What did the Meeting of Amazonian Missions mean to the sisters of CODALC?
The Order of Preachers organized the First Meeting of Amazonian Missions with the aim of inviting the different members of the Dominican Family to active participation in the mission the Church has given to the Order, particularly in the Amazon of Peru, through the Apostolic Vicariate of Puerto Maldonado.
Sister Izide Vecchi, Coordinator of CODALC, Sister Aparecida de Souza, promoter of JPIC CODALC, and Sister Veronica Agurto, secretary of CODALC, all participated in this meeting.
The days of the meeting were full of joy, listening, prayer, study, living synodality, sharing, reaffirming the relevance of the Order in the Amazon Region, and planning the Dominican Month for Peace in this region.
Discussions during the meeting included topics on the work of the missions in the Amazon and their connection to the apostolic plan of the Vicariate; a mission that for many years has been entrusted to the Dominican friars and to our Dominican Missionary Sisters of the Rosary.
These missions have been a priority for the General Chapters since Pope Francis’s visit to Puerto Maldonado (2018) in which he recalled the mission of the Church given to the Order of Preachers.
Today it is up to us to join forces as the Dominican family – sisters, friars, and laity – to dream together and carry out projects for the good of our brothers in the native communities. We must also revitalize the mission of the Order in the garden of God that is the Amazon, raising awareness of the care of our common home and the urgency of preserving these “lungs of humanity” so that they continue to give us the gift of oxygen that allows us to breathe.
The meeting culminated with the experience of direct contact with the depths of the Amazon contemplating God’s creative work and thus committing us to walking together in this dream of God: socially, culturally, ecologically, and ecclesially.
In 2023, the Dominican Month for Peace will be dedicated to the Amazon as a time for reflection to enlighten us, to help us to contemplate, and to ‘Amazonise’ ourselves so as to be part of this mission to which God calls us.
Our commitment as CODALC is to encourage more congregations to be present in this area and to support missionaries who give their lives to this service.
We wish to express our gratitude to the members of the Dominican Family who were responsible for organising this meeting which has allowed us to have direct contact with the Tambopata Reserve and to contemplate God’s creative work.