What happened?
The Amazon synod has begun at the Vatican, with controversy from the very first moment.
The synod, which aims to discuss the spiritual and pastoral needs of the Amazon region, began with a tree-planting ceremony on Friday. But the ceremony was accompanied by a ritual involving symbols whose meaning was unclear: some saw them as representing the Virgin Mary, others suggested they were pagan or – in the words of one bishop – represented “fertility”.
What churchmen said
Pope Francis called for the synod fathers to show “daring prudence”, telling them: “If everything continues as it was, if we spend our days content that ‘this is the way things have always been done,’ then the gift vanishes, smothered by the ashes of fear and concern for defending the status quo.”
