There is a call to set up a permanent episcopal body to promote synodality in the Amazon and a permanent observatory for human rights and the protection of the region. The issue of viri probati continues to take centre stage.

“We must learn to accuse ourselves: ‘I did this, I think this way, wickedly ... I am envious; I would like to destroy that ...’. What is inside, ours, and tell ourselves, before God.” “This spiritual exercise is not commonplace, it is not usual, but let us try to do it”.

"Nearly six million indigenous people have left simply to survive. Not to mention those that were massacred for land exploitation or mining activities. In the Amazon there are 35 multinationals operating without any control or authorization ".

Before the Angelus, Pope Francis recalls the exodus of the "populations of the northeast" of Syria, among which "there are also many Christian families".  He pleads with "the international community to" sincerely commit to the path of dialogue to seek effective solutions ".  Concern and pain for the clashes, the dead and wounded in Latin American country.

At Mass in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis canonized Card. John Henry Newman;  the Indian nun Mariam Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan;  the Italian Sister Giuseppina Vannini;  the Brazilian Sister Dulce Lopes Pontes;  the Swiss Margherita Bays, a Franciscan tertiary.  They are examples of the "sanctity of everyday life".  The journey of faith must be lived in three stages: crying out, invoking, walking together, thanking.  "A heart that gives thanks remains young".

The lack of priests is driving some people towards false promises, other churches. For Sister Weiler, the Church needs “more women in leadership positions, not to exert power, but to share our gifts, talents and charisms.”

Too often there is talk of "new paths", but "old" ideological patterns are again rooted in 1968 and in the 1970s and 1980s. Cultural anthropology silences the proclamation of Jesus Christ. The exaltation of service reduces the Church to a NGO robbed of all of her mystery. Secularism renders testimony timid. A spiritual desertification is taking place, and the Pentecostal sects are taking advantage. Some pastoral proposals.

Pope Francis mentioned the victims of the synagogue attack in Halle, Germany, in his prayer yesterday afternoon. Today work in the smaller groups began. Discussions also focused on the tragedy of drug trafficking and its consequences.

For Fr. Martìn Lasarte, a Salesian, the "viri probati" proposal risks being a response born of imbedded clericalism. The Church’s history is rich with examples of fruitful evangelizations carried out by baptized lay people, without any priests (Korea, Vietnam and today many African nations). One contribution to the debate that is inflaming the Extraordinary Synod on the Amazon.

Bishop Kräutler: "Indigenous peoples do not understand celibacy".  Deepen and disseminate a theological literature that includes, together with traditionally known sins,  "ecological sins" that treat sin against the environment as a sin against God, against one's neighbor and future generations.

In the story of Paul's conversion, "the Risen One manifests His being one with those who believe in Him: to strike a member of the Church is to strike Christ himself! Even those who are ideologues because they want the so-called "purity" of the Church, strike Christ "

Much has been said about the ecology, migrations and predatory extractive models in the 3rd General Congregation of the Synod, but also about the formation of seminarians and laity, of the ordination of married elders and female deaconates. Violence against nature and against the natives who defend it was another very present topic. "The destruction of nature contradicts the Christian faith, and invokes the responsibility of all to seek a new concept of development and progress".

"We approach Amazonian communities on tiptoe, respecting their history, their cultures, their lifestyle," he explained, far from the "ideological colonisations that destroy or reduce" the traits of peoples and which today are so commonplace.”

The work of the Special Assembly opens. The goal, indicated by Francis, is "to find new ways to evangelize that portion of the People of God, especially the indigenous, often forgotten and without the prospect of a peaceful future, also due to the crisis of the Amazon forest, lung of capital importance for our planet ”.