Amazon Synod Reverberates Through Catholic Church 5 Years Later

Five years ago, on Oct. 7, 2019, St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican rang with voices singing of the Amazon.

Men and women, some in traditional Indigenous dress, filled the transepts and dome of one of Catholicism's holiest sites with a song of prayer alongside cardinals and bishops. In front of the towering main altar, they lifted a small dugout canoe bedecked with fishing nets and surrounded Pope Francis, accompanying him in a procession to the neighboring audience hall where the pontiff opened the monthlong deliberations of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region.