Skip to main content

O/P: Five Wacky Ways to Prepare for the Amazon Synod!


Hey there, friends!  I know you’re just counting the hours until the infamous Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon kicks off this week.  (If you’re not excited, then you simply haven’t been paying attention.)  


This will be a game-changer for the Church.  If you’re a “Modern Catholic” type, this will be the big break you’ve been waiting for:  by approving lady deacons, married clergy, “eco theology,” and generally tapping into native pagan wisdom, we will accomplish many wonderful things:
  • We’ll save the environment, and Mother Gaia will surely thank us for
  • We’ll end the oppression of women because lady deacons will open the door for lady priestesses.
  • Having elder married shamans saying Mass will allow them to impart ancient lost earth-wisdom on us.  
The Church has been off-track from the beginning, don’t you know, and a little mysterious Amazon spirit-healing is just what the (witch)doctor ordered! Why, I can feel the Earth’s temperature starting to come down to pre-industrial levels just at the very thought of all the great things that will happen.
You don't have to be crazy to see the goodness in the 
 Amazon Synod...but it helps.


If, on the other hand, you’re one of those sad and schismatic rigid and hateful traditionalists, you are probably viewing the upcoming synod with trepidation.  Do please be ashamed of yourselves for that.  (And if you happen to be an American, then double shame on you!  The Holy Father does, however consider your criticism a badge of honor.) But at least there are people pretty high up in the Vatican who are not afraid of schism; they’ve told us so.  


Here’s a name you should know when it comes to the Amazin’ Amazon Synod:  Leonardo Boff.  An eco-theologian, Boff, likes to boast that Pope Francis used his material for Laudato Si.  We suspect that Boff might have had a hand in the Amazon Synod’s working paper as well. 

Now that we’ve gotten the preliminaries out of the way, we can move on to the good stuff: 



Crisis Magazine has come up with a dandy list of Five ways YOU can prepare yourself for the Amazon Synod.  Do please consider going over to their website and read the article in its entirety.  For those of you not really ready for another click of the mouse, however, here is part of the article for your consideration:


1.     Think of yourself as Earth. Love yourself as Earth.

Want to be able to say, with the indigenous peoples quoted in the synod’s Instrumentum Laboris, “We are water, air, earth, and life of the environment”?  Just stop thinking of the Earth as an object—and start loving yourself as Earth.

“Love leads us to identify ever more with the Earth,” explains Boff.  “We must think ourselves as Earth, feel ourselves as Earth, love ourselves as Earth.  Earth is the great living subject feeling, loving, thinking and through us knowing that it thinks, loves, and feels.”

“Then we can be mountain, sea, air, road, tree, animal,”** promises Boff.

2.    Learn about the “new world order” and the new “universal religion.”

To ensure the salvation of the planet, Boff proposes a bold “new world order” in which Earth is “Gaia” and all beings in nature—mountains, plants, the atmosphere—are citizens of a “sociocosmic democracy.”  He suggests a “central government” to “manage matters having to do with all of humankind”—and a “universal religion” to attend it.

“The new paradigm that is coming to birth—that of connectedness—will be the basis of a universal religion that will only be truly universal if it seeks convergences in religious diversity,” explains Boff.  He says the universal religion’s convergent “supreme value” will be the preservation of planet Earth.

Have you noticed how many times Laudato Si and the Amazon synod’s Instrumentum Laboris denounce forms of “anthropocentrism,” call for a “new paradigm,” and say “everything is connected”?  These themes come straight from Boff—and they’re instigators of that “spiritual revolution.”

So could the ecological principles in Laudato Si and the Amazon synod be paving the way for a “surrender sooner or later” on the prohibition against contraception?

“If we accept as a fact that human presence and activity is harmful to the environment and puts the very survival of the planet at risk…we must sooner or later accept emergency measures to stop human activity, such as contraception,” says one critic of Laudato Si and the Amazon synod.

Boff, for his part, is fiercely critical of the “arrogant” anthropocentrism embodied in Gen. 1:28: “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.”

“These texts present a clear call to limitless demographic growth and unrestricted dominium terrae,” he warns.

3.    Acknowledge that our species is the “true Satan of the Earth.”

“Our species is a threat to all other species; it is terribly aggressive and is proving to be a geocide, an
Professor Boff assures us that after 
the Pan-Amazon Synod, we'll be free
 to "be mountain, sea, air, road, 
tree, animal." ** 
Say! Isn't that comforting?
ecocide, and a true Satan of the Earth,” warns Boff.  The eco-theologian chillingly predicts that “as a result of excess chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and other polluting ingredients, the Earth-superorganism may be about to devise new adaptations, which will not necessarily be easy on the human species.”

“Gaia may eliminate [our species], very painfully, in order to allow the overall balance to remain and so that other species might live and continue the cosmic thrust of evolution,” says Boff.  He wonders whether, after millions of years, new complex beings—“new ‘humans’” with a true devotion to Gaia—may replace our “arrogant” species.

4.   Recognize “the secret truth of religious polytheism” and the “permanent value” in animism.

What will the new universal religion look like?  According to Boff, we need to recover “the aspect of truth in paganism, with its rich pantheon of divinities inhabiting all the spaces in nature.”

“To cure humankind of its polytheism, early Christianity subjected the faithful to a violent and harsh medication. With the existence of the gods denied, many doors of the soul were closed,” Boff laments.

Boff says we also need to recognize the “permanent value” in animism.

“We moderns are also animists to the extent that we…feel part of a living whole in which we are enveloped,” he explains.  “Everything sends us a message; everything speaks or can speak: trees, colors, wind, animals, roads, persons, and household things.”

“Shamanism arises out of this interpretation of reality,” the eco-theologian continues.  Shamans use “gestures, dances, and rites” to put “energies at the disposal of human beings as they seek balance with nature and with themselves.”

“All must awaken within themselves this shamanistic dimension,” Boff says.

Fortunately for Boff, the Instrumentum Laboris valorizes pagan rituals (n. 87), “dialogue with the spirits” (n. 75), connection with “the various spiritual forces” (n. 13), and indigenous “beliefs and rites regarding the actions of spirits, of the many-named divinity acting with and in the territory” (n. 25).  The native peoples idolized by the Instrumentum Laboris “have been liberated from monotheism and have restored animism and polytheism,” as de Mattei puts it.

“Not even witchcraft is sidelined” in the Instrumentum Laboris, others note.

5.    Embrace ecofeminism and fight patriarchy.

It goes without saying that the new paradigm will deploy ecofeminism against all patriarchal oppression.  Boff says ecofeminism’s merit lies in its development of a “new pattern for relating to nature”—“against rationalism, authoritarianism, compartmentalization, and the will to power, which are historic expressions of androcentrism and patriarchalism.”

“[In scripture] even God is presented as Father and absolute Lord.  Female, especially maternal, characteristics of pre-neolithic deities, which tend to be matriarchal, are delegitimized,” laments Boff, who promotes female pronouns for God and women’s ordination in The Maternal Face of God and Ecclesiogenesis.

Hence the Amazon synod’s praise for “faith in the God Father-Mother Creator” (n. 121) and its agenda to approve a female diaconate.

CCM one week after Synod concludes.
Thank YOU, Professor Boff!
Hence Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s description of a coming “‘Amazonian-Catholic’ sect” which “practices the adoration of nature and which will have a female priesthood.”



 ** If it's all the same to you, Professor Boff, I'd prefer to remain a human created in the image of God.  If, however, becoming an animal or road or whatever is mandatory after the Amazon Synod, then please put me down for "raccoon."  At least that way I'd still have use of my hands, and the mask will conceal my identity.



You can find the entire article hereà https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/five-ways-to-prepare-for-the-amazon-synod

It’s definitely worth a read.




Popular posts from this blog

BLE & BAE Discussion - Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

  I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation. Reflection from Dynamic Catholic Can You Keep A Secret? Sign up for FREE Daily Reflections HERE SUNDAY MASS Readings from USCCB.org Alleluia Lk 7:16 R. Alleluia, alleluia. A great prophet has arisen in our midst, God has visited his people. R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Mk 1:40-45 A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,  touched him, and said to him,  “I do will it. Be made clean.” The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.  He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest  and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.” The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jes...

BLE & BAE Discussion - Memorial of Saint Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church

  It is I who deal death and give life. Reflection from Dynamic Catholic Sign up for FREE Daily Reflections HERE Readings from USCCB.org Alleluia 2 Cor 8:9 R.  Alleluia, alleluia. Jesus Christ became poor although he was rich so that by his poverty you might become rich. R.  Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Mt 19:23-30 Jesus said to his disciples: "Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God." When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible." Then Peter said to him in reply, "We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?" Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age...

BLE & BAE Discussion - Second Sunday of Advent

  The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy . Reflection from Dynamic Catholic The Truth About Submission Sign up for FREE Daily Reflections HERE SUNDAY MASS Readings from USCCB.org Alleluia Lk 3:4, 6 R.  Alleluia, alleluia. Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths: all flesh shall see the salvation of God. R.  Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Lk 3:1-6 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,  when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,  and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis,  and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,  during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,  the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert. John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,  proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,  as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:      ...