The Rev. James Martin, S.J., leads listeners through an Examen on paying attention to and appreciating the beauty of creation.

“The synod is already a success by the very fact that it is happening,” said the Peruvian Jesuit, one of the president delegates of the Synod for the Amazon.

Proposals for Amazonian development made by well-known observers at the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon could conflict with the expectations of indigenous people unless they are included in decision-making, some synod participants said.

As the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon reaches its halfway point, leaders of indigenous communities are speaking with passion about what is at stake for their communities and their hopes for this synod.

Pope Francis said, “We must come to realize that what we are accumulating and wasting is the bread of the poor.”

Bishop Kräutler said there are thousands of indigenous communities in the Amazon that “do not celebrate the Eucharist except perhaps one, two or three times a year.” The bishops in favor of ordaining married men, he said, “are not against celibacy. We just want these brothers and sisters of ours not to have just a celebration of the word but also the celebration of the Eucharist.”

In November we will strike again, and on Earth Day we will strike in even greater numbers than before.

Follow America's coverage of the 2019 Synod on the Amazon.

At an opening Mass for the synod on the Amazon, Pope Francis urged participants to exercise “daring prudence” and called for evangelism without “colonialism.” Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell reports.

The cross is made from a piece of a wooden boat used by migrants to cross the Mediterranean to land on the island of Lampedusa.