A group gathers with Fr John Boles to celebrate a liturgy in Monobamba. Photo: Fr John Boles SSC
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 superabundant 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.
In the introduction to his apostolic exhortation, Beloved Amazon, of February 2020, Pope Francis outlines his dreams for the Amazon region as a multinational and interconnected whole; a great biome shared by nine countries. He explains how his address is an exhortation to the whole world to awaken its affection and concern for that land that is also ‘ours’, and invites them and us to value it and acknowledge it as a sacred mystery.
Even before Pope Francis convoked the Synod on the Amazon in 2019, Columbans in Latin America were engaged in campaigns to support the local Church and to protect the ecology and peoples of the Amazon against injustice and exploitation.
In one initiative, Columbans – both foreign priests and Peruvian lay missionaries from the capital, Lima – were reinforcing local Christian communities in the aptly named jungle locality of Monobamba, The Place of the Monkey, in the ancient Quechua language. Monobamba is a truly glorious place. It is not located in the steamy Amazon Basin, but in what is known in Spanish as Ceja de Selva - The Eyebrows of the Jungle - the part of the rainforest that clings to the slopes of the Andes Mountains. Thus, it combines the rich vegetation of the Amazon with the spectacular views of the high sierra.
The history and people of the area are as varied as its geography. “An Amazon where cultural forms as diverse as humanity shine,” the pope writes. This is certainly the case with Monobamba. Before the Spanish arrived, the native inhabitants were under the rule of the fabled Inca Empire. Once the conquistadores from Spain drove the Incas out and left the indigenous population to be decimated by disease, people from the highlands began to drift down to the Jungle Eyebrows. Then, in the mid-19th century, the president of the young Republic of Peru, Ramón Castilla, encouraged immigrants from central and southern Europe to settle the territory.
Monobamba. Photo: Fr John Boles SSC
Most came from Germany, but there were also Austrians, French and others. In the case of Monobamba, they were Italians. They cleared portions of the jungle and established fruit, sugar and coffee plantations. When I visited the area, I was welcomed by the mayor, a fourth-generation Italian, rejoicing in the surname, Murgi.
So far, this paradise has escaped the threats menacing the rainforest further down in the basin: reckless and often illegal logging, mining and oil drilling resulting in deforestation, pollution and the displacement of indigenous peoples.
However, the local Church does need help. Villages are small and widely dispersed. Roads are awful and often impassable after heavy rain. Priests and religious are few in number.
The plan is to train and support lay catechists in each settlement who can keep the faith alive by celebrating liturgies, giving religious education and preparing people for the sacraments.
These are the efforts the Columbans are supporting. On my visit from Lima, I was privileged to accompany our lay missionaries as they journeyed from hamlet to hamlet, often on foot, in order to identify, train and encourage these local leaders.
The challenge is enormous but, with God’s help, we can rise to it, and in so doing, maybe fulfil Pope Francis’ fourth and final Amazonian dream “of Christian communities” that might “bestow on the Church a new face, with Amazonian features”.
Columban Fr John Boles lives and works in Britain, after 25 years in Peru.
Listen to "The dream of the Amazon"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - January/February 2022
