"We are living a ‘kairos,' a propitious time of God in the history of the church," Amazon conference president Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno (pictured with the Pope) says.

The now officially-recognised body "involves bishops, priests, women and men religious and the lay faithful from the nine countries of the Amazon region," Barreto explains.

"lt's the first of its kind in the history of the church and the first concrete fruit of the Amazonian synod."

Barreto expects similar ecclesial conferences to emerge on other continents in the coming years.

He predicts "bishops' conferences will have to transform themselves into ecclesial conferences and future synods will be 'ecclesial synods,'."

Barreto says the synod on the Amazon's final document was "approved by the pope."

He sees this as "a revolution in the church". Previously, each synod presented its recommendations or proposals to the pope, who would incorporate them into his post-synodal exhortation.

Pope Francis had other ideas for the Amazon synod; he presented the synod's final document to the whole Church when he published his exhortation "Querida Amazonia,".

"I have preferred not to cite the final document in this exhortation because I would encourage everyone to read it in full," he said.

The final document emphasised the need for a new ecclesial body to promote synodality and shape a church with "an Amazonian face," while seeking new paths for evangelization and for an integral ecology, says Bareto. The new Amazon ecclesial conference is that body.

It was officially created in 2020, as "an effective instrument" for implementing the proposals that emerged from the 2019 Synod on the Amazon and for giving life to "four great dreams" for the region expressed by Pope Francis in "Querida Amazonia,"his post-synodal exhortation.

The title "Querida Amazonia" "indicates an attitude of the church, which also corresponds to the desire of the Indigenous peoples, that the church be an ally of these peoples who have historically only been beaten in their lives and today suffer deforestation and the exploitation of the resources of their lands."

It "manifests the Pope's desire "to seek new paths for the church and new paths for an integral ecology" for the whole church, not only Amazonia, Barreto says.

He says the conference is developing an Amazonian rite as called for by the synod and is reflecting on "the experiences with Amazonian rites, liturgical expressions and spirituality."

At present "We are in a process of dialogue with the Dicastery for Divine Worship ... the first time ever that we have been able to dialogue with this dicastery in a fraternal way, in an attitude of listening.

The Amazon conference are "also discussing the question of ministries…their service in the church and, more specifically, the ministry of women."

"We are living in a very special moment of the grace of God. It is a time of hope in the midst of a desperate, aimless humanity."

Source

• America Magazine

Erwin Kräutler, the bishop emeritus of Xingu in the Brazilian Amazon, expressed concern that not a word was said about opening up the Sacrament of Holy Orders to married men and ordaining women to the diaconate.

Many bishops "were and still are" looking for a plausible explanation as to why the two issues were not mentioned.

Some of them thought that the Pope had wanted to avoid a "schism". He had "certainly been under great pressure from the Curia" at the time, Kräutler pointed out.

"That was already crystal clear at the synod sessions and during our talks with the Curia. We found very little understanding for the problems and issues of the Amazon Region which we here experience day by day."

According to notes from the pope included in an article published in the Catholic periodical La Civiltà Cattolica, Pope Francis did not approve a proposal to ordain married men in the Amazon region because the idea was not prayerfully discerned at a 2019 synod of bishops.

"There was a discussion, a rich discussion, and a well-founded discussion, but no discernment. This is something different than just arriving at a good and justified consensus or at a relative majority," Pope Francis said, on the issue of addressing a priest shortage in the Amazon by ordaining so-called viri probati, or older, mature and married men from local communities.

However, just because Pope Francis did not mention the issues of ordaining married men to the priesthood and ordaining women deacons in his post-synodal exhortation, this "certainly does not mean that these issues are off the table," Kräutler underlined.

He recalled that right at the beginning of Querida Amazonia Pope Francis had made it clear that he would not be going into all the issues the Synod had gone into and had asked people to read the final Synod document very carefully.

And the final document, Kräutler pointed out, had underlined how important the permanent diaconate for women was in the Amazon Region.

He personally was convinced that the starting point of every discussion on the priestly ministry could not be the tradition of the Early Church but rather the needs of today.

Sources

The Tablet

Catholic News Agency

As church conservatives and progressives take to the internet and supposed neutral writers enter their own spins, everyone is forgetting about the forest and the trees.

It is about the Amazon Basin, not about married priests or women deacons.

Except it is.

There are several layers to this fine document, which teaches everything is interrelated.

God is present in the Amazon, in creation and in creatures. Angry forces seek to destroy both.

Rooted in power and greed, their tentacles strangle the peoples and the land.

The devil, indeed, is in the details: slavery, drugs, human trafficking, clear-cutting, water hoarding.

Rape of the Earth echoes in the lives of the peoples

The stories are not new.

Francis recalls the indigenous peoples of Venezuela, abused by rubber trade bosses nearly 50 years ago: "The ye'kuana women were raped and their breasts amputated, pregnant women had their children torn from the womb, men had their fingers or hands cut off ..."

Is this happening today?

Do we really know what is going on in the Amazon?

The people and their bishops came to Rome and spoke (or tried to speak) of what they wanted, what they needed. Francis said he heard them, and he has written his response.

What can save the Amazon?

What can salve its suffering? What can bring it health and life? For Francis, it is the Gospel and it is the Eucharist.

But how, you ask. How bring the Gospel and the Eucharist to peoples bereft of priests?

Francis suggests more deacons and lay ecclesial ministers recognized by their bishops to run parishes, as well as more priests from the Amazon and elsewhere.

At this, the right and left initiate their independent field days.

"No married priests! No women deacons!" the right proclaims triumphantly.

The left says pretty much the same, but in desultory, even angry, tones.

Hello? This is an apostolic exhortation, not a motu proprio, and it is certainly not an apostolic constitution nor is it an encyclical.

What's the difference?

Apostolic exhortations neither clarify doctrine nor make law.

That occurs, at various levels, with an apostolic constitution, a papal encyclical or a motu proprio.

The post-synodal apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia is Francis' response as bishop of Rome to the final document of the Amazon synod.

He presents both the exhortation and the final document from his diocesan cathedral, St. John Lateran, not from St. Peter's Basilica.

If the pope is going to do anything about married priests and women deacons, he will — actually, he must — use another type of document.

For example, if the bishops of the Amazon, together or individually, formally request married priests, they must write and ask permission for a derogation from the law.

Similarly, if they wish to recognize the diaconal ministry of women through ordination, they must ask formally.

Does the final document already ask for these?

It seems to, but it is not the formal request of a bishop or bishops' conference. Continue reading

In the face of worsening global environmental and social issues, Laudato si' raised the concept of integral ecology which reminds us that everything is connected. "Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves or as a mere setting in which we live. We are part of nature, included in it and thus in constant interaction with it" (LS 138), Pope Francis wrote. Everything we do in terms of the environment, our economic activity, our society and our culture is connected and impacts on each other.

Last week Pope Francis issued what might be considered as a case study of Laudato si'. Querida Amazonia is the fruit and gift to the Church of Pope Francis' reflection on the Amazonian Synod held in Rome last year.

The Holy Father defines the Amazon region as "a multinational and interconnected whole, a great biome shared by nine countries… Yet, he writes, I am addressing the present Exhortation to the whole world. I am doing so to help awaken their affection and concern for that land which is also "ours", and to invite them to value it and acknowledge it as a sacred mystery" (QA 5).

At the end of the Synod, the people representing the Amazon and their bishops described the Amazon as "a wounded and deformed beauty, a place of suffering and violence." They expressed their concerns of the destruction of the forests and pollution of the rivers, the consequences on the people including sexual exploitation, human trafficking and smuggling, organ traffic, sex tourism, the loss of original culture and identity of the peoples of the Amazon as their land and being is stolen and destroyed.

As it happened, the New Zealand bishops met Pope Francis the day after the Synod had concluded and he shared with us some of his reflections on the Synod. In our conversation with Pope Francis, we easily made the connection between the issues raised by the Synod and the arrival of Pakeha in Aotearoa New Zealand and the impact this had on Maori and on the whenua, the land. In Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis writes: "The original peoples often witnessed helplessly the destruction of the natural surroundings that enabled them to be nourished and kept healthy, to survive and to preserve a way of life in a culture which gave them identity and meaning. The imbalance of power is enormous; the weak have no means of defending themselves, while the winners take it all, and the needy nations grow more destitute, while the rich nations become even richer" (QA 13). What he wrote of the Amazon today might have been written of Aotearoa New Zealand from the mid-1800s to this day.

Querida Amazonia shares Pope Francis' dreams for the Amazon. He uses poetry and wisdom from the Amazon to paint a picture of what might be rather than impose western or first world solutions to one of the most fragile areas of the planet. He writes,

• I dream of an Amazon region that fights for the rights of the poor, the original peoples and the least of our brothers and sisters, where their voices can be heard and their dignity advanced.
• I dream of an Amazon region that can preserve its distinctive cultural riches, where the beauty of our humanity shines forth in so many varied ways.
• I dream of an Amazon region that can jealously preserve its overwhelming natural beauty and the super-abundant life teeming in its rivers and forests.
• I dream of Christian communities capable of generous commitment, incarnate in the Amazon region, and giving the Church new faces with Amazonian features. (QA 7)

For us in Aotearoa New Zealand Querida Amazonia offers us an opportunity to reflect on what has happened in our own land and to consider new paths for the future, reflecting with Maori on the sacred taonga that are our land, our rivers and lakes, our mountains and sea, and most importantly, the tangata, our people. Pope Francis speaks of combining ancestral wisdom with contemporary technical knowledge, always working for a sustainable management of the land while also preserving the lifestyle and value systems of those who live there (cf QA 51) and that from the original peoples, we can learn to contemplate the precious mystery that transcends us. We can love it, not simply use it, with the result that love can awaken a deep and sincere interest. Even more, we can feel intimately a part of it and not only defend it; then the Amazon region will once more become like a mother to us (cf QA 55). What he says of the Amazon can be true for us in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Often today there can be criticism of how the Gospel was announced to indigenous peoples by colonial powers and the Holy Father apologises again for the Church's sins of the past in the Amazon. But as Jesus stepped into a culture, a people, so too the Church stepped into cultures; it takes flesh in all peoples, for the mission of the Church is inviting people to a friendship with the Lord that can elevate and dignify them (cf QA 61).

Pope Francis stresses an Amazonian face for the Church in the Amazon. A fruitful process takes place when the Gospel takes root in a given place, he writes, but at the same time the Church herself undergoes a process of reception that enriches her with the fruits of what the Spirit has already mysteriously sown in that culture. In this way, "the Holy Spirit adorns the Church, showing her new aspects of revelation and giving her a new face. The history of the Church shows that Christianity does not have simply one cultural expression" (cf. QA 68, 69). In our local Church Bishop Pompallier was a master at bridging the gap between Maori spirituality and Catholic theology and spirituality, and this enabled the tupuna of many of our Maori community to accept the Catholic faith. But Pope Francis reminds us this needs to be an ongoing process in the Church in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Querida Amazonia can become for us, then, a real gift and an opportunity not only to stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in the Amazon but also it can become an impetus for us to reflect on the face of the Church in Aotearoa New Zealand. We are invited to live out Pope Francis' dream of a Church that stands with the poor, that embraces the cultural riches of Maori as a taonga that can give a distinctively Kiwi face to the local Church in the wider universal Church and that contemplates the beauty of our land and sea as a sacred gift of God entrusted to our care for us and for our future tamariki and mokopuna.

• Steve Lowe - Bishop of Hamilton
• Querida Amazonia full document

Francis did not say yes to married priests, but neither did he really say no.

Discussion of the matter will continue, whereas previous papacies said no to even discussing the topic.

Priests are in such short supply in Amazonia that the Eucharist and other sacraments are not readily available to most Catholics. Many villages see a priest only once or twice a year.

The shortage has gone on for decades and the Amazonian bishops, who met in Rome in October, see no hope for a turnaround.

They also wanted to open the deaconate to women, who in many villages are already the religious leaders of their communities. Here the pope gave a definitive no.

Francis responded to the recommendations of the synod in a 20-page exhortation, "Querida Amazonia" or "Dear Amazon," which was released Wednesday (Feb. 12).

It is clear that Francis was upset with the media, who focused on the ordination of married men almost to the exclusion of the other topics of the synod, such as the devastation of the environment and exploitation of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon.

He lamented that the indigenous peoples "were considered more an obstacle needing to be eliminated than as human beings with the same dignity as others and possessed of their own acquired rights."

He also insisted that concern for the environment must be linked to concern for indigenous peoples.

While I sympathise with the pope's desire to emphasise the issues facing the environment and indigenous peoples, I find it disappointing that he recycles the old recommendations of praying for vocations and enlarging the role of the laity.

Don't get me wrong.

I am all for these solutions, but we have been praying for vocations for more than a century, and we have been increasing the role of the laity since the Second Vatican Council ended in 1965.

True, more can be done, but are we going to be a Eucharistic community or not?

Clearly, Pope Francis does not want to be the pope who gets rid of mandatory celibacy, which he strongly values.

He may also fear that vocal opponents to ordaining married men would further divide the church if he allowed it, even though they are a small minority.

"Querida Amazonia" eloquently acknowledges the absence of the Eucharist and the sacrament of reconciliation in so many places in the Amazon, but rather than ordaining married men, he urges the ordination of more male deacons.

By accident or by plan, this will create the cadre of candidates for priesthood if he ever allows for exceptions.

But Francis is not open to ordaining women to the diaconate.

His arguments against women deacons were disappointing and patriarchal.

He fears "clericalising" women — as if that is not a bigger problem for male deacons. He calls for more recognition of women's roles in the church — and I agree — but why not go all the way and ordain women?

Our disappointment with Francis' decisions on married priests and women deacons should not blind us to the many other excellent things in his exhortation.

What he says about the environment, global warming and indigenous peoples underscores the points made by the synod.

He also gives a full-throated endorsement to more inculturation in the church so that Catholicism is no longer simply a European import but rather reflects the indigenous wisdom, practices and cultures of the Amazon.

He wants a church that has "new faces with Amazonian features."

Francis especially notes the need for inculturation of the liturgy.

Liturgy inculturation will require replacing Cardinal Robert Sarah as head of the Congregation for Divine Worship with someone sympathetic to inculturation. Sarah, who is a vocal opponent of any exceptions to the rule of celibacy, must submit his resignation in June when he turns 75.

Francis' exhortation is itself a change to business as usual in the church.

While previous popes have written their own long documents that superseded anything done by a synod, Francis encourages people to read the Amazon synod's final document, which, he says, "profited from the participation of many people who know better than myself or the Roman Curia the problems and issues of the Amazon region, since they live there, they experience its suffering, and they love it passionately."

He does not want to replace that text but rather calls on everyone in the Amazon region to "apply it."

The pope has shown that in the synodal process he will listen, enthusiastically endorse most recommendations, say no to some and postpone others until more opportune times.

Not all will like this approach.

For some, it is too "popular" or "democratic."

For others, it is too slow and not democratic enough. But it is a long way from previous popes who said, "My way or the highway."

Pope Francis is not afraid of open discussion and even disagreement in the church.

In his new book, "St. John Paul the Great," published the day before his exhortation, he said, "What holds the church together isn't the fact that we all agree, but a word that many have forgotten: communion," where "different parts collaborate for the good."

• Thomas Reese SJ is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, and a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter, and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America. First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

It is a post-synodal apostolic exhortation, that is, the Holy Father's summing up of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian Region, which took place in October of last year.

The synod gathered Catholic bishops, clergy, theologians and lay people, including indigenous leaders from the region, to reflect on cultural, ecological and religious issues facing the Amazon.

Even though synods have been around for centuries and were given renewed emphasis by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, the Amazon synod was the first meeting of its kind to be organized around a distinct ecological territory.

The region contains about 34 million inhabitants, including three million indigenous people from nearly 400 ethnic groups.

Pope Francis sees synods as opportunities for what Jesuits call "group discernment," during which the Holy Spirit works through discussions and deliberations.

This is one way that the pope tries to engage as many people as possible in important decisions.

Thus, in "Querida Amazonia, "the pope is reflecting on what happened in that large group discernment.

So, let's look at five takeaways from "Querida Amazonia."

To do that, I will follow the pope's four-part structure in the document and then add one final observation.

First

Francis dreams of a region that fights for the "rights of the poor," especially those of the "original peoples" of the area.

The pope takes aim at businesses, both national and international, that harm the Amazon and fail to respect the rights of the original peoples and bluntly labels such actions as "injustice and crime."

We should feel "outrage," he says, when we see a minority of people profiting from the "poverty of the majority and from the unscrupulous plundering of the region's natural riches."

The pope also apologizes for times when the church itself participated in these injustices and crimes.

Second

Pope Francis hopes for a world and a church that will recognize the distinctive cultural riches of the Amazon.

In many places in the region, the globalized economy endangers or threatens "human, social and cultural richness."

So these distinctive cultures must be nourished, protected and celebrated.

"Each distinct group in a vital synthesis with its surroundings," he says, "develops its own form of wisdom."

But to hear this wisdom we need to protect and reverence the cultures from which it came.

Third

"Querida Amazonia "reiterates some of the most important themes from the pope's magisterial encyclical on creation, "Laudato Si'." Grounding his appreciation for the environment in a reverence for God's creation, he reminds us that everything is connected: "The care of people and the care of ecosystems," he says, "are inseparable."

But many economic interests see the Amazon simply as a place of industry or a place where one can withdraw natural resources, even though the equilibrium of the planet "depends on the health of the Amazon region."

We should, says the pope about the Amazon, "love it, not simply use it."

Fourth

The pope turns his reflections to the church in the Amazon, and repeatedly stresses "inculturation."

This is an important theological concept, especially since Vatican II, but really since the beginning of the proclamation of the Gospel, because the Gospel message must always be announced in new ways to new cultures. Continue reading

Although Pope Francis's exhortation on the Amazon bypasses making decisions about women deacons and married priests, there is still room to move, say number of the pope's close advisors.

In the post-synodal apostolic exhortation, Querida Amazonia (Beloved Amazon), Pope Francis released last week , Francis appears to leave the question of married priests open-ended. He didn't give a clear yes or no on the issue.

Instead, he suggests there be a better distribution of priests in the Amazon.

He wants to encourage missionary priests to work in the region and to go to more rural areas.

At the same time, he says there is a need for a priestly formation which better understands and appreciates local cultural traditions.

Francis's exhortation on the Amazon also avoided making decisions about women deacons.

Rather, it warned against the temptation to "clericalise" women rather than empowering them through leading community roles which better "reflects their womanhood."

Cardinal Michael Czerny said the best way of looking at the pope's approach to married priests in the document is that it is "part of a journey."

"We are at a very important point in the synodal process."

"There are long roads ahead, as well as roads already traveled," he said

He also pointed out that on the question of married priests, Francis "has not resolved them in any way beyond what he has said in the exhortation."

Czerny stressed that the exhortation "is a magisterial document".

This means it is binding, whereas the final synod document, which includes supportive proposals for married priests and women deacons which the pope must approve, does not bear the same weight.

Czerny said without a firm 'no' from the pope on these issues, they will continue "to be debated, discussed, discerned, prayed over and, when mature, presented to the appropriate authority for a decision."

These decisions, he said, can be made at a diocesan, national and universal level.

Czerny said the proposal for ordaining women deacons is still "being studied". He said this is probably awaiting a conclusion on the topic from a commission Francis formed in 2016 to study it.

Source

• Crux
• Image: Jesuits.org

But those new paths do not include the ordination of married men to the priesthood in the region.

The document, called "Querida Amazonia" (Beloved Amazon), is born from the discussions of over 180 bishops from all over the world who gathered at the Vatican last fall (Oct. 6-27) to address the social, environmental and spiritual needs of the indigenous people of the Amazon and their habitat.

During their meeting, bishops had suggested in their final document that the pope consider the ordination of tested married men to minister to the remote areas of the Amazon forest sprawled over nine Latin American countries.

Bishops had also voted to further discussions on female deacons, which would allow women to preach, distribute the Eucharist and officiate at weddings, baptisms and funerals.

Pope Francis' document doesn't make any mention of the ordination of married men nor of women, which is consistent with the efforts made by the Vatican to downplay expectations ahead of its publication.

In January, former Pope Benedict XVI published a book with Cardinal Robert Sarah, who heads the Vatican department for liturgy, making a case for the importance of celibacy in the priesthood.

"Querida Amazonia" is divided into four chapters, each corresponding to a "dream" of the pope on the social, cultural, ecological and ecclesial aspects of the Amazon. It includes numerous poems by indigenous people detailing the beauty — and destruction — of the Amazon.

The papal document encourages Catholics and all people of goodwill to protect the environment, accompany the diaspora of indigenous peoples and stand up against injustice and reckless exploitation.

During colonization, the people of the Amazon forest "were considered more an obstacle needing to be eliminated than as human beings with the same dignity as others and possessed of their own acquired rights," Francis wrote.

"The businesses, national or international, which harm the Amazon and fail to respect the right of the original peoples," he wrote, "should be called for what they are: injustice and crime."

"Colonization has left tremendous wounds in the Amazon, the pope said, but colonization continues today even though it is "changed, disguised."

"The interest of a few powerful industries should not be considered more important than the good of the Amazon region or humanity as a whole," he warned.

Francis admitted that while missionaries were among the few who stood up to defend the rights of the Amazon and its peoples, the Catholic Church also bears its responsibility and its members were "part of a network of corruption."

"I express my shame and once more I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offences of the Church herself, but for the crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America as well as for the terrible crimes that followed throughout the history of the Amazon region," he said.

In a section addressing forms of ministry, the pope called for "a specific and courageous response" to the shortage of priests in the Amazon.

Though ordaining married men is out of the question, at least in this document, the pope encouraged bishops to take matters into their own hands.

"This urgent need leads me to urge all bishops, especially those in Latin America, not only to promote prayer for priestly vocations, but also to be more generous in encouraging those who display a missionary vocation to opt for the Amazon region," he wrote, putting an emphasis on the need to overhaul priestly formation.

A large role is played and continues to be played by "mature and lay leaders," who must be promoted and encouraged by the Catholic clergy, Francis wrote. Women especially, he said, "have kept the Church alive in those places through their remarkable devotion and deep faith."

But ordaining women as deacons, he said, could be harmful.

"It would lead us to clericalize women, diminish the great value of what they have already accomplished, and subtly make their indispensable contribution less effective," he said.

Instead, he said that women should have positions of authority within the church "that do not entail Holy Orders and that can better signify the role that is theirs."

As a starting point, Francis referred to Mary as a source of inspiration for furthering the role of women.

"Perhaps it is time to review the lay ministries already existing in the Church, return to their foundations and update them by reading them in the light of current reality and the inspiration of the Spirit, and at the same time to create other new stable ministries with public recognition and a commission from the bishop," Cardinal Michael Czerny said in an interview published by the Vatican alongside the papal document. Czerny was a special secretary to the synod of bishops on the Amazon.

Francis called for a fruitful dialogue between the indigenous peoples of the Amazon and the Catholic Church in order to give the church "new faces with Amazonian features."

The culture, traditions and history of the tribes living in the Amazon must be protected and respected, without "unfair generalizations, simplistic arguments and conclusions drawn only from the basis of our own mindset and experiences," he said.

Indigenous people should not be insulated from a respectful dialogue, Francis wrote, just as the Catholic Church should allow the gospel to be permeated by the customs and culture of the peoples living in the Amazon.

"The Pope asks that the voice of the elderly be heard and that the values present in the original communities be recognized," Czerny said. "Indigenous peoples teach us to be sober, content with little, and to sense the need to be immersed in a communal way of living our lives."

The bishops had asked the pope to consider the possibility of an Amazonian Rite, which in the Catholic tradition would have its own bishops and specific liturgies while still being in communion with the Catholic Church.

Francis encouraged "native forms of expression in song, rituals, gestures and symbols" but made no mention of a specific rite or a commission created to consider it.

Francis also seemed to passingly address the Pachamama debacle, when vandals broke into a church in Rome at the height of the synod, dumped a wooden carving of an Amazonian fertility goddess into the Tiber River and posted it on YouTube.

The vandals justified their actions at the time, stating that they were angered by a ceremony in the Vatican gardens where indigenous people knelt before the statues before the pontiff.

"It is possible to take up an indigenous symbol in some way, without necessarily considering it as idolatry," the pope wrote. "A myth charged with spiritual meaning can be used to advantage and not always considered a pagan error."

The pope's final words amid highly divisive times within and beyond the Catholic Church are to promote dialogue "at a higher level, where each group can join the other in a new reality, while remaining faithful to itself."

• Claire Giangrave is Vatican Correspondent for Religion News Service.
• First published in RNS. Republished with permission.
• Image YouTube