The Amazonian Synod without Amazonians

Pachamama Museum, Argentina

The people who are calling for syncretism with Amazonian aboriginal religions in the recent Vatican synod are not themselves aboriginals, and probably have little familiarity with aboriginal religions. The Amazon basin is actually 80% urban; and the local bishops are usually not even Brazilian, let alone aboriginal. Do they ever travel out into the jungle, to the isolated tribes? They are inserted from Europe, and probably because of their romantic attraction to the Noble Savage myth.

Hence the emphasis at the synod on ecological concerns.

The population of the Amazon basin is generally flocking to the Pentecostal denominations, not to any aboriginal religious tradition.

The most reasonable conclusion is that they are going Pentecostal because the local Catholic church lacks spirit, lacks conviction, not because they have too few female deacons or carvings of native idols in the churches. This is all something outsiders are trying to impose on them from above, nothing for which they are clamouring.