“QUERIDA AMAZONIA”: A New Face of the Church in the Heart of Latin America to Inspire Integral Conversion on the Planet

Coming from the “end of the world”, from the south of the planet, Pope Francis first challenged global consciousness with his Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home, then turned the attention of the Church and people of good will to the Amazon region. The convening of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region was an initiative deeply attuned to the climate crisis, one of the most pressing challenges of our time. Faithful to the Second Vatican Council and the spirituality of liberation, Francis invites the whole world to admire and recognize the Amazon region as a sacred mystery as well as to heed the voices of its poor communities, precisely those whose resistance has preserved the rainforest. Using an exploratory bibliographical methodology, this article aims to contribute to the reflection on how 21st-century Liberation Theology might address challenges, with an emphasis on the ecological crisis central to Pope Francis’s magisterium, particularly articulated in his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia: To the People of God and to All Persons of Good Will. As a result, we tried to demonstrate that Francis, in Querida Amazonia, proposes that a Church with an Amazonian face, located in the heart of Latin America, without forgetting the feminine protagonism, should be an inspiration for integral conversion on the planet.