The Pachamama in the Vatican Garden: Integral Ecology, Climate Change, and Conservatism in the Pan-Amazon Synod

ABSTRACT

In the encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis proposes Integral Ecology as the moral basis for defending the biosphere in light of capitalist ambition. At the same time, he defines the monogamous and heterosexual family as foundational to nature and life. These conceptions are disputed by the faithful of the Church in Amazonia, a region where religious missions have played a key role since colonial times. We use the Pan-Amazon Synod (2019) to explore the debates/rituals around concepts of life within and around the Church. We follow the concurrences and contradictions between the Pope, conservative clergy, local missions, feminist theologists, and women indigenous leaders demanding political positions from the Church. From an ecofeminist and decolonial perspective, we propose that Integral Ecology, taken as a progressive position regarding environmental issues, ends up being a Trojan Horse that reinforces anti-feminist and pro-life agendas.

KEYWORDS:

• Integral ecology
• anti-genderism
• Amazonia
• decoloniality
• ecofeminism

Acknowledgements

We thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on the manuscript and also Sophie Bjork-James for her useful suggestions to improve the final version and Amy Bell for the translation from Spanish to English.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Latin America is the region with the most Catholic parishioners in the world. Bergoglio was the most acceptable for the political right and centre of a very conservative group of voters (Hunt 2013, 293). Son of Italian immigrants, his presence implies a proximity to colonial influences, the Italianisation of the Argentinian church, and its links with the elites (Mallimaci 2013).

2 See Verdú (2020).

3 The Church runs educational institutions, hospitals, orphanages.

4 Although diminished, the political, economic and spiritual church authorities administer schools.

5 Translator note: Marianismo is ‘the cult of female spiritual superiority, that teaches that women are semi-divine, morally superior to and spiritually stronger than men’. See: Stevens, Evelyn P., and Martí Soler. 1974. “El Marianismo: La Otra Cara Del Machismo En América Latina.” Diálogos: Artes, Letras, Ciencias Humanas 10 (1): 17–24. Accessed June 2, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27933189.

6 Nathalie Becquart has been appointed to the Synod of bishops in 2021, the first woman to be given the right to vote. This may respond not only to demands on the Synod but to a long struggle of women in the church, but it is a concession still far from the demand of female ordination.

7 See Purdue University Agriculture News (2020).

8 In Semana (2019), El conmovedor rezo del Papa por la selva amazónica.

9 Francis affirmed that ‘there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.’ (Pope Francis 2021).

10 In Corpas (2019).

11 Buen Vivir (Sumak Kawsay) has emerged as a new model of living, an alternative to development and, in particular, to neoliberalism. It establishes as foundational harmonious relationships between human beings and nature in indigenous societies. It implies harmony and reciprocity with mother nature, community coexistence, equity, solidarity, justice and peace (Solón 2014).

12 In Iglesias y Minería (n.d.).

13 Words from Bishop Emeritus of Brazil, Erwin Kräutler cited in Corpas (2019).

14 Concerns about feminism come not only from the Catholic Church but also from the superiority of white-mestizo feminism, which in recent years has been challenged by indigenous and Afro-descendant feminists.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Flacso Ecuador.

Notes on contributors

Lisset Coba

Lisset Coba is an anthropologist, Doctor in Social Sciences, research professor at the Department of Sociology and Gender Studies at Flacso-Ecuador. She investigates the historical and ontological memory of women in the Ecuadorian Amazon and has worked on issues of feminism, neoliberalism, and the environment. She is part of the feminist organisation Mujeres de Frente and participates in the Collective of Women Anthropologists from Ecuador.

María Moreno

María Moreno is an anthropologist, with a PhD in Anthropology at the University of Kentucky. Her academic interests and professional career have focused on issues of gender, ethnicity and race in Ecuador and Latin America. She recently participated as a postdoctoral researcher in a research project on anti-racist struggles in Latin America (project LAPORA). She is currently a visiting professor in the Department of Sociology and Gender Studies at Flacso-Ecuador.