"What is the Amazonian face? Can a synod next October of this magnitude be built with a presentation so far from reality, from identity, from respect for what is different, when pre-established schemes of interpretation of reality deform what is real?" he questioned.

Bishop emeritus José Luis Azcona, says the Instrumentum fails to address the Church's most pressing challenges: a growing Pentacostal majority; child labour, abuse and trafficking; and a spiritual crisis.

The growing Pentecostal majority (in some parts eighty percent) is important because "the Amazon, at least the Brazilian Amazon, is no longer Catholic," Azcona says.

The Pentecostal church has moved into several indigenous ethnic groups, overrunning cultures, ethnic identities and indigenous peoples in the name of the Gospel. This is a serious phenomenon in today's Amazon, Azcona says.

Another serious issue is child abuse - also overlooked in the Instrumentum.

"Unfortunately, the synod doesn't know... the faces of anguished, re-victimized and denigrated children, [abused] by their own parents and relatives, subjected to a slavery that forms an essential part of the abandoned and destroyed face of Jesus ...

"Where is the pastoral sensitivity, so evident and so firmly expressed by the Holy Father Pope Francis, expressed by those responsible for the Instrumentum laboris?" he asked.

Azcona is critical of the Instrumentum's themes around the inculturation of the Gospel in the Amazon region.

These "are presented in a context of immanence, Neo-Pelagianism, leveling out the Gospel with Amazonian (indigenous) cultures, ecclesiologically devoid of theological and pastoral foundations, annulling the Gospel of salvation."

"Forgetting this fundamental principle renders the synod useless and nullifies the specific and unique power of God in the Gospel, as well as all missionary dynamism ...".

Azcona says "the need for repentance for the forgiveness of sins is the fundamental challenge the Church has to face in the Amazon.

Turning to the ordination of "viri probati" to serve in the Amazon, Azcona says it will be useless because the Church everywhere needs repentance, conversion, the faith that saves.

"Why ordain viri probati within a priesthood in crisis?" he asked.

"... Let's not entertain a discussion on the legitimacy of these questions. What is certain is an affirmative response would open up the risk of a division, of a real schism in the Church."

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: National Catholic Reporter

Housed in a 1200-seat auditorium, Horizon is a Pentecostal Christian church where pastors give rousing sermons, and followers can sometimes speak in tongues and engage in "divine healing". Read more

Here is what he has to say:

Today the primary competition stems from Africa's sprawling galaxy of Pentecostal and Evangelical churches, some part of global denominations but most home-grown.

In many parts of the continent, these churches dot every village square and street corner, and signs, billboards, and flyers touting their high-octane worship and miraculous claims are ubiquitous.

A 2011 study by the Pew Research Center found there were 122 million Pentecostals and 110 million Evangelicals in Sub-Saharan Africa, meaning their combined total at 232 million outpaced the number of African Catholics at 200 million. Given explosive growth rates, it's likely that gap has widened over the six years since the survey.

Catholic prelates and professionals ponder the success of the Pentecostals with a mixture of dismay and frustration.

Why are so many Catholics attracted to the Pentecostal churches? What is the secret of their success? Should we mimic their style to keep the Catholic flock from straying? Should we simply dismiss them as heretics and schismatics? If Pope Francis is right that they are essentially our brothers and sisters, should we simply extend them a loving embrace?

The problem, of course, is not unique to Africa. Catholics worldwide are deserting the church for various forms of high-octane Protestantism.

As a former Evangelical, I can explain some of the strengths of Evangelical churches.

Evangelicalism has always been a primitivist movement. That is to say, Evangelicals are energized by the belief that they are returning to the essential, primitive forms of Christianity.

Their conviction is that they are going back to basics, and while this is largely an illusion, it does create eight characteristics that attract Catholics and which provide a critique of a Catholic Church that is too often institutionalized and ossified. Continue reading

• Fr Dwight Longenecker studied theology at Oxford University and served as a Anglican priest before becoming a Catholic.