“Dreams are a privileged place to seek after truth… Many times even God chose to speak through dreams.” These are the words Pope Francis spoke in a homily during Mass at the Casa Santa Marta in December 2018. He was referring to St Joseph. This is the silent and concrete man who can help us understand Pope Francis’ thoughts regarding the Amazon region expressed in the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation. This text is written like a love letter in which not only poetic citations abound, but also the daily drama of the region. Why did the Bishop of Rome wish to give universal value to a Synod which was focused on a particular geographical region? What do the Amazon and its destiny have to do with us?

We find the response running through the pages of the Apostolic Exhortation. The most obvious answer is that everything is connected: the balance of our planet, in fact, depends on Amazon’s state of health. Since the care of those living there and that of the ecosystem cannot be separated, neither the destruction of the wealth of the peoples living there, nor the culture of the indigenous populations, nor the devastation or politics regarding extractive industries that are destroying the forests, should leave us indifferent.

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