To the Circumscription Superiors, Secretaries of Mission and JPIC Coordinators of the Comboni Missionaries

It was an enriching and enlightening experience that is part of a Continental journey that has been in progress for some time and marked by important milestones, such as the Pacto comboniano para la casa común. But it also fits into the framework of the discernment carried out at the 19th General Chapter, which took up the proposal to embrace the Laudato si' synodal process for a conversion to integral ecology.

In Belém, there was a wonderful experience of communion, fraternity, and listening to the reality and the responses both at the ecclesial and popular levels. The stark reality is that the situation has seriously deteriorated over the last 20 years, and we are rapidly approaching the point of no return, that is, the point beyond which there will be no remedy. However, in the vision, spirituality and struggle of the indigenous peoples we have found many reasons for hope and motivation for a renewed missionary commitment, working together and networking with ecclesial and indigenous communities.

We realized the importance of 'unlearning', that is, of taking a critical distance from various assumptions of development, attitudes of domination, control and exploitation that we have absorbed from our consumerist and unsustainable societies. So that we can approach and learn from indigenous sensibilities, perspectives and knowledge through transformative dialogue, as the post-synodal exhortation Querida Amazonia invites us to do.

The FOSPA and the Comboni Meeting on Integral Ecology are not events closed in themselves, but a milestone in a journey in which we are invited to participate in response to the signs of the times. The documents drafted at these meetings - which are attached to this letter - offer us a shared horizon that helps us to grow in communion, sharing, collaboration and creativity as we renew our commitment in the different local particular commitments in which we are engaged. We are building together a common vision that will help us develop specific pastoral approaches, another important orientation of the Chapter that we are called to implement in the coming years.

We therefore invite you to read the attachments and animate your communities and constituencies to promote a shared and participatory journey.

In faith,
P. Fernando González Galarza
Segretario Generale della Missione

Rome, August 10, 2022
Feast of Saint Lawrence