose from the church's desire to listen to the local church in the Amazon.

"The church didn't do it for the sake of doing it to only ignore them," he daid.

"No! If it was done, it was so that (the church) could to listen to them. This is the synodal path: to seriously listen."

Source

• Catholic News Service
• Image: America Magazine

The synod will be called "Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology."

At a press conference about the synod's preparatory document, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri said:

"We don't want to preclude anything" although "the Church is currently in its classical position" concerning women's and married men's ordination.

Baldisseri is the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops.

While the document makes no direct mention of the viri probati, meaning married priests, it focuses on the need for a "Church with an Amazonian face".

The Church must discover new ways to provide the Eucharist and pastoral support to the people of the Amazon, especially indigenous people threatened by forced displacement and exploitation, the document says.

It goes on to say a priority will be to propose "new ministries and services for the different pastoral agents, ones which correspond to activities and responsibilities within the community.

"Along these lines, it is necessary to identify the type of official ministry that can be conferred on women, taking into account the central role which women play today in the Amazonian Church".

Baldisseri explained: "The emphasis on women — that they should have a space in the church — doesn't come from" the preparatory document.

"We can listen to the pope who said that there must be space for women in the church at all levels".

In the context of married priests, Baldisseri said that the scope should not be limited to viri probati, which he said can be interpreted in many ways, and "there can also be other ministries" that could be created ad hoc.

"The Church is not static ... there is possibility of movement", he added.

But he urged patience and caution. "Let's leave the time necessary for reflection about everything that is in here".

The document ends with a 30-point questionnaire.

Members of the Church in the Amazon have been invited to give their opinion of the main challenges facing the area.

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• Catholic Philly
• Reuters
• Crux Now
• Image: National Catholic Register

The survey was sent out in June to help prepare for the Synod of Bishops' assembly on young people that will take place in October next year. The synod will be held at the Vatican.

The Vatican international poll targeted people 16-29 years of age. This is the first time the Vatican has directly sought to consult in this way.

Of the 148,247 people who visited the survey site, 65,000 answered all the questions.

About 3,000 left their email addresses and said they wished to be kept informed of the survey's outcome.

In comparison to the 2.5 million people who participated in the 2016 World Youth Day in Poland, the figures are considered "quite low" for a worldwide survey.

Observers noted the survey communications were not very effective in some countries. In some instances the language barrier was a problem. They say as an example, the survey was not translated into German.

German bishops made their own translation and distributed it locally. However, the Synod's secretary-general, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, did not include young Germans' responses in the survey response statistics.

In his summary of comments which young people made about the survey, Baldisseri cited several testimonies from French youth who expressed satisfaction with the way it was carried out.

He also noted criticisms. Some respondents felt it was too long, others felt a number of important issues were hardly addressed or not at all.

These include problems linked to alcohol, drug and medicine consumption, sexuality, relationship issues and links with other religions.

Young people who attended a September seminar which the Vatican held in preparation for the synod had already expressed some of these concerns.

Baldisseri says youth contribution "is essential for the conclusions to correspond to the reality of the Church and society".

Without young people's contribution he says "there is a risk of building ‘castles in the air', which will remain uninhabited because young people do not identify with them", Baldisseri says.

Source

• La Croix
• Image: Catholic Majority

Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the secretary general of the synod, said that married couples will address the gathering immediately after each topic is opened by a bishop.

The synod runs from October 5-19 in Rome and Pope Francis has streamlined its operation.

Each day will deal with a theme from the Instrumentum Laboris, a working document on the synod that was published on June 26.

Topics will include polygamy and abandoned women, but are also expected to cover the challenges posed by the Church's teaching on contraception and abortion in modern society.

The cardinal told the agency Rome Reports: "We will discuss the problems that have also been highlighted by the media, regarding failed marriages, separations, divorces, etc.

"The topics that are relevant to the West, are much more sensitive without a doubt.

"But I would like to point out that each continent has its own specific issues."

Speeches by bishops will be limited to a maximum of four minutes.

At the end of each day, there will be one hour of open debate, but each participant will be allowed to speak only once a day.

Small group sessions will make up most of the second half of the synod and are meant to be the heart of the gathering.

National Catholic Reported editor Dennis Coday expects Pope Francis will be actively involved as president of the synod.

"When Pope John Paul II attended synod assemblies, he was known to pray his breviary," Coday wrote.

"Pope Benedict XVI was a quiet observer. Francis, on the other hand, at meetings likes to engage speakers with questions, jokes and comments."

Coday wrote that this synod will discuss the lived experiences of families today.

It is expected to produce a summary report be sent to dioceses around the world in preparation for another synod next year.

"Any changes to Church practices on marriage and family life will come not this year, but next," Coday wrote.

He quoted Rome reporter Robert Mickens who stated: "Francis has repeatedly said he wants to develop the Synod of Bishops as one of the major components for the governance of the universal Church".

Sources

• The Tablet
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: CathNews USA

That's what the synod's general secretary, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, told the Catholic News Service.

The extraordinary synod from October 5-19 will be attended by presidents of bishops' conferences, heads of eastern Catholic churches and Vatican officials.

There will also be a dozen or more voting members named by the Pope, three priests chosen by the Union of Superiors General, a dozen or more expert advisers, and about a dozen representatives of other Christian churches.

Also present will be up to 30 observers, more than half of whom will be married couples - who will be encouraged to address the assembly, Cardinal Baldisseri said.

The big change from past synods is that the voting members of the extraordinary synod will be asked to submit their presentations in writing at least two weeks before the meeting opens, the cardinal said.

"This is not to limit the discussion, but to help organise it," he said.

The report opening the synod will be a first summary of the bishops' submissions, instead of a rephrasing of the synod working document as in past synods, he added.

During the first week, instead of reading their presentations, the bishops will have "three or four minutes" in summary - focusing only on one theme - and, perhaps, include ideas or clarifications that have come from listening to their brother bishops, he said.

As the bishops address the assembly, the synod's opening report will be modified to reflect the discussion.

At the end of the first week, the revised report will be presented to the assembly.

The second week of the synod will be taken up mainly by work in small groups organised according to language, Cardinal Baldisseri said.

The small groups will work, theme by theme, on amending the summary report.

This is likely to be used as the working document for the 2015 synod.

Cardinal Baldisseri cautioned that decisions about the Church's pastoral approach to families are not expected until after the 2015 synod.

Sources

• Catholic News Service
• Synod Working Document
• Image: Catholic News Agency