Pope Leo XIV sent a message to the participants of the VI Assembly of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazonia (CEAMA), which recently took place in Bogotá. There is a question in this message that draws our attention: “Something new is being born — can you not see it?”
It is a line from the prophet Isaiah, but it is also a question that is at once plain and radical, if we consider the world as it stands. Because it challenges the way we look at things. We live submerged in urgency, in the relentless churn of the news cycle, in crises that pile upon one another and in wars without resolution.
What could possibly happen today that might still surprise us? And yet, right in the middle of this landscape, the pope asks us to look for the signs of what is coming into existence. Something new, Leo writes, “still fragile, but already underway, perhaps imperceptible” — and yet real.
He speaks of the Amazonia, placing himself in explicit continuity with Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia, the 2020 document that first brought this region to the center of the global conscience, naming the injustices that run through it and recognizing its spiritual and cultural significance as something universal.
Leo XIV quotes that text directly, invoking the proclamation “of a God who loves every human being infinitely” (QA, 64). The Amazonia is a wounded land, scarred by exploitation and degradation. But it is also a living land, coursed through with resistance, hope, possibility. What happens there, in truth, concerns all of us. The Amazonia is a mirror: it reflects the relationship we have with the earth, with one another, with the future.
Leo XIV draws on a striking image from the forest itself: that of the shihuahuaco, the “giant of the jungle,” a tree that grows with extreme slowness, nearly invisible in its progress, and yet over time becomes a colossus capable of living more than a thousand years, turning itself into an entire ecosystem that sustains the life around it.
It is an invitation to shift our sense of time. To stop measuring everything by the immediate. To recognize the value of long processes, of patience, of care. As Francis wrote in Querida Amazonia, “we need to courageously embrace the newness of the Spirit, who is able to create something always new” (69).
And then there is a keyword: to safeguard. The message calls on us “to safeguard creation and the respect for life in all its forms, especially human life.” This is not an appeal only to believers. It is a responsibility that belongs to everyone, because it concerns how we inhabit the planet.
Finally, a vision of society emerges: the Church as “a sign of unity in diversity and a safe refuge, one that generates and protects life.” A place capable of embracing differences, offering shelter without exclusion, and nurturing life rather than consuming it. In a time marked by division and fear, this is a vision that defies the trend.
Perhaps this is at the very core of Leo’s message in this dramatic moment in history. He does not add another analysis to the many we already have. Instead, he offers a different perspective. And he leaves us with an open question: are we still able to notice what is emerging, or do we only see what is coming to an end?
With thanks to Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA) and Antonio Spadaro SJ, where this article originally appeared.
