{"id":50882,"date":"2020-02-13T09:38:28","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T15:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=50882"},"modified":"2020-02-23T18:41:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T00:41:47","slug":"querida-amazonia-still-far-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2020\/02\/13\/querida-amazonia-still-far-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Querida Amazonia: still far to go"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most commentators were anxious to see Pope Francis\u2019 answer to the request to ordain viri probati<\/em> or to institute some form of female deaconate in his Post Synodal Exhortation Querida Amazonia<\/a>. However, I imagine that some PrayTell readers were also interested to see what it would say about the inculturation of the liturgy. In number 73 the Holy Father reflects on how inculturation \u201celevates and fulfils,\u201d but he also notes that while we should value that \u201cindigenous mysticism\u201d of the peoples of the Amazon, that Christianity also has something to offer them, namely \u201can increasingly personal relationship with a \u201cThou\u201d who sustains our lives and wants to give them a meaning, a ‘Thou’ who knows us and loves us.\u201d In number 74 he continues by reminding us that \u201ca relationship with Jesus Christ, true God and true man, liberator and redeemer, is not inimical to the markedly cosmic worldview that characterizes the indigenous peoples, since he is also the Risen Lord who permeates all things.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are other points that could be brought out from the document.\u00a0 However, I think that section on liturgy should be our primary focus:<\/p>\n

The inculturation of the liturgy<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The inculturation of Christian spirituality in the cultures of the original peoples can benefit in a particular way from the sacraments, since they unite the divine and the cosmic, grace and creation. In the Amazon region, the sacraments should not be viewed in discontinuity with creation. They \u201care a privileged way in which nature is taken up by God to become a means of mediating supernatural life\u201d. They are the fulfillment of creation, in which nature is elevated to become a locus and instrument of grace, enabling us \u201cto embrace the world on a different plane\u201d.<\/li>\n
  2. In the Eucharist, God, \u201cin the culmination of the mystery of the Incarnation, chose to reach our intimate depths through a fragment of matter\u201d. The Eucharist \u201cjoins heaven and earth; it embraces and penetrates all creation\u201d. For this reason, it can be a \u201cmotivation for our concerns for the environment, directing us to be stewards of all creation\u201d. In this sense, \u201cencountering God does not mean fleeing from this world or turning our back on nature\u201d. It means that we can take up into the liturgy many elements proper to the experience of indigenous peoples in their contact with nature, and respect native forms of expression in song, dance, rituals, gestures and symbols. The Second Vatican Council called for this effort to inculturate the liturgy among indigenous peoples; over fifty years have passed and we still have far to go along these lines.<\/li>\n
  3. On Sunday, \u201cChristian spirituality incorporates the value of relaxation and festivity. [Nowadays] we tend to demean contemplative rest as something unproductive and unnecessary, but this is to do away with the very thing which is most important about work: its meaning. We are called to include in our work a dimension of receptivity and gratuity\u201d. Aboriginal peoples are familiar with this gratuity and this healthy contemplative leisure. Our celebrations should help them experience this in the Sunday liturgy and encounter the light of God\u2019s word and the Eucharist, which illumines our daily existence.<\/li>\n
  4. The sacraments reveal and communicate the God who is close and who comes with mercy to heal and strengthen his children. Consequently, they should be accessible, especially for the poor, and must never be refused for financial reasons. Nor is there room, in the presence of the poor and forgotten of the Amazon region, for a discipline that excludes and turns people away, for in that way they end up being discarded by a Church that has become a toll-house. Rather, \u201cin such difficult situations of need, the Church must be particularly concerned to offer understanding, comfort and acceptance, rather than imposing straightaway a set of rules that only lead people to feel judged and abandoned by the very Mother called to show them God\u2019s mercy\u201d. For the Church, mercy can become a mere sentimental catchword unless it finds concrete expression in her pastoral outreach.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Perhaps the most significant line here is the assertion that fifty years after Vatican II \u201cwe still have far to go.\u201d The pope cites Sacrosanctum Concilium<\/em>, 37-40, 65, 77, 81 and says that \u201cwe can take up into the liturgy many elements proper to the experience of indigenous peoples in their contact with nature, and respect native forms of expression in song, dance, rituals, gestures and symbols.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Regular readers may know that I am not the most avid proponent<\/a> of intensive liturgical inculturation and that not everyone<\/a> agrees with my hesitancy. However I still affirm that my reading<\/a> of Pope Francis is that he, shares my hesitancy. Nonetheless, I think it is something that we need to continue to work and reflect on. In particular, I would wonder what those of us who have a certain expertise in liturgical issues (particularly on a theological level) and yet have no personal experience of the cultural, ecclesial and pastoral context of the Amazon can offer to those who are on the front lines there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Most commentators were anxious to see Pope Francis\u2019 answer to the request to ordain viri probati or to institute some form of female deaconate in his Post Synodal Exhortation Querida Amazonia. However, I imagine that some PrayTell readers were also interested to see what it would say about the inculturation of the liturgy. In number […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":50883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[3117,14,2224],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-scholarship-new-ws","category-inculturation","category-pope-francis"],"yoast_head":"\nQuerida Amazonia: still far to go - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2020\/02\/13\/querida-amazonia-still-far-to-go\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Querida Amazonia: still far to go - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most commentators were anxious to see Pope Francis\u2019 answer to the request to ordain viri probati or to institute some form of female deaconate in his Post Synodal Exhortation Querida Amazonia. 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Since 2020 he has also served as the Executive Secretary for Liturgy to the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference. He has studied at Seton Hall University (BA, MDiv), the University of Notre Dame (MA), and St Vladimir\u2019s Orthodox Theological Seminary (MTh). He holds a Doctorate in Theology (Ph.D.) from St Patrick\u2019s College, Maynooth and is in the process of completing a second doctorate (D.D) in the Pontifical Facultad de Teolog\u00eda Redemptoris Mater in Callao, Peru. Neil has published a translation of the Confessio of St. Patrick: St. Patrick: His Confession and Other Works (Totowa, NJ, 2009), as well editing the third edition of Fredrick Edward Warren\u2019s The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Piscataway, NJ, 2010). In 2011 the University of Notre Dame Press published The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland an adaptation of his doctoral thesis and in 2017 the Alcuin Club published his Liturgical Orientation: The Position of the President at the Eucharist. 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Neil Xavier O'Donoghue","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","caption":"Fr. Neil Xavier O'Donoghue"},"description":"Neil Xavier O\u2019Donoghue is originally from Cork, Ireland. He is a presbyter of the Archdiocese of Newark, NJ who has ministered in parishes on both sides of the Atlantic. He has spent many years as an academic mentor to seminarians. Neil currently serves as Programme Director for Liturgical Programmes at the Pontifical University and as Acting Director of the National Centre for Liturgy. Since 2020 he has also served as the Executive Secretary for Liturgy to the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference. He has studied at Seton Hall University (BA, MDiv), the University of Notre Dame (MA), and St Vladimir\u2019s Orthodox Theological Seminary (MTh). He holds a Doctorate in Theology (Ph.D.) from St Patrick\u2019s College, Maynooth and is in the process of completing a second doctorate (D.D) in the Pontifical Facultad de Teolog\u00eda Redemptoris Mater in Callao, Peru. Neil has published a translation of the Confessio of St. Patrick: St. Patrick: His Confession and Other Works (Totowa, NJ, 2009), as well editing the third edition of Fredrick Edward Warren\u2019s The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Piscataway, NJ, 2010). In 2011 the University of Notre Dame Press published The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland an adaptation of his doctoral thesis and in 2017 the Alcuin Club published his Liturgical Orientation: The Position of the President at the Eucharist. His articles have appeared in The Irish Theological Quarterly, New Blackfriars, The Furrow and Antiphon. He writes a monthly article on some aspect of the theology of Pope Francis in the Messenger of St. Anthony and blogs regularly at PrayTell.","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/author\/nxodonoghue\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Do945-Querida-Amazonia-1-768x1090-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50882"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50886,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50882\/revisions\/50886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}